Archive for the ‘Restaurants’


Favorite Pizza Variation Poll

Last week’s poll asked, “when do you like to vacation?” Those of you that responded were split between ‘Winter’ and July. I suppose that when it’s 20 below vacation somewhere else sounds like a really good plan during the winter and while my wife and I have vacationed elsewhere in the winter, it’s usually to visit family and thus we end up in only slightly warmer destinations than here. I think we may need to being to rethink our yearly vacations in July :)

Anyway, on to this week’s poll… On Friday I went over to Ramy’s Pizza in Apple Valley for lunch and as I posted before, I had the pleasure of trying their pizza. After previous discussions about how I wasn’t a huge fan of their marinara, I was apprehensive about the pizza but as soon as I saw it I knew that I’d be back time and time again.

Ramy’s Pizza serves NY style pizza which is my personal pizza choice. Not only do they cut it correctly but it’s greasy, tasty, and something which evokes real warm and fuzzy feelings about my childhood. That said, I know that there are other favorites out there and I’m wondering what type of pizza you guys like to eat.

I’ve listed a few different options coming from the biggest types of pizza (I left out options like New Haven or Old Forge pizza figuring the majority wouldn’t even know what they are) but you are free to choose ‘other’ and explain why it is that you prefer that choice over another. I’d especially like to know where you find these other less-known pizza types in the MSP metro so that I could get over there and try them out myself.

So, go ahead and vote and then comment on letting us know what type of pizza you prefer, why, and where you believe you can find the best interpretation of it here in the area. After that please be sure to check out our expired polls in the archive or read through the previous posts about polls here.

South Metro News Roundup for June 26th, 2009

1. Jeff Achen interviews Independent Candidate Colin Lee on The Show.

2. Lifehacker helps out all those camera toting foodies and links us to a CHOW topic about how to politely take photos of your food.

3. The MNSun gives us a schedule of upcoming free concerts in Apple Valley’s Kelley Park.

From the article: The Apple Music Festival hosted by the Apple Valley Arts Foundation is free. Concertgoers are encouraged to bring picnic baskets, blankets and chairs.

4. Hastings follows in the footsteps of Burnsville and is considering allowing chickens in residential neighborhoods.

5. Burnsville to get a movie studio?

According to KSTP (video above), a 79 year old “movie pioneer” and three washed up individuals who I have never heard of (a stunt man, a former soap opera star, and Tawnja Zahradka who has the greatest website ever) are looking to raise $10 million to bring the movies to Burnsville. According to the video the old Menard’s along MN-13 would become a movie studio, acting school, stunt school, museum, and entertainment venue. Wow, that’s a mouthful and something which I find almost too good to be true.

Why don’t I believe this group of four unknowns? Well, that’s because their video press release seemed little more than a lame attempt to raise capital so that they don’t end up like Burnsville’s other recent failed attempt to bring business into the blighted area along MN-13 whose $27 million baseball stadium does not appear to be happening any time soon–if ever.

What do you think about the prospects of Burnsville becoming the hotbed of movie and TV activity behind the West and East coasts? Do you think that this was nothing more than a publicity stunt to attempt and get money for their venture or do you believe that this might really and actually happen? Maybe this will attract all the big stars to Burnsville’s many white tablecloth restaurants in the HOC! What do you think?

6. Burnsville High is planning to eliminate ’senior lunch’ in order to create a more rigorous curriculum.

I had lunch backed up to study hall on either side of it (well a few days a week depending on whether I had gym or not) but we weren’t permitted to leave the “campus” even though we did sometimes anyway. Mmm taco bell. Did any of you have this type of option? Do you think that it’s something that should be eliminated and do you believe it’ll help academic rigor?

7. According to Thisweek, the MVTA loses even more funding and is being forced to dip into its reserves to cover their expenses. Guess that new $20 million transit station and those BRT buses weren’t such a good idea afterall eh?

Now where’s my fucking data eh Bev?

8. An absolutely beautiful photo of a grilled peach salad with chorizo and torn buffalo mozzarella topped with yummy balsamic and fresh herbs.

I have been following this photographer’s work for months (maybe over a year, dunno) and love everything she comes up with. Stunning stuff really.

9. A beautiful shot of an old shed along 190th in Lakeville between Cedar and Flagstaff.

10. An excellent topic started by a Chowhound about wanting to save Ramy’s in Apple Valley. I saw it as soon as it came up in my RSS reader but The Heavy Table also pimped it out during one of their recent Churn posts as well.

I am hoping to head over there for lunch around noon today. If anyone is interested in joining me stop in!

So the most important questions for today’s roundup are what you think about the prospects of a movie studio in Burnsville actually coming true and what your feelings are about the elimination of Burnsville’s ’senior lunch’ and if it will actually help with upping academic rigor. So whatever you feel about any of the topics above and especially the two I have singled out, go ahead and comment on as it’ll be great to hear what others have to say!

