Today, due to a sudden twist of fate, I found myself at Good to Go for lunch. They are owned by Hemisphere Restaurants who are the same people that own Mission American Kitchen and previously owned Kabobi neither of which impressed me. I have passed this location by numerous times before and while I thought it looked ok, I really wasn’t sure what they served and I wasn’t about to duck in without reading up on it first. Unfortunately I didn’t have that opportunity today either and yet I found myself inside and having to make a choice, fast.

I will admit that anything I write below will be influenced by the fact that I have a stuffed up nose. I am functioning well today but yesterday I was totally worthless. I was living on Dayquil, six to be exact, mostly so I could survive the 2.5 hours last night at the Rosemount Community Center and another two writing up about UMore Park’s future development as a strip mine to benefit the University’s failed football program.

Anyway, I walked in the door and knew I needed something that had strong flavors so I could actually taste the food. They were advertising a buffalo chicken salad special so I went with that. There have sandwiches, wraps, soups and salads but I didn’t even look at the menu hanging on the wall. I told the first woman behind the counter what I wanted and she yelled down the line to the next person. The next server asked again what I wanted and then set out to make it so. She dumped fresh lettuce into the bowl in the serving line and then took several scoops out into a mixing bowl. She added a scoop of halved cherry tomatoes, some celery and then some blue cheese. She went to the cooler behind her and nabbed some buffalo chicken and threw it, in two large hunks, into the mixing bowl and then started tossing it all together.

I had some problems with the execution of this part though. First, the mixing bowl had the remnants of someone else’s salad left behind. If you have any allergies to anything, I don’t suggest you eat here or at least ask that they use a fresh bowl. I didn’t have the time to be picky today so I just let it slide but I certainly would never permit them to do this again. I fucking hate black olives and I can taste the tiniest bits in anything and I assume that the Greek salad they made before mine had olives because I could taste that nasty shit with every last bite. My second complaint was that they didn’t slice the buffalo chicken after they removed it from the cooler. They had some plain chicken breast that was sliced perfectly under the glass but the buffalo version came in two huge slabs. I’m all about a lot of chicken and I appreciated it but when I’m paying $7.13 for a salad and then eating it with plastic cutlery in a tiny ass plastic bowl, I at least expect it to be at least in a manageable format so that I don’t end up spilling shit all over myself as I work my way through the meat.

Aside from the black olive flavor that overpowered the dish, it was decent. I probably won’t eat there again just because of their knack for reusing dirty salad bowls as part of their “hand tossed” preparation. $7.13 for a salad with little more than tomatoes, chicken, cheap blue cheese, and celery was a bit much for me, YMMV.

See all the pictures from today’s lunch on Flickr here.

Some people that Kim works with decided it would be fun to have a Thursday night happy-hour get together every other week this summer and because I work next door she figured she’d ask if I wanted to come along. This week they decided to head down to the 8th Street Grill and Bar which has happy-hour specials between 3PM and 7PM.

Kim and I usually work until around 4 but since I was busy working on something a little past my usual quitting time, I didn’t even get out of my office until 4:15 and after some futzing around with our bags, we headed down to street level at around 4:30. We walked in the open-air bar at around 4:40 and being that it wasn’t quite yet prime happy hour time the place was almost deserted except for the crowded patio area. We sat down at the bar even though there were plenty of tables open in the rest of the place. The bartender came over and asked if we wanted to see a beer list but I was so close I could read the taps myself. They had a nice selection (similar to Panino Brothers’ setup) with about 30 or so tap beers along one wall and another 4 or 5 around the corner. I decided on their Flat Earth Porter (apparently their “seasonal” tap although I’m not quite sure why a porter would be in as a summer seasonal) and Kim ordered a Stevens Point Root Beer. There was a list of their daily happy hour specials hanging above the bar and Thursday read $3 St Paul beers. Their tap beers are normally $3.50 at happy hour so I decided to stick with the St Paul beers today.

