Pizza Luce

The 'misses had to work until 9, and I was busy also, so I ordered up some wings from the Pizza Luce on Selby. We have enjoyed there wings before, so I got the spicy buffalo with bleu cheese and the spicy peking with peanut dipping sauce. We also had a bunch of beers leftover from the big birthday party weekend, so we each grabbed our favorites to get right down to wing-eating.

The peking wings are very flavorful and not really that spicy, and the extra pineapple are great. The buffalo wings are also good, a little spicier, but still not too spicy. If you haven't ever had New Glarus spotted cow, head across the border and grab some. Super good. Overall, a great night in.

'Ol Mexico

Due to a really busy weekend, and no time to grocery shop, we decided to head over to Roseville to grab supper on sunday night at 'Ol Mexico. We have gone here quite a bit, and while there are other mexican restaurants that we like a lot more, there is a sentimental feeling going here, as it was one of the first places my fiance and I went to when we started dating.  

Complimentory chips and salsa

We have always ordered the steak and shrimp fajitas, which have generally been good, and there is a large amount served. It has never been one of those places that we talk about with our friends; more like a spot that we go when we just get that craving for fajitas.

However, since we want to be completely unbias, I would have to say that sunday's experience was less than positive. Service was slow, even though it wasn't busy, and on my order of fajitas, the shrimp were still cold. There were also broken chips on the floor next to our table the entire time, even though 3 different servers walked by 10+ times. Given that we have been to 'Ol Mexico many times, I would overlook some things since we enjoy the nostalgic feelings of going here. However, in order to be subjective and honest, if this was my first experience at 'Ol Mexico, I don't think I would go back.

Birchwood Cafe

In need of some "recovery food" after a terrific birthday party night, we headed over to the Seward neighborhood for some good, real food at the Birchwood Cafe. If you haven't made it over to Birchwood beefore, its a treat. Its embedded within the residential area, (with some really lucky neighbors) and they definately know how to draw a crowd.

Double shot mocha and black iced tea

We ordered a Brisket Benedict (with flavored hollandaise, veggies and herbs on a housemade cornbread-black bean scone) with greens & garlic basil vinaigrette, and the Zucchini & Ricotta Buckwheat Waffle (with huge chunks of bacon lardoons, egg, cucumber melon salsa, mint almond butter and Wood's maple syrup sprinkled with powdered sugar).

Brisket Benedict

Zucchini & Ricotta Buckwheat Waffle

The brisket benedict was good, (especially the cornbread scone) but the waffle was ridiculous. Loved it. It was light and had great flavor, with each section of it having its own topping. The cucumber melon salsa was wild, with a very fresh and completely unique flavor. As usual, everything was super-fresh and really hit the spot. Success.

Caffe Biaggio

Since it's the 'misses B-day weekend and we really needed some excuse to go out for dinner, we figured we would take a short walk over to a neighborhood restaurant, Caffe Biaggio. We have gone here several times, and its a great spot for "simple, country Italian."  You get a basket of bagettes, and we had a cup of creamy tomato basil. Its rich and creamy,with chunks of tomato and fresh mozarella.

Spaghetti ala Carbonara

I ordered the spaghetti ala carbonara (made with sauteed pancetta, eggs, heavy cream & romano), which was excellent. The cream and pancetta played off of eachother quite well, with neither overpowering the other. We also ordered the grass-fed, prime top sirloin with mushrooms & roasted potatoes. Its worth it, and the quality of the meat is evident. I felt like the mushrooms and potatoes weren't really anything too special, but the sirloin made up for it.

  

Sirloin

Gotta love the short days and cold air.

Slackin' off with some shrimp

Well, things have been pretty busy this week, and we have been neglecting our true food blogger responsibilities. Made up some super healthy shrimp (please sense the sarcasm) and cheesy baked potato and onions. And yes, that is ranch. Don't judge.

Lazy lunch

Since we ended up meeting friends and going to St.Anthony Main on Friday night, we made the huge t-bone steaks that we had put in the fridge, and had them for "brunch" on Saturday. Meat from a family-memebers farm, potatoes from my grandpas garden (mine with red pepper and jalepenos), and fresh onions, all fired up on the grill and tasting pretty damn good. Nothing like feeling like a complete gluton at 10:30 in the morning.

