Krik's Picks

I’ve only been there for lunch, so far. But I’m encouraged by the new restaurant in the Chambers Hotel . Marin is the sister restaurant to Mill Valley Kitchen in St. Louis Park. Catch the northern California parallelism? The town of Mill Valley, CA, is in Marin County. I still miss the original Chambers Kitchen . Before it closed, it was one of my two favorite, special occasion restaurants in the Twin Cities. After it closed, D’Amico & Sons took over the space, calling the restaurant D’Amico Kitchen. I ate there several times for lunches and dinners. Quite out of character for D’Amico, each experience was uneven. There would be some dishes that were amazingly good, and someone else at the same meal would be served a dish that was disappointingly ordinary. My first visit to Marin was with my brother for our mutual birthday celebration. His birthday is in October. Mine is in November. We’ve established a tradition of meeting for lunch sometime in between. In fact, Mike and I h...

I posted my review of Union Fish Market and realized that I neglected to mention one of the best parts of our meal. As you will read in the post below, my wife and I ordered the lightly grilled sea bass for our entrées. We both also ordered the lobster bisque with sweet potato as our starter. Sometimes I worry a little that I’m sort of obnoxious when I pull out my camera to take a picture of my food at a restaurant. But oh how I wish that I had taken a picture of the presentation of the bisque. A movie, in fact, would have been better. The servers set a bowl in front of each of us. In the bowl was the lobster meat and other bisque ingredients. Over the bowl was a lattice of what looked like spun sugar. I asked about it and was told that it wasn’t sugar but it did add just a touch of sweetness to the soup. Then they poured the hot soup over the lattice which dissolved into the bowl. So that was really cool. The flavors of the bisque fully justified the dramatic presentation. The s...

Last summer, I posted a rave review of Union Rooftop in Minneapolis. (Click here to read it.) The rooftop restaurant continues to be a popular spot for all the reasons I cited in my review. But since Union opened, it’s street level restaurant couldn’t seem to find a following. I guess if you couldn’t get a table on the rooftop, people tended to just go someplace else. Then in September, the restaurant shifted gears. Instead of a nondescript restaurant, it’s now a fish restaurant, and it certainly appears as though the new format is a hit. We went there for a winter solstice dinner with friends. I didn’t have any trouble getting a reservation for the time we preferred (7 p.m.), but when we arrived, the tables were full. During the evening, things thinned out a bit around 8. But by the time we left around 9, most of the tables were full again. I took that as a good sign. Also, the restaurant is getting favorable reviews on Yelp (a 1-star rating was actually for the rooftop) and a rec...

I haven’t ranted about Italian restaurants in Minnesota lately. My dinner at Luci Ancora in mid-December gives me a chance to ask, yet again: “Why don’t we have first class Italian restaurants in Minnesots?” Not that there’s anything wrong with Luci Ancora. I had a perfectly fine meal with a couple of former co-workers who live in Washington, DC. But when it was all over, we agreed that it just isn’t in the same class as great DC Italian restaurants, such as Fiola , Acqua al 2 , Bibiana . This was my first time eating at Luci Ancora. I’ve heard a lot of good things about it. It’s in a nice location, right across the street from the campus of St. Catherine University . They have a small parking lot. I got there early enough to get a spot. It would have been easy to also get convenient street parking. But the city streets were still pretty snow-clogged, so I was glad to be in the lot. Inside, Luci Ancora is very warm and welcoming. The modest-sized dining room is open and the tabl...

Our October trip to New York City started with a delicious meal in a French bistro and listening to some great jazz. So my wife and I awoke the next morning with the intent of seeing as much as we could during the day. Fortunately, while the temp was a little brisk, it was bright and sunny. We are inveterate walkers. When we’re on vacation, we like to pick central city hotels and use them as a base to explore a city on foot. Linda had spent some time investigating sights to see and neighborhoods to visit. She had mapped out a route for us to take. From our Midtown hotel, we started out down 5th Ave. As we started out one of the things I noticed in particular was the number of men wearing formal business attire. Mostly suits, but if not suits, then certainly jacket and tie. It struck me as quite a contrast to downtown Minneapolis. I came to two alternative, and complementary, conclusions. First, maybe the pendulum is swinging back toward a more buttoned down look for business profe...

