Becca Dilley / Heavy Table

It’s almost summer and what do we want? Ice cream dripping down our arms, hot dogs in our hands, and all kinds of crap fried on sticks. Yeah, we want to hold our food in our hands. Lucky for us, the list of portable snack spots just keeps on growing. A new restaurant, called Pupuseria La Palmera, is now serving that snack without a season, the El Salvadoran pupusa. Similar to the Mexican gordita and the South American arepa, a pupusa is a thick corn tortilla filled with goodies and fried in a pan.

California native Mauricio Prieto opened La Palmera just two weeks ago, in the old Stabby’s Cafe spot across from the Colossal Cafe in Minneapolis. And while his is a sit-down restaurant, the pupusas his El Salvadoran mother, Ana, makes are perfectly palm-sized, and almost cheaper than a pack of gum.

The restaurant’s full menu offers just three varieties of pupusas: bean and cheese ($1.75, top); a combination of pork, cheese, garlic, onion, and peppers called revueltas ($1.75, bottom); and the classic cheese and loroco ($2). Loroco is a green, tropical flower specific to Salvadoran cooking. It gives the pupusa a unique pungency, something like spinach mixed with okra mixed with parmesan cheese. La Palmera’s loroco pupusa is thick, oozing, and earthy. The revueltas is slightly sweet and never too salty, and the bean and cheese version is highly seasoned and would make a satisfying breakfast (which La Palmera serves every day). The restaurant’s accompanying curtido de repollo, a fermented slaw of cabbage and carrots typically served with pupusas, adds a welcome heat and contrasting crunch to the soft masa cakes.

Then there’s the sun-filled dining room in which you’ll enjoy your pupusas. I guess that’s why they call it “the palm tree.”

Becca Dilley / Heavy Table

Pupuseria La Palmera
El Salvadoran food in South Minneapolis

4157 Cedar Ave
Minneapolis, MN 55407
612.729.2025
HOURS:
Closed Mon
Tues-Thurs 8am-9pm
Fri 8am-9:30pm
Sat 7am-9:30pm
Sun 8am-7:30pm
CHEF / OWNER: Ana Prieto / Mauricio Prieto
RESERVATIONS / RECOMMENDED: No / No
BAR: None
VEGETARIAN / VEGAN: Yes / Limited
ENTREE RANGE: $1.75-$11

Becca Dilley / Heavy Table

John Garland / Heavy Table

Sassy Spoon Truck — @SassySpoonTruck

Clad in an unmistakable shade of pink, the Sassy Spoon Truck is dishing out “wholesome food with attitude.” Owner Tamara Brown is a dietitian. She’s dedicating her truck to high-quality meals that won’t put you in a food coma upon returning to the office.

“I wanted, instead of just teaching about healthy food, to serve it,” Brown says. “So, I’ve got a lot of good vegetable carbs – the idea is balancing blood sugar. Also, everything is gluten free, there’s no bread on the truck, and, as much as possible, we source locally and organic.”

On the streets for less than a month, she’s offering two or three combos for lunch each day. An absolute knockout is the Pig-Pen ($10) – a sizeable heap of miso-braised pulled pork accompanied by an equally huge pile of lightly ginger-dressed cabbage slaw. The pork picks up strands of delectable char from a quick stint on the flat-top grill. It’s slightly sweet and a little nutty from the miso. And notice how it’s not drowned in barbecue sauce and served on a bun? If this meal were reimagined at many other trucks, you’d probably get about half the amount of pork and slaw in two little sliders. We applaud the idea to ditch the bread and charge a little extra for more of the good stuff.

John Garland / Heavy Table

Marie Antoinette Crepes — @thatcrepetruck

Molly Miller began scraping out sweet and savory crepes in the Marie Antoinette Crepe truck last August. “I grew up eating them; my grandma made them, so I’m using her recipe,” says Miller. “Also, I went to France in 2003 and learned how they did it over there.”

Patrons get lunch and a show at the crepe truck – the iron is right on the counter for you to watch Miller expertly drag batter back and forth. The Croque Monsieur ($7) is among her most popular so far. It’s a wonderful collection of ham, swiss, Mornay sauce, and a mustard made with Stella Artois. It’s a little tough to cut with the plastic forks provided.  Luckily, the crepe is substantial enough to handle being rolled into a mini burrito. Our next visit will be for the egg, cheddar, and bacon jam breakfast crepe.

You can often find the truck at farmers markets – a savvy business move for a product that may be a little light for many people’s idea of lunch, but would make for a perfect walking-around snack while perusing produce. Make sure to seek her out when berries are in season. For now, raspberry preserves with white chocolate ($6) is a more than able substitute.

John Garland / Heavy Table

R.A. MacSammy’s — @RAMacsammys

Kevin Huyck debuted R.A. MacSammy’s at the St. Paul Winter Carnival in January. “I wanted a concept that would bring in a broad audience, and who doesn’t like mac and cheese?” he says. “We also have sandwiches, and as the weather warms up here, we’ll be adding either a salad or wrap. I’ve been playing with the idea of doing stuffed tomatoes, as a lighter cold entree. We’re trying to be an everyman’s food truck – not necessarily courting the gourmet crowd.”

Patrons can expect a weekly featured mac as well as the option build their own with a dozen or so ingredients added in for $0.50 each. Bacon has been, unsurprisingly, the most frequent add-in, but Brussels sprouts and broccoli have taken off as well.

We tried the Kentucky Hot Brown Mac ($8) – with bacon, sautéed mushrooms, halved cherry tomatoes, and cubes of turkey. The mac itself is pleasantly gooey with a good doneness to the noodles, though it’s not exactly distinguishable from any other competent restaurant mac you’ve had lately. A full order is a large undertaking – especially with bacon and turkey thrown into the mix. Light eaters can easily make do with a mini order ($4).

John Garland / Heavy Table

A Cupcake Social — @ACupcakeSocial

A Cupcake Social has been open in truck form for less than two months, though owners Jess Stone and Suzette Herr have been in the cupcake business for over a year. “We catered – brought our cupcakes to weddings and other events,” says Stone. “We looked into opening a location, but decided we wanted to be more mobile.”