We had an unusual weekend, in that for two nights in a row, we were meeting up with friends and going out to b-day parties. We had an exceptionally fun time, and I wish we would have had our camera to take some pics of some of the amazing fried food that one of our friend's parents made. They went above and beyond, making everything from deep fried cheese curds (out of this world) and onion rings, to sweet potato and waffle fries, and some really good deep fried fish. It was super nice of them to cook up all of this food for a ton of people, and it was so good.

Back to the Bulldog

So, in an effort to confirm if Bulldog NE really had the best burger of the summer, we were pretty much obligated to go back. We went on a Thursday night, which offered a slightly more lively and festive atmosphere than the previous visit. It struck a very good balance, being busy, but not so loud that you couldn't carry on a conversation. We were able to get a table right away, and our server was very friendly and got our orders in quickly, even though she obviously had a lot of tables.

We placed and order for some nachos, which were excellent. We especially loved how the chips were toasted on the edges, but still soft and flexible under the cheese.

The Rooster

The Chimay

We odered two burgers, the Rooster and the Chimay burger. The Rooster (Sriracha glaze, housemade sweet pickles, roasted garlic aioli, pepperjack cheese), which we had before, and once again, yes, this is the best burger I have had all summer. The glaze on it is awesome, and they have the medium-rare down just right. The Chimay was also excellent, with Chimay beer cheese, Chimay beer mayo, red onion, and romaine on a Brioche bun. Surprisingly, the bun itself struck me as exceptionally good. We always get our burgers medium-rare, and Bulldog NE is spot on. All around, a great place to get a burger, or many other items, with a friendly relaxed atmosphere in the heart of North East.

On's Kitchen Thai Cuisine

On's is amazing! This post has been a long time coming, as we have been going to On's ever since we moved to St.Paul back in May. If you based your favorite restaurants on the frequency of going to each, On's would be my top one by far. I think we have gone there, no kidding, over 25 times since mid-May. The food is amazingly fresh, super flavorful, and a great value.

A couple of the cream cheese wontons

Egg rolls

We have really had nothing but great experiences at On's. The service is great; always friendly and prompt. The menu is huge, and we have yet to even make it past the third page. We have had around 15 different dishes, and each one has been very good. Think we may have to try some of the curries soon. Some of our favorites have been the Pad Thai, the pineapple fried rice (try asking for it with the crab meat), and #70, the bacon, chiles, and thai basil with rice. They offer each dish at three different heat levels. Medium is pretty hot already, and unless you like really hot food, you probably want to steer clear of the hot.

My current favorite, #70.

Pad Thai

Pineapple fried rice with chicken

With the current light rail construction, On's Kitchen may seem like a hassle to get to. However, it will be well worth the trip, and supporting businesses like this is crucial if we want to be able enjoy them post-light rail construction.

Pizzeria Lola

Ok. So we have been waiting to go back to Pizzeria Lola for awhile now, just so we can try a couple new kinds of pizza, and hopefully spread the word on how awesome this pizza is. Since it was my future mother-in-law's birthday, we decided that it would be a great spot to take them for lunch.

The huge wood fired, copper Le Panyol oven

Pizzeria Lola is a very welcoming and cheery place, with the huge wood fired copper oven standing as the focal point in the center. Just sitting down here makes you smile, especially if you know what's coming next. Yes, that's right. The pizza.

We have had 4 or 5 different kinds of pizza here before, so we wanted to try a couple new ones, as well as some that we really liked from before. I ended up ordering the Lady Zaza (with house-made Korean sausage with kimchi, serrano peppers, soy chili glaze, scallions & sesame oil), which is amazing. My fiance got the Margherita (Italian red sauce, fior di latte, olive oil & fresh basil), while my future in laws got the Hawaii
Pie-O (Berkshire bacon, fresh pineapple, mozzarella & provolone) and the Sunnyside (La Quercia Guanciale, pecorino, cream, leeks & soft eggs). Everybody shared slices and they were all incredable.