After a long day of walking, sightseeing, and exploring, I was glad that we didn’t have to go far for dinner. We had made a reservation at the Midtown location of the Fig & Olive . We picked the restaurant because we liked the creative menu. At the time, we didn’t realize that there were multiple locations in the city. This location was right across the street from our hotel. One of the things that appealed to my wife and me was the prix fixe option on the menu. We tend to like that approach as long as the options look appealing. It’s sort of like a pseudo-tasting menu, only with more flexibility for individual preferences. For our dinner at Fig & Olive, my wife started with the house salad. Sorry if that doesn’t sound too exciting. But the list of ingredients in the salad were very appealing – fig, apple, manchego cheese, gorgonzola, tomato, walnut, olives, romaine and other greens, scallion, and fig balsamic vinegar. It was an excellent salad. My meal started with a mus...

Since retiring in July, I’ve had to start planning things to have for lunch. When I was working, I’d either have a lunch meeting, or I’d eat in the cafeteria, or I’d skip lunch (especially if I’d had a good breakfast that day). I might still choose to skip lunch, but that would mean my wife would have to eat lunch alone, and she’d prefer not to. So I’ve been planning leftovers and other dishes that I can quickly heat up for lunch. Now that it’s October and the weather is getting chilly, soup is a logical choice. This week, I decided I wanted to make a cheese soup. I had an ulterior motive. I may have mentioned in a previous post that I had a particularly robust crop of Serrano peppers in my garden. They were ripening faster than I could use them. So I went looking for a recipe for homemade pepper sauce. I settled on the recipe I found on the Food Network web site from Emeril Lagasse. (Click here: Homemade Red Hot Sauce .) Here is a photo of my beautiful Serrano peppers. I followed ...

My wife and I arrived in New York on a Thursday afternoon. We were looking forward to a long weekend of good food and jazz music. We did our typical prep for our trip, looking up restaurants in the neighborhood of our hotel ( Omni Berkshire Place , Midtown East) and checking menus and online ratings. For our first night, anticipating that we would be tired from traveling and not yet very familiar with our locale, we picked a restaurant that also had music. La Mediterranee was a 6-block walk from the hotel. We liked the menu (French bistro) and on Thursday nights, in addition to the house piano player (French and American standards), they also have another guest combo. Because we had had a late lunch, we delayed our reservation until 8:30. We arrived in time for the last few minutes of the house pianist’s performance. Sipping a cocktail and listening to him, we could tell that he really enjoyed performing. He played with intensity and enthusiasm that was easily conveyed to the dine...

I kinda thought that I was all done celebrating retirement. But when the offer came to host a dinner in my honor, I didn’t hesitate to accept. When asked for suggestions about a venue, I offered a couple of tried and true favorites and then added Burch Steak & Pizza . I hadn’t been to Burch but wanted to give it a try. So I was pleased when the host picked that as the restaurant. As the date approached, I asked a few acquaintances about their opinions. I discovered an interesting division of opinion. There are some people who are totally unimpressed by Burch. It’s not that they think it’s bad. But the attitude is that it’s an expensive meal and the steaks are not that special. On the other hand, I talked to others who really loved the place. My observation is that those views are not really as divergent as they may seem. The main area of agreement is on the sides and starters. Most of the people I talked to raved about them, even to the extent of (the naysayers) suggesting that...

All right, so I’m retired. Every once in a while, my former colleagues find that they need to consult to get some background or perspective on a working matter. And I’m happy to oblige, as long as lunch is included. So it was that I ended up at the Capital Grill in Minneapolis for a very pleasant business lunch. My colleague wanted to touch base on a few matters, and he also needed to check out the Capital Grill as a possible venue for a future business dinner. Suits me just fine. I probably had lunch at the Capital Grille in DC more often than in Minneapolis. By and large, the chain is a good, reliable steakhouse and a nice place to have a lunch meeting. As I perused the menu, I was intrigued by the addition of a three-course lunch menu that I don’t recall seeing (at any location) in the past. That’s what I opted for, as did my colleague. Course 1: I started with a special soup, squash bisque with crab. Excellent. Course 2: I was wavering between the luncheon steak or a lob...

I think it’s been about 25 years since I successfully grew tomatoes in my garden. I used to have great success with tomatoes as well as zucchini, snap peas, string beans, even one year Brussels sprouts. And roses, too. I grew beautiful roses. That was in our first house in Minneapolis on Vincent Ave. I had a great garden then. I think that’s at least partially why my son has become an enthusiastic gardener. It reminds him of his childhood when he would go down to the garden and pick fresh vegetables. Now his kids do the same thing. (A short anecdote: I also had a lot of success growing peppers, especially jalapenos. Our neighbor to the south was a very nice man, I suppose about the age of my parents. He was nice but a bit of a curmudgeon. In one of the houses abutting our backyard was a nice young family, just a little older than us. One of their kids was a bit of a rascal; nothing really bad, just noisy and rambunctious. One day the curmudgeon slyly picked a jalapeno and gave it t...