This “gourmet mobile bakery,” as they call it, cycles through roughly 30 different flavors, and they do a lot of the baking on board. By far the most popular flavor has been Raspberry Burst – raspberry filling with raspberry-white chocolate buttercream, over vanilla and chocolate cake. “When we say ‘gourmet,’ I know that’s kind of a pseudo-term now, but they truly are,” Stone continues. “We use a lot of fresh fruits and we don’t use any shortening in our buttercream.”

They can often be found in tandem with the Home Street Home truck in St. Paul, though Stone says their biggest business happens in downtown Minneapolis. On our visit, we sampled the Salty Sweetness, Key Lime, and Tres Leches ($3 each, left to right, above). Overall we were struck by how light they came across, and as you might have already guessed, they were each impeccable.

John Garland / Heavy Table

Bacon Trolley — @bacontrolley

We were admittedly skeptical of the Bacon Trolley. A sandwich called The Spanker, comprising barbecue pork topped by pork belly? Bacon popcorn? “Just Bacon” a la carte? This had “half-baked idea” written all over it.

But this trolley is no folly. Open for about a month now, the concept is two years in the making. Owner Jennifer Stone, a restaurant industry veteran, enlisted Fernando Silva of Harriet Brasserie to design the menu. The food is pork-centric, but actually quite well balanced.

“I originally wanted to start a restaurant called Bacon,” says Stone. “I decided that it would be better suited to a food truck, but I didn’t really want a truck like everyone else has.”

Bacon Trolley’s Banh Mi ($8) features pork belly, which receives a 12-hour beer braise and gets sliced paper thin and caramelized on the griddle for service. Surprisingly, though, it’s not the focal point of the sandwich. Rather, it’s accoutrements that steal the show – a vibrant carrot slaw, sliced jalapenos, and a soft, flaky baguette coated with a homemade garlic aioli and a chili-bean pâté. The Carnitas tacos ($8) are also very worthy renditions.

John Garland / Heavy Table

Home Street Home — @HomeStrtHomeTrk

“We’re calling it globally inspired comfort food,” says owner Destiny Buron of Home Street Home truck. She quit her corporate job to live the dream as a chef. Now she and co-owner Daniel Kidd are slinging quesadillas, grilled cheese, pulled pork, and other classic lunch staples.

We found the Korean BBQ Tacos ($7) quite tasty, yet somewhat unsubstantial. The pork beef short ribs had a nice sweet glaze on them and the mung bean-daikon slaw was wonderfully refreshing. The problem was there wasn’t much of either, especially not enough to necessitate a double-wrapped tortilla. We’d suggest doubling the stuffing and charging another buck or two … though their current popularity suggests the formula is working just fine. ”We can’t keep them around,” says Buron. ”Our farmer can’t even supply us with enough short ribs; we’re looking for another supplier.”

We’ll stick to Home Street’s delectable burger ($8). The beef is grass-fed from Ridgeroll Farms in Buffalo, but the real star of the sandwich is the bun from St. Agnes bakery in St. Paul. The bun’s ethereal insides give way to a tougher (and grill-kissed) exterior. The blue cheese inside the patty is nearly liquefied, while the homemade citrus ketchup strikes the same sweet / bitter note as the grilled red peppers on top. It’s a harmonious collection, rounded out by a slice of creamy harvarti.

John Garland / Heavy Table

Neato’s Burgers — @NeatosBurgers

There may not be a more extensively Internet-chatted item among the new St. Paul trucks as the duck fat French fries from Neato’s Burgers. Even this author, who has all but sworn off fries and vowed to only eat a few bites, polished off a small order ($3) and secretly wished for a large ($5). They’re only faintly crispy and studded with large flecks of salt, and they feature a meltingly tender interior. They tell us the duck fat is sourced from a free-range duck farm in Pennsylvania.

“Once Porky’s closed down, we wanted to bring that kind of throwback burger back to the city of St. Paul,” says owner Tony Gutierrez. Their beef is ground daily and cooked on a ripping hot flat top for maximum char. A regular burger only sets you back $3 (or $4 with cheese), but opt for the Neato’s Deluxe ($6) with lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, and Neato Sauce, which is their version of Thousand Island dressing. And please, dear readers with lower cholesterol than yours truly, comment below and tell us about their peanut butter Goober burger, or any other St. Paul truck finds you’ve been digging as of late.

For far more food truck and cart reviews, check out The Heavy Table’s Street Food Directory.

Readers: Win Heavy Table pint glasses

The Tap loves restaurant tips from readers, so we’re awarding a Heavy Table pint glass to the best tipster each month. The Tap is the metro area’s comprehensive restaurant buzz roundup, so if you see a new or newly shuttered restaurant, or anything that’s “coming soon,” email Tap editor Jason Walker at

April’s winner: Dana Murdoch of St. Paul

George & the Dragon (now open)

813 W 50th St, Minneapolis | 612.355.9114

After talking to owner Fred Navarro, it sounds like George & the Dragon opened right amid its key demographic.

“Eighty-five percent of the guests that have come in the first couple weeks have been from a four- to five-block radius of the restaurant,” Navarro said. “Of those guests I would say 40 percent, maybe a much higher percentage, have come in at least several times since we opened.”

Not surprising, as George & the Dragon occupies the rebuilt corner that famously burned while housing Heidi’s and Blackbird. For two years, the Malt Shop diner was the only option for blocks; now, though, area diners can explore Navarro’s varied menu. Most popular item so far?

“The fish and chips,” Navarro said. “For our beer batter, we are using the Fulton Lonely Blonde; the response that we have received is that the beer batter is nice and crisp, but not greasy.

“All of the burgers have had great feedback I think due to the bun, baked fresh daily by New French, and that we use arugula instead of just a leaf lettuce for the burgers. It adds a different flavor profile.”

The pub has nine beers on tap, including three poured on nitrogen: Old Speckled Hen, Boulder Mojo IPA, and Young’s Double Chocolate Stout. With locals like Harriet, Brau Brothers, Summit, and Fulton thrown in, G&D sticks to the approach I’ve noticed at other new local restaurants like Blackbird, Sparks, and Mona: Use our wealth of available beer to craft a small but rock-solid tap list that appeals to beer nerds and casual drinkers alike.

