Vikings QB Tarvaris Jackson is not letting a little thing like being on his way out run him away from Minnesota.

Jackson was in a VIP section Saturday at Crave's private opening for its $5 million rooftop restaurant, a few stair steps up from the main restaurant on the second floor of LaSalle Plaza in Minneapolis. It's where Palomino, which had no rooftop area, was located.

More than 1,000 RSVP'd for the party. Many had to wait for rooftop space to open as the outdoor area stayed filled to its capacity of 250.

Everybody seemed to be having a great time except T-Jack, who looked bored as could be. Made me wonder if he was paid an appearance fee (I'm told he wasn't).

I asked my home boy what he was doing in Minnesota instead of Alabama.

"I work out here," said Jackson, still a man of few words.

Jackson has at least one child in Alabama, last I heard. Some parents might spend this unexpected time off from the NFL training season near their kids. I know he has worked out at his high school and within the past couple of months at his alma mater, Alabama State University.

Jackson is on the Vikings' injured-reserved roster. But he did not receive a free agent offer from the Vikings, which means he will be free to leave once a collective bargaining agreement is in place. Another party-goer told me Jackson may still be here because he has property that has not sold.

The party was awful noisy, and T-Jack was apparently having trouble hearing me, so I didn't press him to ponder being shown up by the QB the Vikings drafted, who's already looking like a real LEADER.

Christian Ponder invited some of his new Viking teammates to Florida to work out, on his dime. And the QB savior from Florida State is already studying a copy of the 2011 playbook.

Jackson looked lost in his thoughts.

More Viking sightingsCrave's rooftop party was an evening and night rife with "T&A" (to clean up the lyrics from "A Chorus Line") and mistaken identity.

"I've never seen so many breasts and behinds," one woman remarked. After a brutal winter, it was a perfect night to break out a little skin -- or a lot.

Adrian Peterson is in the reserved section, someone whispered to me.

Of course he is, I thought, now that there's almost no natural light for my video. But I proceeded over anyway to where I had been told A.P. was chilling to ask about some of his displays of generosity in Las Vegas, missed by TMZ.

Even in evening darkness, I could tell that it wasn't him - it was T-Jack at a table with Sidney Rice.

On my startribune.com/video, thanks to the lighting, you'll only see Rice's and Jackson's shirts -- a sight gag I can get away with for obvious reasons while others like KDWB's Dave "Ryan" cannot.

The radio guy, who keeps a pretty low profile when he's not working, was there as well, but he kept on walking when I spotted him. Smart move, as the man (whose real last name is not Ryan) has been on a roll of late, offending parents and Hmong residents alike.

In another case of mistaken identity, someone thought a guy in the Rice-Jackson section was the Twins' Tsuyoshi Nishioka, who fractured his fibula in April and is due back this month. But Nishioka is at least 6 inches taller than this guy was.

Fancy new shoes"We're the oldest people here, I'm sure," said Irwin Jacobs, the financier and high-end boat dealer.

Jacobs and his artist wife, Alex, looked bored, but they claimed to be people-watching.

I was checking out Irwin's velvet shoes, which Alex playfully dismissed by saying, "It's a look."

Later, when their daughter Melinda Jacobs asked them if I had been over, Irwin told her I had been there and had approved of his shoes.

"Shows you have good taste," said Melinda. "My dad likes nice shoes. He's got a nice shoe collection."

And a new boat business partner. He and John Paul DeJoria are "co-captains of the boat industry," joked Melinda.

DeJoria's other businesses are the John Paul Mitchell Systems hair care line and Patron, the tequila.

Lady in the red dressI left before Blue Ribbon baker Marjorie Johnson took the dance floor in her red dress. Am told that was hysterical and so was this:

The Black Eyed Peas' Grammy-nominated DJ Poet was spinning the discs for the event. When told she could ask DJ Poet questions, Johnson reportedly averred: Oh, I would love to interview a poet.

He'd probably winYahoo Sports' Dan Wetzel tweeted Monday: "In wake of Weiner scandal, Brett Favre announces candidacy for Mississippi's 4th Congressional District."

C.J. is at 612.332.TIPS or cj@startribune.com.