In yesterday’s post I commented that despite having a pretty good experience at Pig Ate My Pizza , my wife and I likely wouldn’t trek to Robbinsdale just for pizza. The main reason is because we like the pizzas we make at home better than any restaurant pizza. So for example, this photo is of a pizza that we made a few weeks ago. You can find pizza crust recipes basically anywhere. The recipe we use is from the New York Times Natural Foods Cookbook . I guess its out of print now. Our copy is copyright 1971. We probably got it as a wedding present in 1974. The pizza crust recipe is very basic, just flour, water, yeast, and olive oil. We like it because it produces a crisp crust that doesn’t interfere with the toppings we put on. We topped this particular pizza with fresh Roma tomatoes from the Minneapolis farmers market , fresh basil from our garden, and supermarket mozzarella cheese (from Cub ). We most often make pizza on Sunday nights. After a busy weekend, we usually just wa...

I never ate at Travail. That was the ultra-trendy chef-driven restaurant that thrived for 2+ years in Robbinsdale. There are two reasons why I never ate there, despite enduring derisive comments from friends along the lines of: “How can you not want to go? You’d love it!” Reason 1 (and the main reason) – No reservations. Sorry, but I feel that policy reflects a bit of snobbery as well as disrespect for a customer’s time. The word was, you had to show up by 5:30 to get a table at Travail, or contend with an undefined wait that could be hours long. And no disrespect for Robbinsdale intended, but there just isn’t that much to do while killing time waiting for a table. Reason 2 – The other word was that if you did manage to get a table, you really had to order the tasting menu. Well, I’m probably venturesome enough to try the tasting menu. But I guess I really would like to have the flexibility to order what I want, not take what the chef feels like serving that evening (though I’m sur...

My wife and I went to Borough (North Loop, Minneapolis) earlier this year. We loved it. The drinks were creative and expertly made. The food was delicious, and the menu offered enough variety so that we and our friends could find things that we liked. When we had finished upstairs, we wandered downstairs to the ‘below street-level’ bar called Parlour. We really liked the ambiance. We bumped into some friends who were dining there, and they said it was great. So we filed that recommendation away for future reference. Fast forward to September. We had a rare open Saturday. We decided that North Loop sounded fun. There was a Prince cover band playing at Bunker’s. All we needed was to find a place to eat before the first set. Borough/Parlour is right across the street. So our plan was – we’d go to Parlour. If we could get in in a reasonable amount of time, ok. We’d eat there. Otherwise, we’d head back west to St. Louis Park, eat at Figlio and catch some Irish music at the Cooper. Wel...

When a friend/colleague (all right, my first boss) came for a visit in September, she chose an old favorite for a lunch – the Black Forest Inn . (Why do they call it an ‘Inn?’ I don’t know.) My wife and I readily agreed, and we specified a table in the outdoor courtyard. Now, you can never depend on Minnesota weather. But this happened to be an absolutely gorgeous, beautiful day. The courtyard has a sun screen, but we enjoyed all the amenities of eating al fresco. (The internet says that the German for ‘al fresco’ is ‘ Unter freiem Himmel’ or under an open (or free) heaven/sky.) So first of all, the venue was perfect for a co-worker reunion. It was relaxed, warm, casual, with a judicious dose of nostalgia. While I like the food at Black Forest, it’s not on our list of restaurants that we regularly patronize. It’s good and unusual enough to be noteworthy. I had the Alsatian lunch - Slices of potato, sauerkraut and smoked sausage. Delicious. Sausage is a specialty at the Black F...

On the rare occasion when I’m alone at home for dinner, I like to make something new or different, and something that I don’t think my wife will like. So that’s what I did in August when my wife went out for dinner with girlfriends. The pepper plants in my garden have been particularly prolific this year. Two jalapeno plants have produced a lot of nice peppers, and my son gave me five Serrano plants that are absolutely prodigious. My wife doesn’t like hot spicy food. I do. So I set about to make a recipe using jalapenos. My personal specialty is risotto. I have a favorite recipe for risotto with tomatoes. I decided to adapt it by adding the jalapenos and creating a dish that I envisioned calling “Risotto Diablo,” intending it to be devilishly hot. I planned to eat it with some leftover grilled salmon and carrots. What I’ve done with most of the jalapenos that I’ve harvested so far this summer is put them whole on the grill. After roasting them until they’re soft, I cut them open,...