George & the Dragon now has Sunday brunch, too, and Navarro said he was eager for summer ingredients to start popping into his menu, especially the daily curry.

Wait times have been long since George & the Dragon opened, and Navarro said to call ahead because a limited number of reservations are available each night.

Ashley Laflin / Heavy Table

Mill City Cafe (closing May 27; planning to open in new location)

2205 California St NE, Minneapolis | 612.788.6188

The Mill City Cafe, a bit of a well-kept secret in the local brunch-goer world, has announced it’s closing while it prepares to move into an undisclosed new space in Northeast Minneapolis.

OK, Mill City Cafe is such a well-kept secret that I had never heard of it until a friend tipped me off, saying, “That place has the best brunch for your buck in the city. Nothing over $10 and all really good stuff. And a great patio doesn’t hurt, as well as good bloodys, and even beer if you want it.” Amen!

So, you’ve got a week to get your Mill City awesome veggie burger fix before they take a relocation break.

World Street Kitchen (opens late 2012)

2743 Lyndale Ave S, Minneapolis

This is a good trend: First, Smack Shack announced plans to open a restaurant offshoot of its popular food truck. Now, Sameh and Saed Wadi told Rick Nelson that they’re opening a permanent location of their World Street Kitchen. The Wadis, locally famous as the proprietors of Saffron, will continue to sell their twist on street food like rice bowls, tacos, and sandwiches at the new outpost, which Rick says will open later this year.

In a similar vein, it’s been rumored that Chef Shack plans to open a permanent restaurant in the just-closed Jack’s at 46th and Bryant.

Prairie Kitchen & Bar (opens May 25)

1300 Nicollet Ave S, Minneapolis | 612.596.4640

It lost two of Minneapolis’ most high-profile restaurants, Manny’s and Oceanaire, so the Hyatt Regency is fighting back with Prairie Kitchen & Bar, opening May 25.

According to a press release, chef Aaron Hagerdorn’s menu is influenced by the Scandinavian and farming heritage of Minnesota. “Our new menu is a tribute to Minnesota’s unique cuisine, with an emphasis on fresh regional produce, meat, grains, and dairy products,” Hagerdorn said. Quite a broad emphasis.

Since it’s serving a hotel, the kitchen will be open all day for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and late night, and it will serve all sorts of stuff, from a smoked trout cake benedict to a salmon BLT to garlic and veal meatballs. There’s even waterzooi, a traditional Flemish chicken-and-vegetable stew that I had to Google.

That little section of Nicollet needs something to liven it up, so, what the heck, let’s root for Prairie Kitchen. Otherwise, it’s going to be awfully barren from Brit’s down to Eat Street.

NOW OPEN

• The Left Handed Cook, 920 E Lake St, Minneapolis (Midtown Global Market) | 612.208.0428
• Devil’s Advocate, 89 S 10th St, Minneapolis | 612.843.2260
• Tadka Indian Bistro, 1221 W Lake St, Minneapolis | 612.824.6342
• Pupuseria las Palmeras, 4159 Cedar Ave, Minneapolis.
• Casper’s Cherokee Sirloin Room, 4625 Nicols Rd, Eagan | 651.454.6744
• Angel Food Bakery, 80 S 9th St, Minneapolis | 612.238.1435
• Harriet Brasserie, 2724 W 43rd St, Minneapolis | 612.354.2197
• George and the Dragon, 813 W 50th St, Minneapolis | 612.355.9114
• Mona, 333 S 7th St, Minneapolis | 612.259.8636
• Don Julio, 4460 N Hwy 61, White Bear Lake | 651.407.2888
• Agua Brava, 7112 Bass Lake Rd, New Hope | 763.432.2785
• Falafel King, 1199 W 7th St, St. Paul | 651.207.5777
• Selma’s Ice Cream, 3419 Saint Croix Trl S, Afton
• Bread and Pickle, 4135 W Lake Harriet Pkwy, Minneapolis | 612.767.9009
• Tin Fish, 3000 E Calhoun Pkwy, Minneapolis | 612.823.5840
• Rodizio Grill, 12197 Elm Creek Blvd N, Maple Grove | 763.657.1133
• Lynden’s Soda Fountain, 490 Hamline Ave S, St. Paul | 651.235.5646
• Burnsville Ale House, 3809 Hwy 13, Burnsville | 952.882.2911
• Super Moon Buffet, 6445 Wayzata Blvd, St. Louis Park
• Wellman’s Pub, 26 5th St N, Minneapolis | 612.659.9000

Tricia Cornell / Heavy Table

• Sea Salt, 4801 Minnehaha Ave S, Minneapolis | 612.721.8990
• Hajime Japanese, 10950 Club W Parkway NE, Blaine | 763.780.7944
• Sparks, 230 Cedar Lake Rd S, Minneapolis | 612.259.8943
• Harriet Brewing Taproom, 3036 Minnehaha Ave, Minneapolis | 612.225.2184
• Bullwinkle Saloon, 1429 Washington Ave S, Minneapolis | 612.338.2855
• Ze’s Diner, 3448 Denmark Ave, Eagan | 612.207.6793

CLOSED / CLOSING:

• Mill City Cafe, 2205 California St NE, Minneapolis. Closing May 27; planning to open in new location. | 612.788.6188
• Coffee Gallery, 1011 Washington Ave S, Minneapolis. Closing this spring. | 612.215.2626
• Viva Brazil, 913 W Lake St, Minneapolis
• Tschida Bakery, 1116 Rice St, St. Paul
• Chai’s Thai, 414 1/2 Cedar Ave S, Minneapolis
• Minnehaha Coffee, 4554 Minnehaha Ave, Minneapolis
• Jack’s, 818 W 46th St, Minneapolis
• Risotto, 610 W Lake St, Minneapolis
• Royal Orchid, 625 Marquette Ave (skyway), Minneapolis
• Acropol Inn, 748 Grand Ave, St. Paul
• Caribe, 791 Raymond Ave, St. Paul
• Nick and Eddie, 1612 Harmon Pl, Minneapolis