PAC Loses MinneHAHA Comedy Club to New Venue

Looks like the floundering Burnsville Performing Arts Center just took another hit as a new game has rolled into town and stolen some more of its planned acts. Anthony’s Parkway Grill, soon to be opening in the old Benchwarmer Bob’s location, will feature a comedy club in the basement. Unfortunately for the ever so confident Wolf Larson, it’s already planning to house an act that currently has events scheduled at the PAC.

According to an e-mail to me from Mike Orensteen, owner of the MinneHAHA Comedy Club, they are set to go to call the lower level of Anthony’s Parkway Grill home beginning in October of 2009:

MinneHAHA Comedy Club will be operating a full time comedy club opening the first weekend of October 2009. Shows will be 1 show on Friday @ 8pm and Saturday will have shows at 8pm and 10:30pm. As business picks up, I will add on a Thursday night. Tickets prices will be between $10-$12 (still working on the budget) All show info at http://www.minnehahacomedyclub.com and I have a mailing list people can get on as well.

Right now the MinneHAHA Comedy Club has two shows scheduled at the PAC in mid-July which will take place in the smaller Black Box theater. The shows are $15 plus fees and feature comedian Marc Yaffee. This event was part of the Burnsville PAC’s lame times are tough…laughing is easy marketing campaign. Looks like the only ones that will be laughing are the opponents of the Burnsville Performing Arts Center.

With ticket prices in the $10 to $12 range and dinner right above your head, I am already pretty damn excited to head over to Anthony’s Parkway Grill for some food and then down to the MinneHAHA Comedy Club below to cap off the evening. This was similar to what Monte’s Steak House was trying to accomplish in Faribault before it closed and I have to admit that while the food was a bit overpriced for that area, the entire package was great and one that I’m glad has moved to the South Metro.

What do you think about MinneHAHA Comedy Club calling the lower level of the future Anthony’s Parkway Grill home? Do you think that this will be a place you would want to make an evening out of (meetup?!) or would you have rather seen the club’s shows remain in the PAC? Whatever you think about this go ahead and comment on as we’d all love to hear what you have to say!

Roadblocks for South Metro “Taste Of” Events

Savage’s world famous Dan Patch Days starts today and features a variety of family friendly events for all ages. One of their events, which takes place on Saturday beginning at 4 PM is the Taste of Savage. Unfortunately, as is usually the case with these events, it’s dominated by chains and has strange rules and regulations which makes it difficult to attract decent restaurants and thus crowds of enthusiastic patrons to the respective businesses which should be profiled.

According to the Dan Patch Days website, there were 18 available spots for the 2009 Taste of Savage but as the Savage Pacer article above states, there were only 16 spots taken by area businesses, 12 of which are local or national chains. As I mentioned above, this type of setup seems to plague every “Taste Of” event in the South Metro with both the Taste of Lakeville and the Bite of Burnsville events being dominated by chain restaurants, some of which weren’t even from the respective event’s city! Why is that? Is it because the small local places aren’t interested in attending the event and building a local name for themselves or is it because the rules and regulations make it difficult for those interested in attending to do so?

Let’s take Lakeville and Savage’s most recent events to look into this a bit:

1. Lakeville’s most recent event required that those who attended be 21 years of age or greater due to the alcohol component. While many local restaurants in Lakeville serve alcohol, it’s not as if they deny entry to those that are underage to come through their doors. I don’t have children but from what I understand the endless nagging that is generated due to children tugging at the shorts of their parents to get their way has a lot to do with many family’s dining choices. Why limit the number of people who are exposed to an event by discriminating on age? Yeah, they had a laundry list of alcohol vendors at the event to attempt and bury the astonishing number of national chains but why they couldn’t make a beer garden and be done with it I’ll never know.

2. Lakeville had a cost prohibitive entry fee. $30 in advance or $35 at the door. I don’t know about you but I’m not terribly interested in paying $30+ to eat samples of pancakes from Perkins or pre-made lunch items from Rainbow.

3. Savage gave priority to those who were a member of the Chamber of Commerce:

For 2009, the Taste of Savage will be offered FIRST and FOREMOST to restaurants that are current Chamber of Commerce members. Only 18 restaurants can participate! Chamber members will receive a discount entrance fee– $100 vs. $150 for any non-members accepted to participate. Chamber membership investments start at only $240.

So for those smaller businesses that may not have the finances available to join or the desire, they may feel uncomfortable signing up and/or are locked out of this event. Seems to give quite an unfair advantage to the national chains and more established businesses rather than the newer/mom and pop operations. This is not supposed to be an advertisement for the Savage Chamber of Commerce, it’s supposed to be advertising for local businesses which help to make everyone else in town survive!