The waitress let us know that in addition to the reduced price on the taps that they also offered $2 off appetizers. After just having our drinks for a bit, while the waitress scurried around helping others, we asked for a menu and eventually we ordered their Roasted Red Pepper Hummus as well as an order of onion rings. Kim has been craving onion rings lately I guess and I have always enjoyed red pepper hummus — especially when I was on my diet not so long ago…

The service was friendly but it took a bit to get served even when prompted by the bartender asking if I wanted another. I ordered a Summit Hefeweizen and as soon as I did the bartender ripped the St Paul specials sign down off the overhead sign. I was a bit perturbed and then concerned that she was going to try and charge me $3.50 a tap. I had the photo evidence to prove my case but I ended up paying $3.11/beer (taxes?). I figured the Hefeweizen would be a nice summery drink and while I don’t jump up and down over Summit’s heavy clove taste, I made it through ok ;)

Right after I got done asking Kim, “how fucking long does it take to make onion rings and a batch of hummus up,” they both appeared in the hands of another server. Kim just shook her head at me in disbelief and told me I was being a grumpy bastard… The roasted red pepper hummus was tasty, a tiny bit spicy in the back and looked like it was not straight from the plastic container. It had a nice orange color and might have passed for raw pumpkin if I hadn’t tasted it. Even though there were plenty of warm and soft pita slices to dip with I ended up using them all, with hefty doses of hummus, before the hummus itself was gone. I used the spoon to get the rest — yes, I actually enjoyed it that much. Kim’s onion rings were large and looked nice and golden but had a slight fishy taste from what I imagine could only be oil cross contamination. Kim asked for a side of ranch and the container that came out was entirely too small for the size of the onion rings. She was disappointed that she had to finish off her three or four remaining rings with inferior ketchup — I would have been fine taking over for her but next thing I knew they were gone; so much for that idea.

Overall, eh. The food was ok for appetizers (mine was great but the fishy onion rings brought it all down to the “ok” level) but I certainly wouldn’t rush back again with so many other choices in town. While the beer selection is good you’re probably better off at The Depot for their happy hour specials at $2.50… It was far less crowded over there, the service was more prompt because of it, and the menu was more restaurant-like rather than bar foodish. Guess it depends on your mood and your location.

When it was all said and done we ended up paying $23.99 before tip for two appetizers, two beers and two root beers. Not bad but nothing to get all atwitter over. We probably won’t be back anytime soon. We are planning on hitting happy hour once or twice a month this summer and should have a steady stream of reviews for all of you working downtown — keep checking back or subscribe for updates.

See all the pictures from today on Flickr here (camera).

Address:
8th Street Grill and Bar
800 Marquette Ave
Minneapolis, MN 55402

Phone:
612-349-5717

Tonight Kim and I met up with a professor of mine from way back when we both attended Bowling Green State University who was in town for the National Women’s History Project’s National Networking Conference held on the University of Minnesota campus this weekend.

I needed a place that was in relatively close proximity to where we worked, to where Dr. Wheeler was staying, and where Kim and I could get to by 5 PM after work. I had offered Dr. Wheeler a few choices and she said any were fine. I ended up choosing Spill the Wine and made online reservations for five.

I had a meeting that was scheduled for 4 and I was concerned that it may run over and force me to be late so I suggested that Kim take the train to the Metrodome and start walking from there to meet the Doctor. My meeting let out in time and I called Kim as I was scurrying to Government Plaza to hop on the train. She waited for me at the Metrodome station where she was currently at and we both walked the handful of blocks to the restaurant.

As I approached I realized that I left my fucking SD card in the computer, again — as I have done numerous times recently, gah! — and was cursing myself as we walked up to the door. The outside looks like any downtown restaurant/bar and peering inside we saw a few happy hour lovers, 99% women, inside chatting over bottles of chilled wine on their tables. I went to the hostess and told her we had a reservation and we were quickly seated against the wall and next to a group of four women well into a bottle of wine in the center of their table.