COMING UP:
Minneapolis

• Maruso Street Food and Cocktails, 715 Hennepin Ave, Minneapolis | 612.333.0100
• Somos Peru, 6009 Nicollet Ave S, Minneapolis. Opens in May. | 612.244.3400
• Azia Market Bar & Restaurant, 2550 Nicollet Ave S, Minneapolis | 612.813.1200
• Rincon 38, 3801 Grand Ave S, Minneapolis. Opens this spring. | 612.408.7063
• Well Seasoned, 920 E Lake St, Minneapolis (Midtown Global Market). Opens this spring. | 612.886.2489
• Cowboy Jack’s, 126 5th St N, Minneapolis. Opens this spring.
• Icehouse, 2528 Nicollet Ave, Minneapolis. Opens June 7.
• J.J.’s Coffee Company & Wine Bar, 1800 W Lake St, Minneapolis. Opens this spring.
• Little Tijuana, 17 E 26th St, Minneapolis. Reopening this spring. | 612.872.0578
• Cafe Maude at Loring, 1612 Harmon Pl, Minneapolis
• Bar Louie, 1320 Lagoon Ave, Minneapolis. Opens this spring.
• Birdhouse, 2516 Hennepin Ave S, Minneapolis. Opens this spring. | 612.377.2213
• Northbound Smokehouse and Brewpub, 2724 E 38th St, Minneapolis. Opens this summer. | 612.328.1450
• Wings N Things, 324 West Broadway, Minneapolis. Opens this summer. | 612.735.0637
• Smack Shack, Washington Ave N and 6th Ave N, Minneapolis. Opens this summer.
• El Burrito Mercado, 920 E Lake St, Minneapolis (Midtown Global Market). Opens in June.
• People’s Organic, IDS Center Crystal Court, Minneapolis. Opens July 2.
• Blue Door Pub, 3448 42nd Ave S, Minneapolis. Opens in August.
• The Pourhouse, 10 5th St S, Minneapolis. Opens this summer.
• New Bohemia, 233 E Hennepin Ave, Minneapolis
• Primebar, 3001 Hennepin Ave S, Minneapolis
• Indeed Brewing, 711 15th Ave NE, Minneapolis. Opens this summer. | 612.643.1226
• Tangiers Eatery and Lounge, 1st St N, Minneapolis. Opens in September.
• New Don Saunders restaurant, 2115 W 21st St (old Kenwood Cafe), Minneapolis
• Dangerous Man Brewing, 1300 2nd St NE, Minneapolis | 612.377.4164
• The Original Just Turkey Restaurant, 3758 Nicollet Ave S, Minneapolis
• Rusty Taco, 522 E Hennepin Ave, Minneapolis
• Alley Sports Tavern, 100 6th St N, Minneapolis
• Yogurt Lab, 80 8th St S, Minneapolis (IDS Center skyway)
• Moonlight Cafe, 1907 Nicollet Ave, Minneapolis
• Dilla’s Ethiopian Restaurant, 1813 Riverside Ave, Minneapolis
• Unnamed rooftop restaurant in old Shinders, 733 Hennepin Ave, Minneapolis
• Unnamed Kim Bartmann restaurant, 1014 E 38th St, Minneapolis
• Burch, 1942 Hennepin Ave, Minneapolis. Isaac Becker’s planned steakhouse in old Burch Pharmacy; opens in late 2012 / early 2013.
• :D-Spot, Dinkytown, Minneapolis
• Burger Night, Minneapolis. Still looking for location. | 612.217.0102
• Humble Pie, 822 W 36th St., Minneapolis. Kim Bartmann’s revamp of Gigi’s. | 612.825.0818
• Rocky and Shem’s Ice Cream Shoppe, 56th St and Chicago Ave, Minneapolis. Opens late 2012 / early 2013.

St. Paul

• Cupcake, 949 Grand Ave, St. Paul. Opens this summer.
• TruBerry Frozen Yogurt, 949 Grand Ave, St. Paul. Opens this summer.
• La Loma, Town Square skyway (6th St and Cedar St), St. Paul. Opens this summer.
• Bon Vie Cafe / A Piece of Cake, combining later this spring at 485 Selby Ave, St. Paul | 651.846.0016
• Cossetta’s, 211 7th St W, St. Paul. Existing market opening new rooftop restaurant; opens this summer. | 651.222.3476
• Blood and Chocolates, 495 Selby Ave, St. Paul. Opens in 2012. | 651.492.4799
• Damera Ethiopian Bar & Restaurant, 823 University Ave, St. Paul
• Chopstiks Cafe, 501 University Ave, St. Paul

Greater Twin Cities Area

• Ike’s, 17805 Hwy 7, Minnetonka. Opens this spring.
• Sweet Ducky Cupcakery, 117 W Churchill St #2, Stillwater. Opens this spring. | 651.472.1150
• Masu Sushi & Robata, Mall of America. Opens this spring.
• Byblos Lebanese Grill, 14637 County Rd 11, Burnsville | 612.327.3663
• Giuseppe’s, 15090 Chippendale Ave, Rosemount (moving from former location nearby)
• Excelsior Brewing Company, 421 3rd St, Excelsior. Beers available on tap this summer. | 952.474.7837
• Pizza Luce, 800 W 66th St, Richfield. Opens in June.
• Tavern Grill, 772 Bielenberg Dr, Woodbury. Opens June 5.
• Spice Thai Cafe, 7704 160th St, Lakeville. Opens in June.
• Nadia Cakes, 11650 Fountains Dr, Suite 207, Maple Grove. Opens in July.
• Candyland, 212 N Main St, Stillwater. Opens this summer.
• Sole Mio, 1750 Weir Dr, Woodbury. Opens in July.
• Moe’s Southwest Grill, Penn Ave S and American Blvd, Bloomington. Opens in August.
• Bread, Coffee & Cake, 750 Minnesota 110, Mendota Heights. Opens in August.
• Hurricane Grill & Wings, Burnsville. Opens in October.
• Raku Modern Japanese Cuisine, 5371 W 16th St (Shops at West End), St. Louis Park. Opens this summer.
• Ruze Bakery and Lounge, 4669 Lakeland Ave N, Robbinsdale

The Tap is the Heavy Table’s guide to area restaurant openings, closings, and other major events. The Tap is compiled and published biweekly by Heavy Table writer Jason Walker. If you have tips for The Tap, please email Jason at

Becca Dilley / Heavy Table

A man cannot live on food and writing alone, which is why I also play a regular game of poker. And thanks to the ancient affinity between cards and booze, our group has turned into an informal beer club. We bring beers from across the state, country, and world to each game in bombers, bottles, cans, and growlers.

