On Saturday we decided to do a little thrift store browsing between Apple Valley and Prior Lake. While we were specifically looking for vintage beer glasses, we were open to just about anything. While we only ended up with one beer stein from a local celebration in central Minnesota from the 1960s, we also found two coffee mugs adorned with roosters heh. We hit thrift stores I never knew existed and we ended the morning in Prior Lake. While looking for a vintage shop that never materialized because it was sorta on the fly, we found ourselves across from Edelweiss Bakery in Prior Lake.

Edelweiss is a cute corner establishment in downtown Prior Lake about a block from Perron’s Sul Lago and a quick look at the reviews online shows people adore the place. It appeared, based on the steady amount of traffic in and out that afternoon, it is highly regarded within the city’s limits as well.

With The Wife oohing and ahhing as we drove past, I figured it would be a smash hit, home run for her when we walked in the door. Seeing two glass display cases stuffed full of gooey pastries and cakes made me think The Wife’s afterglow would last for days and we’d be driving back here more often than my odometer would like. However, as The Wife looked over the options available I was really surprised when she said that nothing really caught her eye. Even I had seen a cake or two, doused in chocolate, that I thought would be really great. Not wanting to completely ignore the options, she ended up going with a simple lemon bar, a coffee, and some cream cheese stuffed French toast. I ordered a Italian sandwich on fresh baked jalapeno/cheddar bread and we nabbed a simple ham and swiss on some sort of fancy white bread for The Rooster. After paying the astronomical $28 tab for two deli meat sandwiches, some French toast, and two drinks we sat down and people watched. My favorite comment came from the woman ordering a sandwich that was near hysterics that they were even thinking of putting mayo on her sandwich and she said that she would only eat mayo if it was some sort of aioli…

Anyway, after a much longer wait than two sandwiches and French toast should take, our plates arrived and were incredibly unimpressive for $8.50. Salami, ham, cheese, pepperoni with produce on a tiny piece of bread accompanied by a quarter of an overbaked chocolate chip cookie was what I received for my money. There was nothing at all special about this one and while the fresh baked jalapeno/cheddar bread should have been able to pull this one together and make it an interesting and fun little sandwich, there was absolutely no jalapeno flavor (I saw some in there but all the flavor was baked out of it) and the cheddar were just little flakes of yellow/orange. I paid $8.50 for something that would have been better at Subway, boo.

The Rooster’s ham and swiss came as expected with some lettuce. While he ate all the meat he left most of his fresh baked bread on the plate. I helped him eat some because I was still starving from the less-than-fist-sized sandwich I had eaten. At $6.50 I should have demanded they come back and babysit him for the rest of the day to make up for the lack of worth of that sandwich.

The Wife’s stuffed french toast was ok but she said it was nowhere near as good as what is available at Jensen’s Cafe. The two tiny pieces came with a similarly tiny cup of syrup and cost $6.50. She didn’t complain about it and the value, while half the size of Jensen’s offering, was close in price. The lemon bar was nothing special. Aside from the nice crunch of the crust, this tasted like those you can make in 30 minutes out of a box from the store. At $2.50 it wasn’t astronomical but I refuse to share in the great reviews it has been provided online.

Overall this place just isn’t all that great and while it’s likely that it gets the attention it does because those in Prior Lake don’t have to drive outside of the city to get fed, there are hundreds of places around that have better food, prices, and service. I have to admit I’m a bit relieved I won’t have to drive out there every other weekend to fill a box full of pastries for The Wife on a Saturday morning.

Have you been to Edelweiss Bakery in Prior Lake? If so what did you think? What did you like best or least? What other bakeries do you frequent around town? Where is the best deli meat sandwich for lunch? Whatever you have to say about this one go ahead and comment on as I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Address:
Edelweiss Bakery
16186 Main Ave SE
Prior Lake, MN 55372

Phone:
952-440-2773

Disclaimer: As part of Smack Shack’s soft opening four of us were invited to dine for free to give the new restaurant a test before it officially opens to the public. We received comped items (everything except our alcoholic beverages) as part of this event. The total bill (including alcohol) came to about $240. Please take the following review with as much salt as you feel is required following this government mandated disclaimer.

Last night I met up with Lefty across the street from Black Sheep in The Loop neighborhood of Minneapolis to check out the latest food truck conversion to brick and mortar, Smack Shack.

Smack Shack has been one of the more popular food trucks and while I never got around to trying it while I worked downtown, I had heard great things about what they served and I was VERY excited to get a chance to try them out prior to their official opening (which is today). The space is beautiful. 8,000 square feet of modern, industrial beauty with two floors, an open kitchen showing off a two level lobster tank and gigantic kettle for lobster and shrimp boil, large bar area, and an even larger outdoor patio. Honestly, the place is impressive as soon as you walk in the door.

