Burnsville dining is no joke

Suburbia and fine food usually complement one another about as well as Mountain Dew and caviar, but the Rand McNally Co. claims that Burnsville is one of the six best dining places in the country.

A team from the world-famous map- and atlas-maker will be in the suburban Dakota County community within a month to see if Burnsville is the best small town for food in the United States.

The company recently notified the city it was a finalist in the "best for food" category in the Best of the Road contest it is putting on with USA Today.

The promotion involves nominations and selections of such things as friendliest small town, most beautiful small town and most patriotic.

The winning cities will be featured in the 2013 Rand McNally atlas and in the USA Today travel section.

"We're very excited," said Michelle Rock, marketing coordinator for the Burnsville Convention and Visitors Bureau. "It is a great opportunity. People are always raving about the restaurants."

Among the restaurants listed as favorites or having the best food: The Mediterranean Cruise Cafe, Porter Creek Hardwood Grill, the Roasted Pear and the new Burger Jones, which opened last month.

The winner will be announced in mid-July in Los Angeles. Each winning city will get $10,000.

Burnsville officials are ecstatic over the selection, especially the publicity it is generating around the country.

"What this story does is that it furthers the case that, at least in the southern metro area, Burnsville is a restaurant hub," said Skip Nienhaus, economic development coordinator for the city. "There's kind of a restaurant for every taste."

That kind of diversity is one of the things the teams from Rand McNally look for when they inspect the nominated cities. But it is hard to tell exactly what other criteria will be used to determine the winners.

It is also hard to determine how serious the contest itself is. Cities were self-nominated and voted on via the Internet.

Lafayette, La., got only seven votes for best food, yet it also was a finalist, according to the contest website. The top vote-getter in the food category: Gulfport, Fla., with 117.

Despite these less-than-impressive numbers, Burnsville restaurant owners said there is an underlying perception that the city is very good for the restaurant business.

"Most restaurants that have come to Burnsville succeed," said Jamal Ansari, owner of the Mediterranean Cruise Cafe, which opened in 2009. "The city, they don't just give out permits to anybody. They bring in restaurants that are going to succeed."

The most recent noteworthy addition was Burger Jones, which expanded from its Uptown location in Minneapolis.

The high-end burger joint is owned by Parasole, a restaurant holding company that counts among its holdings Manny's Steakhouse, Chino Latino and Muffuletta.