Last week we gathered together a group of players (including Heavy Table contributors John Garland and Jason Walker) to put Summit Brewing’s two newest offerings through their paces.

The first was Summer Ale, a summer seasonal with 4.9% ABV and 32 IBU that the brewery described as a “new take on a classic German Kölsch: a crisp, refreshing brew offering elegant fruity and flora aromas and toasted malt qualities.” It replaces Summit’s Hefe Weizen as the brewery’s summer seasonal.

The second was Saga IPA, a year-round release that clocks in at 6.4% ABV with 80 IBU. The brewery calls it “an assertive brew with a pronounced hop flavor and tropical fruit aromas.” [CORRECTION: We erroneously stated that Saga had replaced the Hefe Weizen.]

Becca Dilley / Heavy Table

KARSTEN: Let’s start out with Texas Hold ‘Em. Simple.

JAMES: Ante? Blinds?

KARSTEN: We might want to do blinds, with this many people.

JAMES: OK, blinds. Once we get the flop we’ll pour some samples and talk some beer.

DAVE [raising before the flop]: I’m gonna raise.

JAMES: COME ON.

DAVE: Come on what?

JAMES: You’re allowed to raise, I’m allowed to give you [guff]. OK, anyway, let’s pour the Summer Ale.

Becca Dilley / Heavy Table

[samples go around the table]

JOHN: I’m bored. This beer bores me.

JAMES: What bores you about it?

JOHN: It’s too light — there’s not enough body, it’s not as substantial as the rest of their beers. I know it’s a Summer Ale, but it tastes like carbonation is the main driving flavor component.

KEVIN: It’s pretty weak. I taste carrot undertones from the carrot I ate five minutes ago…

JASON: I’m not hateful. It feels like on a hot day it’d be nice. I like it when breweries do beers like this that aren’t trying to hit you over the head with something. That said, I’m not sure I’d buy this and feel like I’d gotten value.

Becca Dilley / Heavy Table

JAMES: I would worry about the value prospect, but I like the balance, and I’m tasting a little bit of astringency … I really feel like if I’d just mowed the lawn I could pound one of these and really enjoy it.

I know that sounds like faint praise, but there’s really a place for that kind of beer. This is not my new favorite beer, but also I respect it and I understand it.

KARSTEN: In the context of it being a Summer Ale, it’s OK, but it’s probably not much more than that. I agree that it’d be good to pound after mowing the lawn, but it’s not a craving that a PBR couldn’t satisfy. And the value proposition is probably not there …

DAVE: I’m with all that. The first thing I tasted was that drinkability, but there’s a bitter edge that feels a little out of place if you’re going to be chugging something. Which I love to do.

JOHN: I feel like there are brands I know and look for when I’m looking for a sessionable beer, and Summit’s not one of them.

JAMES: So it’s kind of out of character for the brewery.

JOHN: I’d say so.

KARSTEN: The bitter quality wasn’t really an issue for me, because of the European palate for this kind of beer … it reminds me of a European-style Pilsner. But it doesn’t have the body that a European-style Pilsner would have.

JAMES: Well, let’s try the Saga IPA and see how that goes down.

Becca Dilley / Heavy Table

[more samples go around]

KARSTEN: I’d call this an easy-drinking IPA. It doesn’t hit you over the head. It is nice and balanced, but I’d also put it into the easy-drinking category.

DAVE: I’d like a little more body in my IPA.

JAMES: I like the balance — I don’t like my IPAs to be palate-destroyingly astringent, and this isn’t.

JOHN: It find it interesting, the hops on this — you smell it, you taste it right away, and then 30 seconds after I taste it, I’m still tasting that exact same hops flavor.

KEVIN: It’s good. But I guess when I go for an IPA, I go for something stronger. I like the [Summit] Horizon Red better than this.

Becca Dilley / Heavy Table

JAMES: The Horizon Red’s really good.

JASON: I agree with you, Jim, that I don’t always want something strong in an IPA, and given that it’s Summit, I might just by it for that reason. It’s going to be good.

JAMES: I think maybe what’s going on here with these two beers is that Summit is aiming at where the mass market is going. Which is people want to try something a little different, they want to try an IPA, but they don’t actually want what the craft brewers and micro brewers are bringing, so this is a really nice halfway strep between popular macro brew swill and incredibly intense, crush-your-palate specialist beer.

Becca Dilley / Heavy Table

And maybe if all of us are into the extreme beers, these beers will taste like, “Eh, you’re not really bringing your A-game,” but if you’re coming at it from a Grain Belt Premium perspective, it’s like, “Oh, wow, there’s a lot going on here, but I can handle it.”

JOHN: The taste that I’m picking up is that the hops are a little more piney and resin-y, whereas their normal IPA is just more acidic all around. This is a little more biting — it’s not more hops, but it’s a more biting hops quality to it.

JAMES: Piney and resin-y are two good adjectives for it. One, they’re cool adjectives, and two, I am getting kind of a “northern forest walkabout” feel from it, which I like. And I think also that really suits the branding of it, with that Norse mythology thing going on.

KEVIN: The other thing, too: The package has the hops and malts statistics on it. I’m not an expert on hops and malts and but I feel like they’re setting expectations too high here.

JAMES: You’re not getting a multi-layered symphony of flavor?

JASON: This is not the beer you need those statistics for.

KARSTEN: They’re definitely catering to the craft beer crowd, while the Summer Ale is the easy drinking, very vanilla summer ale.

JAMES: Anything else anyone wants to say before I shut the recorder off and we can actually enjoy ourselves and drink beer and play cards?

[a tumbleweed blows across the table]

JAMES: Boom.

Becca Dilley / Heavy Table

Kim Ode asserts that rhubarb is having its moment.

While this might be a convenient position for a person with a newly released book called Rhubarb Renaissance (MNHS Press, $16.95), it’s also one that sustains scrutiny — not only is rhubarb gloriously in season at the moment, it’s having a resurgence on the menus of Upper Midwestern restaurants that are scanning their own backyards for ingredients with a connection to the local landscape.