I think that this is yet another reason why chain restaurants are favored more heavily over the mom and pop shops in our area. Not only do these places have the national marketing but they also have greater support and preferential treatment from the local chambers as well which gives them a much larger local audience at a higher cost than may be affordable in a difficult market.

What do you think about the local taste of events and how they operate? Do you believe that something else should be done to better promote local business success so we don’t end up with more locally owned businesses heading down the drain like so many others have? Whatever you think go ahead and comment on!

Hoban Korean Restaurant: Eagan, MN

Tonight, following a great happy hour at Brit’s, I was riding the bus home and saw that Arby’s was doing it’s “free” Wednesday deal. Tonight’s “free” item was a regular roast beef sandwich and knowing that Kim is a fan I gave her a call and suggested we pick some up. Kim replied that we should celebrate some good news I received today and as such we should go out to dinner somewhere else instead. When I got home I asked what she was in the mood for and she said Asian. Being that we have cleared out most of the Asian places we haven’t already been to that are probably worth trying, I suggested Hoban in Eagan following many suggestions to try it, especially from Sank.

We arrived to the nearly empty and large restaurant. The space is lined with booths and in the middle are many tables offering seating to quite a crowd. Tonight there were plenty of people sitting in the restaurant eating but it was no were near full. We were seated along the wall near the front door and handed our menus. Kim immediately ordered some vegetable tempura which was delivered in record time. The tempura was light enough but a bit greasy towards the bottom. The dipping sauce was apparently their seasoned soy and was decent enough for the food. While eating our appetizer we continued to look over the extensive menu which was marked with numerous options that claimed to be “new”. Prices averaged (without any math) in the $11 range.

After much deciding, Kim finally went with the Chicken Bulgogi which is described as tender chicken marinated with soy sauce and rice wine vinegar, and grilled with Hoban′s sweet teriyaki sauce. I spent a lot more time looking over the menu than she did and decided to go with an item that claimed to be served with a “fiery hot sauce”. The Dolsot Bibimbob claims to be sizzling rice topped with an assortment of vegetables and beef. I don’t remember what each of the items cost (sorry, I left my phone at home thus I had no notes) but our total bill was just under $30 without drinks so figure from there.

After ordering the servers delivered a multitude of side dishes including beansprouts, sweet potatoes, radishes, Kimchi, and lettuce/spinach. While I didn’t catch everything that was described to us, I did try it all. My favorite was the lettuce/spinach and even though I ate nearly everything that was presented, the majority of it just didn’t have much flavor to me. While digging through the various bowls, I heard a sizzling snap, crackle, and pop coming from behind me. I turned around to find a large stone bowl heading for our table containing my dish. After being warned at how hot it was, I took a photo or two and started peeking at the vegetables, meat, and egg.

The vegetables were fresh and sliced thin, the egg was cooked well but still runny, and the rice was sticky but not overdone–yet. Unfortunately the meat which I expected would be plentiful in my big dish turned out to be limited, extremely limited. I slathered on the “fiery hot sauce” which I had predetermined through testing with the tempura appetizer to not be hot nor be something I particularly enjoyed hoping it would taste better with the meal–and it did. Unfortunately, as I stated before, it wasn’t fiery and it certainly didn’t help to bring back any of the meat I felt was missing. As I ate and the rice cooked more, I spent quite a bit of time scraping the now caked rice from the bowl. The flavor was ok, the ingredients were fresh, and the dish was certainly filling but I must admit that Korean food just isn’t my thing. It’s not that I wouldn’t eat it again, I just won’t be rushing out tomorrow to do so.

After I ate for a while, Kim’s dish finally arrived at the table. She was immediately turned off by the fact that it was lying on a bed of very abundant sliced, raw onion. The chicken tasted fantastic and reminded me more of BBQ sauce than teriyaki. Kim didn’t eat much of her meal and saved the rest for my lunch tomorrow. If I had to do it all again I’d definitely take her dish over mine but that’s just me.

Service was good, price was reasonable, and the location was kept up fairly well. Definitely seems like a place that would be fun with friends and/or family. Overall the food was ok but it just wasn’t our thing and I can’t imagine that we’ll be starting to review every Korean restaurant we come across based on what we had tonight. Perhaps it was just the options we chose?

Have you eaten at Hoban in Eagan? If so, what do you enjoy there? Do you have any other suggestions of Korean restaurants in the MSP area that people should try instead? Whatever you think about Hoban Korean Restaurant go ahead and comment on and let others know too!

Address:
Hoban Korean Restaurant
1989 Silver Bell Rd
Eagan, MN 55122-3167

Phone:
651-688-3447

Hours:
11 AM to 10 PM (Mon to Sun)

See all the pictures on Flickr here.