The Lady Zaza

Hawaii Pie-O

Margherita and the Sunnyside

The Sunnyside

I especially liked the Sunnyside, with the La Quercia Guanciale (which we learned is similar to bacon, but taken from the cheek of the pig, with more fat and better flavor) adding huge amounts of flavor, with just the right amount of saltiness to balance with the cream, leaks and eggs.
Also, any trip to Pizzeria Lola would not be complete without some form of their house-made vanilla soft serve ice cream. We placed two orders of the vanilla soft serve with the extra-virgin olive oil & fleur de sel, and two orders of the root beer floats.

I am usually not a huge fan of ice cream with salt, but this stuff will blow your mind. Even my future mother-in-law, who is one of the most generous people I know, was unwilling to share her dish of ice cream. Yes, it's that good. The ice cream floats were also very good, with Virgil's root beer (which is like the real deal).

If it's just one of those days when you have a super bad craving for really, really good pizza and ice cream, or if your just hungry and don't know what you want, head over to Lola's for some food that will forever change the way you think of pizza.

Boiler Room Coffee

On the morning ride to Uptown

I had done some work over in the Stevens Square neighborhood a couple weeks ago, and had seen the sign for Boiler Room Coffee. I also love checking out coffee shops, and since I needed to run some errands over in Uptown,  I called my sister to meet up for coffee afterwords.

The Boiler Room is in a basement location, which in itself is very unique. The space is bright, open, and relaxing, and not what I originally expected when seeing it from the outside. We both got the el jefe dark roast coffee and some muffins. Both of them were very good.

However, even better than the atmosphere or the coffee was the service. I can't say enough how refreshing it is to go to a place and actually have service that is SO good that you want to tell other people about it. Michael, who I found out was the owner, was very friendly, professional and helpful, and I look forward to going back. This type of service is the kind that you wish for when you go to different places, and after experiencing mediocre to poor service at many other establishments throughout the cities, I was pleasantly surprised to have such exceptional service. I will most definately be going back, even though there are many closer and more convenient coffee shops to where I live. Nice job Michael.

Burger Break

It had been a fairly hectic week, and an even busier friday. We needed to run a couple quick errands, as well as make dinner. Being short on time and low on groceries, what better way to accomplish both than to run the errands and stop in at the Bulldog in NE. Having been to the Bulldog in Uptown several times, we figured this one would be very similar. To be honest, the Bulldog in NE is much nicer and more welcoming than the uptown location.

It is very bright and open, and their Rooster Burger (with Sriracha glaze, housemade sweet pickles, roasted garlic aioli, pepperjack cheese) is seriously the best burger I have had this summer. I make it a point to try out new burgers at different places, and this one was fantastic! We will definately be going back.

Dutch Oven Enchiladas

Since we have a pretty busy week scheduled out, we wanted to make some good food that would last for days. We have had great luck with these enchiladas since first making them about a year ago.

There is a heck of a lot of food, that is also great for leftovers. They are multi-layered with four types of peppers, red onions, hamburger, black beans, tomatoes with green chiles, enchilada sauce, and lots of cheese. All of this is surrounded and layered between small corn tortillas, which is then cooked in a deep cast iron dutch oven.

Supper for the week

Monday on Grand Ave

With both of us getting Labor Day off, and with no prior plans, we figured a relaxed lunch-time stroll on Grand would be nice. Plus, this always allows us to peruse the shops and restaurants to find the best fit for our current cravings. Today our cravings led us to Punch Pizza, which serves traditional Neapolitan pizza.

It is unique to many of the pizza spots we have been to, in that you order at the counter, wait five minutes max, and have a super fresh pizza brought to your table. They cook the pizzas in a wood fired oven at 800 degrees, and they only take 90 seconds.

We ordered a margherita extra, which has fresh mozzarella di bufala, crushed San Marzano tomatoes and Mount Vesuvio tomatoes, as well as the bruni, which is made with sausage, spiced salami, onions and oregano.

the bruni

margherita extra

Both pizzas tasted super fresh and very light, with a very thin, charred-bubbly crust. Since we were close, and could use the excuse that we were technically "exercising" by walking all up and down Grand, we decided to swing by Grand Ole Creamery. We ordered two waffle cones, one with smores ice cream, and another with mocha chip. Both were great, as usual.

Grand Ave was shockingly empty, and we had a  relaxing time walking around, enjoying the beautiful weather. Can't wait to check out more new spots this fall!