Just two examples: On a recent visit to The Bachelor Farmer, we enjoyed the bright bite of pickled rhubarb in a dish of roasted pork belly, sunny side up pheasant egg, and pea shoots; and The Black Forest Inn is featuring an asparagus and rhubarb strudel as part of its Spargelfest menu [PDF].

“Chefs are looking across the horizon and asking, ‘What aren’t we using?’” says Ode, who is also the author of Baking With the St. Paul Bread Club and a features writer for the Star Tribune. “And local local, of course — there are things we’ve discarded here, in Minnesota, as too homely and corny.” “Bebop-a-rebop, rhubarb pie,” she adds, a convenient musical shorthand for the tart vegetable’s humble status.

Becca Dilley / Heavy Table

We recently joined Ode and her husband, woodworker and photographer John Danicic,  in their Morningside home for a five-course meal of rhubarb. A rhubarb feast may sound at first hearing like an awful lot of the fibrous red stuff, but it really wasn’t — the meal had a sense of flow, progress, and even drama. And therein lies the story.

We kicked off our meal in the kitchen, with a prosecco cocktail spiked with a sweet / tart rhubarb base, and noshed upon rows of gorgeous crostini with goat cheese, prosciutto, and rhubarb chutney.

“Rhubarb is just such a good foundation for a chutney,” Ode says. “With a lot of chutneys, there’s so much going on that it just becomes … a chutney. You can’t identify it as a, say, blueberry chutney. So the first time I did it, I completely lost the rhubarb. So I bumped it up.”

Becca Dilley / Heavy Table

The result is a talented supporting player on a stage filled with stars: “There are your chutney flavors, a little goat cheese and cream cheese combined to take a bit of the edge off the goat, and then prosciutto because… it’s prosciutto,” Ode says. (She then points out that the stuff she’s using is made in Iowa, by La Quercia.)

Like the rest of the elegant-with-a-twist recipes in Rhubarb Renaissance, the crostini were simple to assemble, and had an admirable sense of balance. They were creamy and crunchy, bright and salty — flavors and textures pulling at one another but ultimately in harmony. That rhubarb can be both savory and multidimensional may come as a surprise to some readers, but that idea is really at the heart of Ode’s book; while Rhubarb Renaissance features dessert recipes (including one of the best sweet-tart crisps we’ve tried in years), desserts are somewhat beside the point.

Ode recalls: “When [Minnesota Historical Society Press] said: ‘Can you do rhubarb?’ I said ‘I know rhubarb.’ Then they said: ‘Well, what we’d really like to do is explore the savory side.’ And I said: ‘What savory side?’ That’s where it took my out of the church cookbook upbringing and caused me to ask: “Well, what can you do with it?’”

Becca Dilley / Heavy Table

Here are a few of the recipes from the book that illustrate what you can do with it:

Spiced Rhubarb-Squash Ravioli
Good Medicine Lettuce Wraps
Halibut Skewers with Mango-Rhubarb Salsa
and Shrimp in Kimonos

These last items were one of the reasons I felt personally motivated to explore and review Ode’s book, so when the wok came out and Ode began enrobing shrimp with wonton wrappers and scoops of a savory rhubarb compote, I got the distinct feeling that I was in the right place at the right time.

Shrimp in Kimonos are absurdly fun, a novelty dish that tastes delicious: Fried in canola until crisp, the wonton wrappers contain a symphony of flavor that draws up the seafood’s natural sweetness and the rhubarb’s compensatory brightness, with the crunch of the fried wrapper rebounding off the tenderness of the shrimp.

Becca Dilley / Heavy Table

“I had seen a recipe for wonton-wrapped shrimp, and that was all they were, shrimp wrapped in wontons, served with a sauce,” says Ode. “I had discovered — it was kind of intuition — that sweet seafood would complement a tart ingredient. Lemon and fish. So then the question was, what kind of compote you want to come up with.”

“I wanted to do some herbs with this one: rosemary, and ginger because ginger and rhubarb are just good … I fiddled with that. It was one of those recipes that we hit it on the first time.”

“You changed the shrimp size,” corrects her husband, John.

Ode nods. “You find the right-sized shrimp that works with the proportions of a wonton wrapper,” she says. That turned out to be 20- to 25-count shrimp, smaller than the Costco behemoths Ode had originally tried.

Becca Dilley / Heavy Table

Along with the shrimp, which were substantial without being heavy, dinner includes a remarkably balanced (again, that word, but that’s the key here) and light-on-its feet salad of confetti-ed kale, rhubarb, and candied walnuts and a showstopping dessert: rhubarb meringue tassies. Ode describes them in her book as “a perfect exclamation point to a summer meal on the porch,” and that’s how we found them, too.

Becca Dilley / Heavy Table

The tassies are just the thing to inspire awe in a dinner guest: They present themselves with martial flair, a platoon of tiny cups shaped from cream cheese crust filled with rhubarb curd and wearing perfect miniature helmets shaped from meringue.

It’s no coincidence that we didn’t end the meal with a classic strawberry-rhubarb pie — Ode struggled with that classic pairing as she sought to write a book that took rhubarb in a new direction.

“My initial impulse was to put my foot down and make it a strawberry-free book,” she recalls. “But I was persuaded that I should have one recipe in there because people were going to go to the index and ‘riffriffriff’ look for strawberry-rhubarb. So there is a recipe for strawberry rhubarb pie in there, but because strawberries take to balsamic vinegar so well, there’s a big dose of balsamic in there which kind of savories it a bit.”

When asked what sort of reader she’d written the book for, Ode pauses, and then replies: “I wrote it for my generation and the one below me that has grown up with rhubarb as cobblers and crisps, but have discovered that there are other ways to treat food. I wanted to surprise people who think they know about rhubarb.

“People will go: ‘Wow, I’ve never had rhubarb like this.’”

Becca Dilley / Heavy Table

Kim Ode will host a lightly catered conversation featuring herself and authors Brett Laidlaw (Trout Caviar: Recipes from a Northern Forager) and Beth Dooley (The Northern Heartland Kitchen) next month. It takes place Monday, June 18, from 7-8 pm in the Barnes & Noble Galleria Store, 3225 W. 69th St. in Edina.

