Krik's Picks

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...

Here’s a ‘first’ for Krik’s Picks. I’m writing a post about a restaurant that’s closed. I’m sure that several restaurants that I’ve reviewed in the past are closed now. But this is the first one that I’ve written about knowing that it’s already closed. My  wife and I went to Primebar at Calhoun Square in Minneapolis only once. It was exactly one week ago as I write this. We really liked it. My wife had a great burger, one that she described as being one of the best she’d ever had. I had a barbecued beef sandwich, which I also thoroughly enjoyed. We both had a glass of very good beer. The cocktail menu also was pretty interesting. The décor and ambiance was friendly and comfortable. Our server was attentive and helpful. And yet, a few days later, we both were shocked to read that Primebar had closed. No explanation why, just suddenly and abruptly closed. The day after we were there, the Star Tribune had an article on nightlife in Uptown, and included a call-out of Primebar. ...

I can’t believe it’s been almost two months since my last post on Krik’s Picks. There’s a paradox about my motivation for writing this blog. Because I travel for work, I get to try restaurants in different cities. So the more I travel, the more variety I find in the places where I eat. But, the more I travel, the less time I have to write about the places I’ve been eating. (Or to be more precise, the more I travel for work, the less I feel like using my down time writing.) The first three months of 2013 have been particularly busy with travel. It may have been the busiest period of travel in my career. Since January 1, I have been to Washington DC four times, Topeka KS three times, and one time each to Key Largo, Phoenix, San Diego, Madison WI, Sioux Falls SD, and Austin TX. Delta tells me I’ve already logged 22,702 miles, and I’m only 2300 miles from reaching Silver status. There have been years when I’ve barely reached silver by December. I have to admit, it’s been somewhat stres...

In the previous post, I explained that I faced a travel delay on one of my trips to Washington in early March. So I decided to treat myself to a nice dinner. I was staying downtown (at the Donovan House , a Kimpton hotel) rather than near Capitol Hill. I’d eaten at Equinox before and was sure that I’d get a great meal there. So after a day on the Hill and a few hours working in my room (including the incident of computer abuse described in the previous post), I walked over to Equinox. (You can read about some of my previous meals at Equinox at these links: July 2012 and August 2006 .) On the menu for this particular Wednesday night, they offered two tasting menus. Both looked good, but even though I was treating myself, they were a little pricy, so I looked at the regular entrées instead. I’ve had lamb at Equinox before and liked it. They had a saddle of lamb roasted with rosemary that looked good so I ordered that. (It was excellent.) I was having trouble deciding on a starter. I...

I first started writing about the restaurants we visited in northern California several months ago, after returning from the second of our two trips. I wrote that my wife’s favorite meal was at La Mar on the Embarcadero. My favorite was at a reliable standby, actually not too far from the Embarcadero. We’ve dined at Kokkari Estiatorio on previous visits to San Francisco. (Click here to read my first review.) When we travel to The City, it’s always a dilemma. Do we revisit a fantastic restaurant like Kokkari? Or do we sample some of the other fabulous restaurants? The best decision is to do a little of both. And since it had been quite a while since our last visit to Kokkari, we didn’t have to think about it long to decide it was time for a return. There are so many delicious choices on Kokkari’s menu that it’s hard for two people to narrow it down to just a few items. So this time,we took a slightly different approach. We started out with a couple of appetizers (mezethes). One...