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For the past several years, restaurants have opened at a frantic rate in the greater Twin Cities metro area. The constant influx often leaves critics scrambling to keep pace. 

, an online food magazine, publishes new food and drink reviews Monday through Friday. 


Editor and all-around foodie James Norton joined MPR News' Tom Crann to talk about how he and his team discover and classify places to eat.

an Out-of-Towners' Guide to dining in Minneapolis and St. Paul

 that takes a broad approach to recommending restaurants. Can you tell us a little bit about that feature?

 Sure. The Out-of-Towners' Guide was a compilation of our contributors answering the question: "Where would you take your out-of-town guests for a meal?" That's a question we get a lot, and it really puts an extra level of pressure on diners to — and I use this phrase with a grain of salt — "get it right."

I think a lot of our pride and anxiety about our culinary culture comes to a boil when we've got to entertain folks from other parts of the country and — whether we acknowledge it — prove something or affirm something about why Minnesota is a great place to live.

We tried to tease out some subtleties by organizing our answers with the goal of the meal — are you celebrating something big? Are you trying to get a taste of local color? Looking for memorable cheap eats? Rarely does one or even two restaurants hit all the different bases.

 Describe readers' reactions to the guide?

 I think it's a tribute to the level of interest in the restaurant scene that we got a bit swamped by traffic and comments after publishing the guide. The question of where you take out-of-town guests really puts a fine point on how subjectively we tend to assess restaurants — questions of culture, diet, personal preference, buzz, and priorities mean that you can talk to three people about the same restaurant and get four or five different credible, well-argued opinions. Some of the onus is on the restaurant to under promise and over deliver — to make sure expectations are properly managed.

 Can you mention a few of the places that appeared in the guide?

 Sure. A few of the places we talked about as celebration restaurants included Corner Table, Broders' Pasta Bar, and Restaurant Alma. For restaurants that bring a sense of local color, we talked about A Baker's Wife, Casper and Runyon's Nook, and the Triple Rock Social Club. And for breakfast, we mentioned the newly opened Bogart's Doughnut Company, Grand Cafe, The Kenwood — and obviously, Al's Breakfast in Dinkytown, which is easily as much local color as it is breakfast.

You've caught some flak over your Out-of-Towners' Guide, as well.

 Yeah, absolutely. We underrepresented St. Paul, and that's a reflection of the shoot-from-the-hip methodology we used to compose the guide. I think it's a great collection of places, but I wish we'd mentioned more of St. Paul's terrific spots. For example: The Strip Club Meat and Fish, the Dari-Ette Drive In, Ngon Bistro and Tanpopo are worth mentioning. It's a symptom of how strong the dining scene is right now that anyone would be hard pressed to summarize all or even most of the great places to eat — you're always going to have a blind spot, I think.

James Norton is editor of the online food magazine 

. He has authored several books about the regional food scene, including "Food Lovers' Guide to the Twin Cities" and "The Master Cheesemakers of Wisconsin." Follow him 

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MPR News' Tom Crann talked with editor James Norton about food and drink reviews featured in The Heavy Table, an online food magazine.

Appetites: A guide to Minn. food for out-of-towners

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