Rhubarb Meringue Tassies
from Rhubarb Renaissance by Kim Ode

These bite-size treats need to be baked the same day you plan to serve them, although the curd and dough can be made several days ahead of time. The results provide a perfect exclamation point to a summer meal on the porch. You’ll need a mini-muffin pan for these cookies. Makes 24 cookies.

Crust:

Becca Dilley / Heavy Table

1 ¼ cups flour
1 tablespoon sugar
pinch salt
8 tablespoons (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut in small pieces
4 ounces cold cream cheese, cut in small pieces
1 recipe Rhubarb Curd (below)

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, and salt. With a pastry blender or your fingers, work the butter into the flour until the butter is evenly distributed in pea-sized clumps. Add the cream cheese and continue to mix the dough until it begins to come together in a mass. Knead in the bowl, squeezing and pressing until you have a ball of dough. Turn out onto a counter and press into a thick disk. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour and up to 2 days.

To make the tassies, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Remove the dough from the refrigerator. Cut or pinch off a piece of dough about the size of a large grape and roll it into a ball. Press the dough into a mini-muffin cup, making sure the bottom isn’t too thin and shaping the sides so they’re level with the pan. Fill each cup with about 1 teaspoon rhubarb curd. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the pastry is golden and firm around the edges.

While the tassies are baking, make the meringue.

Meringue:

2 egg whites
½ teaspoon cream of tartar
pinch salt
½ cup sugar
¼ teaspoon vanilla

In bowl of a standing mixer, beat egg whites, cream of tartar, and salt on medium-high speed until frothy and the beater begins to leave a path. Begin adding sugar one spoonful at a time, slowly but steadily, until meringue holds a stiff peak when beaters are lifted. Add vanilla and mix until just combined.

After the tassies are baked, reduce the oven heat to 325 degrees. Top each warm tassie with a dollop of meringue or use a pastry bag to pipe a swirl onto each cookie. Bake for 10 minutes, or until meringue begins to color and set. Using a fork, carefully lift each tassie and place it on a wire rack to cool. Serve at once, or refrigerate the tassies until serving time.

Rhubarb Curd:

Like the more traditional lemon curd, this rhubarb variation can be used in a variety of ways. It’s great on warm scones or toast or dolloped alongside a slice of angel food cake or on a bowlful of fresh strawberries. But if you want to fuss a bit, it’s fabulous spread between crepes for a stacked cake or used to fill bite-size rhubarb tassies. Those recipes follow. Makes about 1 ½ cups.

2 ½ cups rhubarb, cut in half-inch pieces
⅓  cup plus ½ cup sugar, divided
⅓  cup cranberry juice
4 egg yolks
pinch salt
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut in four pieces

Combine rhubarb, ⅓ cup sugar, and cranberry juice in a saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until rhubarb breaks down into a sauce, about 10 minutes. Set aside.

Bring about 2 inches of water to a boil in a saucepan over which a medium bowl will fit. While the water is heating, whisk together the egg yolks, remaining ½ cup sugar, and salt in a medium bowl. Reduce heat to keep the water at a simmer and place the bowl over the saucepan, whisking constantly until the yolk mixture begins to thicken.

When the yolks are quite warm, whisk in the rhubarb mixture, stirring constantly until the mixture thickens. Add the butter a piece at a time, mixing well, then set aside to cool. Refrigerate for up to a week.

Owners Natalie and Josh Kelly; My Minnesota Farmer peppers & cucumbers; Bossy Acres Sunflower Shoots

An online farmers market makes access to local foods easier for Twin Cities’ customers

Serious locavores make a lot of effort to buy from their favorite farmers and discover those uniquely regional specialties that make eating locally so enjoyable. While it is easier to procure your weekly farm rations in Minnesota compared to many parts of the country, Minnesotans endure long winter months without fresh local vegetables. The limited number of winter markets, however, doesn’t mean farmers in the area aren’t working. There are still cows, sheep, and goats to milk, and chickens that lay eggs.

Natalie and Josh Kelly started Twin Cities Local Food to help make sourcing food from local farms a little bit easier. Twin Cities Local Food is in an online farmer’s market that lets local farms using sustainable agricultural practices market their products directly to customers in the Twin Cities, all year. The business was born out of the couple’s desire for access to more local food in the winter months and the challenge of coordinating on-farm purchases. Even though locally grown foods are becoming more abundant in markets and coops, there’s a growing segment of the community that gets a lot of satisfaction in buying directly from the farm.

While the internet limits personal connection of buying at a market, the Twin Cities Local Food web site allows farmers to describe their farm and explain their practices, so conscientious customers can make informed decisions about the food they purchase. The web site offers a variety of fresh, seasonal produce, grass fed meats, dairy, eggs, honey and some unique Minnesota finds like camelina and sunflower oils. Twin Cities Local Food even has fresh milled, whole grains that are grown and milled on the same organic farm. Try figuring out what farm grew your flour in a bag at the supermarket.

Twin Cities Local Food offers the convenience of shopping online. Customers are able to shop from Friday through Wednesday morning, and pick up purchases on Thursday afternoon.  There are currently pickup locations in South Minneapolis and in Savage. Twin Cities Local Food plans to serve areas throughout the Twin Cities as the business grows.

According to Natalie Kelly, co-owner of Twin Cities Local Food, “We think Minnesota farmers are doing some great things for the local food community, and we’re excited to be able to offer them another venue to show off.” Natalie and her business partner / husband, Josh, also think the service can benefit the community by providing more economic sustainability for local farms, and giving customers access to healthier, tastier, and minimally processed foods.

For more information, visit the web site at www.twincitieslocalfood.com.

Susan Pagani / Heavy Table

A tasty nut is a fuel for all things. Like a loyal pet, this small but satisfying portion of protein tucks neatly into our pockets while we adventure outdoors, stays piled at our elbow while we work, and provides a natural complement — and ballast — to our beer while we relax. Lately, our nut of choice has been Barsy’s Almonds “Smokies,” a combination of soy sauce, hickory, and brewers yeast on a roasted almond so addictive that, although we buy them in bulk, they have to be hidden around the house in small quantities so that certain people do not consume the entirety in one sitting.