Most of the time when we’re at ‘The Cabin’ we don’t go into town. (The cabin is on Island Lake north of Duluth. If we don’t want to cook, we’ll walk 3 blocks to ‘The Tavern’ for a burger or fried chicken or fish.) The whole point is to get away and not substitute one city (Duluth) for another (home – Edina). But in early August, a large group of family and friends planned a dinner at the Duluth Grill , and we came along. Several people in the group had eaten there, some of them multiple times. Those who had eaten there pretty much raved about it, and the café does get generally favorable reviews from various online sources. It certainly has an extensive menu, and there’s lots of appealing offerings. Any restaurant that offers breakfast items all day is a winner in my book. As tempted as I was by the corned beef hash, I opted for the ratatouille instead. It was a good choice. The roasted vegetables were delicious. It was served over polenta. Some of the group were from Texas, and ...

I bet there are local gems like the Old Mill Restaurant in towns like Austin all across America. But how do you find them? Mostly, I suppose, by meeting or knowing someone who gives you a recommendation. So here’s my recommendation: If you’re traveling in southern Minnesota and you find yourself in Austin around dinner time, give yourself a treat and go to the Old Mill. Why might you find yourself in Austin? Well, maybe for business; it’s the headquarters for Hormel Foods . Maybe for tourism; the Spam Museum is quite entertaining. Maybe just because you’re driving from Wisconsin to South Dakota; you’ll pass through Austin on I-90 (which happens to be the longest interstate highway in the United States). Or maybe you have family in the area, like I do. My parents live on a farm about 20 miles from Austin. For the Krikava family, the Old Mill has been our reliable restaurant for celebrating special occasions. In July, my wife and I went to the Old Mill with my parents to celebrate...

We usually grill fish at least once a week. Usually it’s salmon. But this week my wife bought a nice looking piece of mahi mahi. I had a little time this afternoon to peruse recipes on Epicurious and decide on a menu. I found two recipes that featured roasted tomatoes. In Minnesota, we haven’t yet reached the peak of tomato season. In fact, we have only harvested 3 cherry tomatoes off our tomato plants so far. But I have previously written about my sister’s method of roasting tomatoes and then freezing them for use throughout the year. So the fact is, I used some of the roasted tomatoes from my freezer rather than running to a market for fresh tomatoes tonight. The first recipe that piqued my interest was for Greek-Style Mahi Mahi . It all sounded interesting. But I’d already decided to grill the fish, and the recipe called for broiling it with feta, herbs, and mayo. Still, the recipe called for making a tomato relish that sounded like a nice accompaniment. So I made that part ...

When I started talking about my plans to retire, the most common question was – What are you going to do with your time? I assured everyone that I had a long list of things that I wanted to do in retirement. But the top 3 are read, travel, and cook. READ My last day at the office was July 2. On July 3 my wife took me to the Edina public library. Now, of course, I read a lot at work – e-mail, newsletters, periodicals, reports. But I can’t tell you the last novel I read. It had been so long that the library had deactivated my account, and Linda had to check out the book for me. The first book I read in retirement was The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo . After I finished the book (loved it) and got my library account updated, I took Linda’s advice and downloaded the Hennepin County Library app for my iPad/iPhone. I also downloaded Overdrive Digital Library so that I could download and read eBooks. I downloaded and now am reading the second book in The Girl series – The Girl Who Playe...

When my wife and I accepted an invitation to spend July 4 weekend at my sister-in-law’s cabin, we volunteered to help with cooking. Our assignment was dinner on Friday night. We decided on salmon as the main course. I went to the internet to find a recipe/menu that would be good and creative but relatively simple to make, recognizing that the kitchen at the cabin has some limitations. (And besides, we weren’t going there to spend the whole afternoon cooking.) Here’s what I came up with: Pan Roasted Salmon Steaks with Sherry Vinegar-Honey Glaze and Spicy Tomato Relish and Parsleyed Potatoes . It’s a Bobby Flay recipe that I found on Food Network web site. But, I made a few changes. 1. I decided to grill the salmon rather than pan roast it. But I mean really, Bobby Flay is known for his grilling technique. In fact, the show that this recipe came from was called “Hot off the Grill.” 2. My wife doesn’t like spicy food. So I left the red pepper flakes out of the Spicy Tomato Relish. ...

It’s great to have an innovative restaurateur like Hector Ruiz working in your city. He and his wife have succeeded in bringing creative, high quality Latin cooking to South Minneapolis, and my wife and I have enjoyed each of his venues. We were quite dismayed when El Meson, his first restaurant, closed late in 2012. We had enjoyed dining there often. Besides great food, he often had flamenco music and dancing as entertainment. (Click here for a review of El Meson.) At least we still had Café Ena , his second venue, which is another personal favorite. But we shouldn’t have worried. Not even 6 months after closing El Meson, Ruiz opened Rincon 38 . It’s in the same neighborhood as Ena. The word ‘rincon’ means ‘corner.’ The restaurant is located on the corner of 38th and Grand in South Minneapolis. It’s not even a mile from Ena, which is at 46th and Grand. Rincon 38 is a tapas restaurant. We met friends and scored a table outside. It was a gorgeous evening and a relaxing way to enj...