We were seated in the bar area and were served right away by a self-admitted nervous server who was very friendly and was trying very hard to make us happy. The menu was a typical preview night partial menu where you ordered one item from each section and were offered some shared desserts. Because there was four of us at the table and most of us ordered different items, we ended up with a pretty decent cross-section of what was available to us. For the first course we ordered Lorraine’s Lump Crab Cakes, the Smoked Pork Tacos, the Warm Smoked Duck, and Oysters (6). We went with the Newcastle Battered Perch Po Boy, Lobster Cioppino, and two orders of the Lonely Lobster Boil as our entrees and we got orders of both the baked beans and seasoned fries for our sides.

As with many preview nights, the service was spotty and disjointed. We received some of our appetizers on time and others not until much later; however, we did end up with an order of Lobster Corn Dogs to try because of the confusion. The Corn Dogs are a food truck staple and included a lemon chive aioli.

The appetizers arrived in several sessions with the oysters and the crab cakes arriving well before the duck and pork tacos. The oysters were supposed to number 6 but the pile that arrived at table were nearly double that number. Aside from literal mouthful of shell I got on my first oyster and the remaining shards that littered my mouth for the next two oysters, they were fine. The presentation was nice, the oysters were tasty, and the lemon and hot sauce (on the table already) abundant; however, the mignonette was too vinegary for my tastes and the horseradish (which we later decided may have been shredded radish) was so weak that forkfuls didn’t do anything for the three of us who tried it.

The crab cakes were extremely weak and tasted only of breading and the maque choux they sat upon. While the maque choux had some good flavor, it closely resembled a puddle of putrid green puke and it really took away from the subtle flavors of the crab which were already greatly muted by the breading. As someone who enjoys making crab cakes at home for The Wife, these were an insane disappointment for me and a definite pass for the rest of the people at the table.

Eventually the Warm Smoked Duck arrived at the table. It came with frisee, green apple, pickled cherries, goat cheese, glazed pecans and griddled milk bread. The textures were fantastic. Offsetting the crunch of the green apple and pecans were the soft and tart pickled cherries and the super creamy goat cheese. The duck, while having no smoke flavor, was tender and luscious. This dish was the smash hit of the evening with Lefty commenting that he would love to grab it to go for dinner; in fact, he boxed up what was left(y) to take home with him–the only item of last night which received such a treatment.

Much later, after some hounding, the Smoked Pork Tacos arrived at the table. There were two ($7 on the menu) and included tasteless, tough pork with no smoke flavor covered in an overpowering combination of tomatillo salsa and chili lime crema. The cilantro was wilted and looked cooked setting this one up for a visual failure. The liquid which ran out all over the plate rounded out this failure.

While some of us were eating our apps, Lefty’s Lonely Lobster Boil arrived. A sad presentation for sure, this dish was actually decent according to both of those at the table who tried it. The lobster was tender and sweet and the meat abundant. While it wasn’t something I would have ordered, especially after seeing it and tasting it, it ended up being one of the favorites of the evening–a good thing since ‘lobster’ is such a prominent part of the Smack Shack brand.

My Newcastle Battered Perch Po Boy was out next. It was a good size, especially for the price ($9.50) and included a ton of lightly battered perch. While the perch itself was lovely, the rest of the sandwich, namely the whole grain mustard tartar sauce and the cabbage slaw, really ruined everything that was good about the perch. Much like the crab cakes and tacos, the items accompanying the protein simply overpowered the dish instead of making the flavors really pop.

While we had some hits and misses so far, the biggest miss of the evening was the Lobster Cioppino. A tasteless conglomeration of great seafood, this should have been the run away favorite. Instead the tasteless broth somehow was able to overpower similarly tasteless proteins. I only had one mussel from the dish but it really had zero flavor. So very odd.

While I *REALLY* wanted to *LOVE* Smack Shack, I couldn’t bring myself to say it was worth it. While I realize it was a preview night, I would have expected some of the items to really shine but instead I’m sort of left having to say mediocre dishes were good (lobster boil). The misses were big (pork, crab cakes, cioppino, etc) and the hits were barely so. For the prices they were charging, their history as a popular truck, and the space they’re trying to fill I would expect so much more.

Have you tried Smack Shack’s restaurant in Minneapolis? If so what did you think? What did you have? What would you like to order in the future? Whatever you have to say about this one go ahead and comment on as I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Address:
Smack Shack (brick and mortar)
603 Washington Ave N
Minneapolis, MN 55401

Phone:
612-259-7288

See all the pictures from Smack Shack’s new brick and mortar joint on Flickr here.