Barsy’s Almonds are produced by Minneapolis locals Barbara Spenader and Jason Hendrycks. Like many a small-batch food project, Smokies were originally created to be given out as Christmas gifts. “I found a recipe for smoked almonds,” says Spenader, “and I thought, ‘Well, I can do that — and do it better.’ So I started tinkering. The Smokies recipe doesn’t bear any relation to the original, but that was what made me want to see if I could do it.”

Susan Pagani / Heavy Table

Needless to say, friends and relatives went nuts for the savory holiday treat. At that time, Spenader and Hendrycks, good friends as well as business partners, were both working in the creative department of a mail order company. They spent their lunch breaks walking around the neighborhood, talking about how great it would be to start their own company. When people started telling them to sell the nuts, they took it as a sign.

In 2008, they introduced Smokies at the Midtown Farmers Market, where they were warmly received. Soon, the kind people of Corcoran neighborhood were offering up suggestions for new flavors. “They’d say, ‘How about something with cinnamon?’ and we’d try to come up with something familiar, but a little more exotic,” says Spenader.

Recipe development at Barsy’s is a slow and painstaking process, sometimes months of trial and error. Neither Spenader nor Hendryks have any professional cooking experience to draw upon, almonds can be a challenging medium — and then there are the parameters they’ve set for themselves: “We never add preservatives or fats,” Spenader says, “we cook them lighter than you’d find in something at the drugstore, and they have to be dry enough to store, but we also have to find ways to keep the ingredients on because we don’t have fat to deliver that flavor.”

Susan Pagani / Heavy Table

So far, in addition to the Smokies, they’ve successfully created two more savories — Hotties and Stuffies — and a couple of sweets aptly named Sweeties and Naughties. The team is currently working on a cumin and garlic almond and something Spenader calls the “double almond,” an intense combination of vanilla and almond flavors. And there’s a honey mustard project that has them both completely stymied: “It’s so easy for it to turn bitter — we can’t seem to stop it from tasting like a like a vitamin capsule came open, which is not the effect we’re looking for!” Spenader says. “The stuff you buy in the store is made with a creepy powder. We don’t want to do that — we want to use real mustard and horseradish.”

Spenader and Hendryks are experimenting with other nut varieties that can be grown locally. Sunflower seeds are easy to source from  Minnesota or the Dakotas, but roast so quickly they present a whole new set of challenges. “We’re also looking at hazelnuts,” says Spenader, “but the hazelnut industry is just beginning here. We would need for it to mature to the point where we could get consistent availability and size. But we’re watching it closely — I think we’re going to plant hazelnuts in the yard and see how it goes.”

In the meantime, there are the existing five flavors, which are a fine snack on their own or paired with beer, hard cider, and root beer, as we have done here.

Susan Pagani / Heavy Table

Hotties
Hotties taste of really good barbecue, spicy hot with plenty of smoke, a flash of vinegar, and a lingering sweetness. We like a handful with the fresh, lightly sweet, and peppery Saison Nourrice from Harriet Brewing — though the two do seem to bring out the hot in one another. If you prefer to downplay the spice, you might like the Crispin Cider Lansdowne, which smooths down the heat with mellow fruit and a subtle sweetness that reminds us of graham crackers (in a good way).

Naughties
Naughties combine a dusting of chocolate and cinnamon with the zing of cayenne pepper, just the thing for a late afternoon snack. They make a brilliant couple with Brau Brothers Moo Joos, a dreamy oatmeal milk stout. The almond rounds out the beer’s chocolate and coffee flavors and smooths over the bittersweet notes.

Susan Pagani / Heavy Table

Smokies
The salt, yeast, and smoke of these almonds pair well with many a fermented beer, but we like it best with sweet, smooth root beer. We recently had the opportunity to try Smokies with Dorothy’s Isle of Pines Root Beer — famous for having been boiled in her giant kettle and served to folks paddling past her cabin in the Boundary Waters throughout the middle of the last century — which has a pleasantly unexceptional flavor and goes down easy on account of low carbonation. One day, we will decant the root beer, take it and the Smokies in our canoe, and relive the magic.

Stuffies
If you do not favor smoke, Stuffies may be the savory choice for you. They combine sage and onion, a flavor that goes quite nicely with sweet Schell’s Maifest , which tastes fruity — sometimes citrus, sometimes banana. If that is out of season, try Rush River Small Axe Golden Ale. It smells a bit like grass and has a light, crisp flavor that only enhances Stuffies’ herby charm. This is the stuff of summer.

Sweeties
If it were a good idea to drink beer in the morning, we would combine a Surly Coffee Bender with Sweeties. These almonds are coated in East Indian spices, so that they taste like creamy chai-spiced tea and black pepper. In tandem with the smooth, cold-press coffee flavors of the Bender, they are pretty much heaven.

Buying notes: Barsy’s Almonds are no longer available at Twin Cities farmers markets, but you can find them at many of the local co-ops and grocery stores — and, if traveling, in 10 other states. Prices vary ($3-$4 per 4oz). 

Becca Dilley / Heavy Table

Anyone who knows a bit about gardening or can find their way around a farmer’s market knows that a tomato is not a tomato is not a tomato — they vary in terms of size, flavor, lifespan, and so forth. Bushel Boy Farms, the Owatonna-based grower that puts fresh tomatoes on local shelves on a year-round basis, have begun marketing a new variety of tomato: bigger, supposedly more “fresh-from-the-garden”-tasting Bubba tomatoes.

Becca Dilley / Heavy Table

The first thing we noticed upon approaching our Bubba samples were that they had the fragrance of garden tomatoes — they were redolent with the volatile compounds that makes tomatoes smell, well, so tomato-y. It was a welcome change from the standard-issue store tomato, and a sign of what was to come: Bubbas pack moderate but noticeable flavor, and are not merely crispy and wet, nor hard and fibrous as some durable but unpleasant store tomatoes tend to be. In terms of their innards, Bubbas are a deep, consistent red with evenly distributed seeds.

According to Bushel Boy, the tomatoes vary from $2-3 a pound this time of year, priced similarly to other Bushel Boy vine-ons. They also last about as long on the shelf.