Last week we read about an open mic night be held at Luxury Sweets in Apple Valley and decided to head over to check it out. We arrived just before 7 to a completely packed house. There were plenty of staff members on hand to sell gelato and there were plenty of people there to eat and listen to some cover free live music.

Kim ordered a strange combination of blue raspberry and mascarpone while I picked up a mascarpone and creme brule. $7.00 later we had our over-sized scoops and found the last remaining open table in the place. The music started up soon after that with some fairly terrible artist repeating the same 10 words (give or take) throughout the entire song. I wasn’t interested. The next person up was quite a bit better but by then Kim was already ready to go and we were out the door in just under an hour. I was really looking forward to seeing some of the others perform but Kim had things to do *shrug*.

The gelato was tasty and I have recommended it before. It was nice to see so many people come out to see live music being played in the South Metro but I really think that this type of shindig needs to occur in a place where the acoustics are a little better and where children are not permitted — preferably somewhere that serves alcohol. The echoes of the music and the children’s shrill voices coupled with the idle chit-chat between guests made it almost unbearable to listen to in our little corner. I guess if we go again we’ll have to sit front and center to ensure that we can actually hear.

Anyway a fun time and a nice change of pace for Apple Valley.

See all the pictures from Open Mic Night at Luxury Sweets on Flickr here (camera).

I asked Kim to help me get everything I needed for lunch situated while I finished packing for my annual caching trip with Chuck and instead of my frozen stew cubes she gave me two frozen spaghetti sauce ones instead. After a quick call to ask if she would do lunch with me to make up for her horrible mistake (heh) we were off to The Burger Place.

The line was out the door to this “Best of” from both Citysearch and Minneapolis/St Paul Magazine. The menu is just inside the door and lists breakfast (between $3.59 and $4.32) and lunch items (between $3.95 and $7.58) which are burgers (duh) and hot or cold sandwiches. The burger list is fucking massive with 20 different burgers (one has no bun or fries and one has chicken instead of beef) and they allow you to substitute any burger with either chicken or turkey for less than 80 cents.

We ordered and I found a seat while Kim waited to pay. There is enough seating for about 80 people and there isn’t much room for anything else. Kim finally came and joined me and we chatted while we waited for our food to arrive. About 10 minutes after I sat down and 20 since I met up with Kim in her building we were eating.

My Southwestern Burger was an absolute mess. Nothing good looking about this meal. The “salad” was larger than I expected but was 99.8% lettuce. The salad dressing (Italian) was decent and I was glad to offset 1/8th of this unhealthy burger with a salad instead of fries. The jalapenjos were jarred or canned and while it wasn’t anything nearly as nice as what I had at Moe’s, it was fine for the price. The bun was soft and soaked up any grease the burger might have otherwise leaked onto the plate. First bite? Good but nothing that deservs the “Best of” anything.

They offer and prominently tout their Monday special: $5.95 for burger, salad or fries, and medium drink. Not a bad deal and much less than we ended up paying today ($15.76). If you’re looking for some place cheap to eat, except for Mondays, this is not it.

Address:
The Burger Place
501 Marquette Ave
Minneapolis, MN 55402

Phone:
612-338-1213

Hours:
7:00 AM - 2:30 PM

Check out all the pictures from The Burger Place on Flickr here (camera).

Two freebies to chat about tonight, since other than the pile of tainted dirt from the new Twins stadium site being dumped in the Minnesota River floodplain instead of in the “ultra-secure” lined landfill that will one day be directly adjacent to a nice lake and recreation area in Burnsville, there really isn’t anything worth writing about.

First freebie was a movie rental which we cashed in on Friday night for Disney’s Enchanted. While I had heard the movie was funny I didn’t believe anything I was told. Rarely do I find girly movies worth my time but knowing that Kimmy suffered her way through American Gangster I figured renting that would be an even trade. Unfortunately, it wasn’t terrible even because after the stupid cartoon beginning, the rest of the movie (well, minus the stupid cartoon ending) was quite enjoyable and I found myself pausing it several times to laugh, almost in hysterics and usually out loud, because it really was that funny. If you haven’t seen Enchanted yet and you’re looking to please the significant other in your life that might be into girlish movies, this is one that I promise will be at least tolerable for you.

The second freebie was also a Kim special which was to try out two of LeeAnn Chin’s three new menu items between 4:30 and 6:15 today only. Now, I despise LeeAnn Chin almost as much as I despise anything on this planet and even though I have been called hypocritical by plenty of douchebags on the Internet, there are just some things you must do to please your wife (thankfully, she doesn’t enjoy coffee enough to make me go into Starbucks) and this was one of those times.

We were greeted with a long line stretching out the front door and after we got inside we were offered a small cup of their “excellent” frozen yogurt. Having not ingested frozen yogurt since TCBY’s heyday in the late 1980s I found this taste test to be just like eating really cold yogurt. Before I could even open my mouth to form the words, they had already come out of Kim’s. While I eat yogurt every single day, and for the most part have come to tolerate it, this was pretty nasty and not something I would eat again, especially not in a large portion after eating fake Chinese food.

Their three new options were Mongolian, Bourbon, and Kalbi chicken. The free deal mandated that you get at least one of the three before getting another free but I decided to go with two new ones just for kicks. Anything had to be better than what they normally offer, right? Well, not so much in this case. The new offerings taste exactly like everything else they offer…the same. There are no distinct flavors in anything they serve and the Kalbi and Mongolian chicken were no exceptions.

My recommendation? Don’t bother with LeeAnn Chin, even if your wife likes it and it’s free but definitely rent Enchanted — funny flick.