I had to run to the restroom and when I came back Kim alerted me to happy hour appetizer and wine specials (calamari, bruschetta, and something else was on sale for $5 as well as $15 bottles of wine) and we decided to go with an order of calamari and bruschetta while we waited for Dr. Wheeler’s taxi to arrive. I asked about their beer selection and only heard “Stella” and “Summit” and decided to go with the Summit. They had at least one other beer on tap but I don’t know what it was…

The restaurant is nicely decorated but reminded me, somewhat at least, of the California Cafe at the Mall of America in Bloomington. They had cloth streamers billowing down from the high ceiling, a bar, a bunch of tables, etc. They had a lot of staff on hand that seemed to be milling around the kitchen area waiting for it to get busier I suppose. Even though they were busy chatting during our entire meal they weren’t all that disruptive and our service was fairly attentive and prompt.

The kind Doctor finally arrived and we spent a bit of time chatting over our appetizers. I wasn’t impressed with the calamari as the breading was flaking off leaving me with a slimy piece of squid that tasted extremely fishy (I can honestly say that’s a first for me with calamari) and when dipped in their tartar sauce I had an immediate rush back to my few days of eating McDonalds’ fish sandwiches as a kid. Kim said that while she wouldn’t eat the calamari without the tartar sauce (I don’t know why), she thought it was overpowering. It also came with some sort of spiciness that I couldn’t place as the peppers tossed in with the squid were sweet and not terrible hot. The bruschetta also tasted like fish and didn’t look like any bruschetta I had ever eaten before. Kim said she liked it but didn’t eat more than two pieces forcing me to not let one go to waste as the waitresses cleared our items when they brought out our main courses.

I ordered the Risotto Grilled Chicken (so did the Doctor) and Kim got the Poached Pear Salad. Mine is described in the menu as a chicken breast, risotto, wild mushrooms, fresh sage leaves and parmesan cheese. The chicken was ok (Dr. Wheeler thought it was moist but I explained that was because it was bone in and skin on which is the preferable way to cook chicken in my recent experience) but nothing fancy. The risotto was creamy, probably due to the liberal amount of melted parmesan cheese, but it was lumped together and was extremely soft and certainly not the way risotto should be cooked. I realize it’s tough to make risotto correctly but it definitely wasn’t done up to spec tonight. The mushrooms looked and tasted like sliced portobellos but as they were hidden in the risotto I couldn’t really tell for sure. For $15 the portion was appropriately sized but quality was definitely lacking. Kim’s pear salad is listed as poached Bartlet pear, pomegranate molasses, goat cheese and vinaigrette over baby field greens and was priced at $8/14. Kim asked the waitress for a rough size estimation and she offered a visual representation with her hands that seemed like 7 or 8″ square. She said the $14 salad was roughly the size of a round dinner plate. Kim ordered the $8 version and said that the vinaigrette was overpowering and too sweet (pomegranate molasses perhaps?) and wasn’t worth $8. I didn’t try any of her meal — as there just wasn’t that much so I have no idea what it was like.

I had three Summits, the Dr had a glass of dry Chardonnay and we had the meals with the two $5 appetizers. When it was all said and done, before tip, the meal was $70 and change. After a 20% tip it was $84.39. Honestly, while the service was good and the place is comfortable I can’t say that our meals were worth what we paid. I had a simple review posted to Twitter that simply said, “Quick review of Spill the Wine: overpriced and mediocre.” After mulling it over on the train ride home (we missed the last 477 out of Minneapolis for Apple Valley and had to have Chris pick us up at 28th Ave, thanks dude) I still stand by that comment.

If you’re into $15 bottles of overpriced wine and are looking for some pretty boring appetizers for $5 during happy hour then Spill the Wine might be for you. If you’re looking for a nice dinner that is executed well and is priced reasonably, I’d stay away.

Address:
Spill the Wine
1101 Washington Ave S
Minneapolis, MN 55415

Phone:
612-339-3388

See all the pictures from today on Flickr here (mobile).