The first thing I did in retirement, after my last day at the office, was have lunch with my son. As a north Minneapolis resident, Ben is a fan of Victory 44 . He’s taken my wife there, and I’ve wanted to go. We planned lunch for a little later – 1 p.m. When I arrived, Ben had already gotten us a table. There were not a lot of people in the restaurant. A few were eating outside on the patio. But it must have been quite hot because after we’d been there for a while, a group of 5 or 6 people moved inside. When you go to the Victory 44 web site, you get a narrated video of the chef/owner talking about his background and approach to cooking and running the restaurant. We started out with coffees. Ben loves the coffee specials that are available. (He teased his wife that he’d be having better coffee than she that day.) There are several options on the menu, but he opted for the ‘Barista’s choice.’ I’m more of a straight up caffeine kind of guy. I just ordered the French Press. When the ...

When Bar Louie opened in Uptown last year, my wife and I were intrigued. At the time, we weren’t aware that it’s a chain. But it sounded like a fun time especially the outdoor patio. It took almost a year, but we finally decided to try their happy hour. Happy hour is a pretty good deal. We went intending to have one of their $7 martinis, which we did. They were good, and $7 is a pretty good price for a martini. But we actually had a little bit of a hard time deciding on which martini to order. Most of them seemed a little too fruity for our tastes, and we actually ended up getting pretty basic martinis. For food, we got one order of calamari and a roasted vegetable flat bread. We liked the flat bread better. It had a nice crisp crust and the vegetables were very tasty. The calamari was good too, but was a little too greasy and gave my wife a stomach ache later in the evening. We arrived early and had no trouble being seated at a table on the patio. We really liked our server. H...

I would rave about Union Rooftop for the veal chop alone. But there are a lot of other good reasons to post a favorable review. Rooftop dining has become a real fad. Union is unique, however, in that it’s rooftop features a retractable cover. So customers enjoyed Union’s rooftop all winter (which this year was very long in Minneapolis). We didn’t get there during the winter. However, we did look forward to enjoying a pleasant June evening with friends celebrating our respective anniversaries. Union’s menu offers a lot of variety and a wide range of options. Customers can make choices from “Snacks,” “Share Plates,” “Appetizers,” “Salads,” and “Entrees.” There were a lot of appealing items. Ultimately, we decided on salads and entrees. But here are a few of the tempting dishes that would make a return visit worthwhile: Savory Donut Holes with Shallots, Bacon & a Dutch Cheese; Buffalo-Style Pan-Fried Oysters with Blue Cheese & Shaved Celery; Caper-Caraway Potato ...

A little more than a year ago, a magazine that’s circulated to the Parkwood Knolls neighborhood hosted a dinner at Rare Steak & Sushi in downtown Minneapolis. I really liked it and wrote a favorable post (click here to read it). We still haven’t returned for dinner. But Land O’Lakes hosted a retirement reception there for me. The experience just reconfirmed how much I like it. They gave us a very nice party room. There was a horseshoe-shaped food station in the middle of the room with appetizers arrayed around it, a well-stocked bar near the entrance, and several high-top tables and regular tables set up in the room. The food was great. The sushi was the biggest hit. By the time I got to the buffet toward the end of the reception, there were only two pieces left. The beef tataki that I described in my original post was excellent. There was fried calamari and a shrimp cocktail platter. There also was a platter of fresh vegetables, though it didn’t look like many people had tha...

Honestly. We didn’t do this on purpose. My last post was about Primebar which occupied the space at Calhoun Square where Figlio used to be. Figlio thrived there for 25 years. Primebar and one other – Il Gatto – came and went. Meanwhile, the owners of Figlio reportedly regretted giving up the space. But they have made an effort to make up for their poor judgment by reopening at West End . It took us a while, but we finally made it to the new Figlio . We went after watching a movie ( Lincoln . Loved it, though I don’t disagree with awarding Best Picture to Argo ). To start with, we really liked the décor and ambiance of ‘Figlio 2.0’ which is what the marketers call it. It’s different from Calhoun Square. But it was spacious with a lot of energy. The hostess who seated us was very friendly and accommodating. The first table they offered us was right by the servers’ station. My wife asked if they had anything else. It only took a couple of minutes and they accommodated us with a tab...