Appetites: How to dine for $10 at 'essential' Twin Cities restaurants
Can you eat reasonably at some of Minnesota's iconic restaurants? City Pages writer Mecca Bos discovered that the answer is yes — if you choose carefully.
Bos spoke to MPR News host Tom Crann about her findings.
What makes a restaurant "essential" and why did you choose these as opposed to others?
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An "essential" restaurant is a place that sometimes anchors a neighborhood, that is indicative of the flavor of our town, and [its food] has to be absolutely delicious.
I think some readers were excited while others were surprised and maybe even a little annoyed that I chose certain restaurants over others. But I think that's a sign of a good list. If it doesn't stir up a little controversy then you're not doing it right.
So in addition to some no-brainer choices like Heartland, where chef Lenny Russo is adamant about only using ingredients sourced from the upper Midwest, or Haute Dish, where chef Landon Schoenefeld takes influences from his Midwestern upbringing and constantly reinvents those dishes in new and interesting ways, I also chose some other, more thought-provoking places. Some of them are high end, and some a little more lowbrow, but you can eat affordably at all of them.
Vietnamese institution Quang in Minneapolis made the list. Banh mi, pho and other Southeast Asian specialties are pretty essential and pretty reasonable in the Twin Cities, right?
I lived for a short time in New Orleans and it was almost impossible to get a decent banh mi without a long drive — and I know any New Orleanians out there are going to dispute this but it is absolutely true.
And if you've gone any time at all without being able to get your hands on some decent Southeast Asian food, like a rice noodle salad or a great bowl of pho, you'll realize that we really take such things for granted around here.
You've gotta try hard to spend over $10 at Quang, with the mammoth pools of noodles, banh mi thick with pate, roasted meats and fresh julienned veggies, or peanutty vermicelli salads. They all ring in well under the $10 mark.
What about higher-end restaurants?
There are plenty of elegant Nordic bites to be had at the Bachelor Farmer, many of them under $10 too, but possibly the best way to eat for under $10 is downstairs at Marvel, their stunning secret speakeasy, where one can pair some of the wildest, or most classic, but always most-perfect cocktails in town with an order of Cheetos for $1. Sure, it might cost 15 times that for the drink, but it's a total package worth the price tag.
Don't drink? The $3 popover, a holdover from the Dayton's department store days is still big, warm and meltingly tender when slathered with honey butter.
How is the emergence of the Twin Cities as a food culture affecting us being able to eat well for $10?
I think this major food city status actually started rippling when we realized New Yorkers and other people with some means were actually flying in specifically to eat at places like Piccolo or to take culinary tours of our restaurants.
Self-effacing as we tend to be as Minnesotans, I think we're more comfortable with someone else telling us that we're cool. So if Bon Appetit or Esquire calls out one of our establishments as the best in America, we start to perk up. And I'd say that's what's sort of happening.