Taste 50 2009

Taste 50 2009

1. -- 14. Wonder women

We could have filled every square foot of Spoonriver restaurant with influential Twin Cities women in food, but we stopped at 14 Minneapolis tastemakers. Their impact on the local food scene is immeasurable. So is our admiration and gratitude.

1. With her Birchwood Cafe, Tracy Singleton has created the template for the successful neighborhood gathering place.

www.birchwoodcafe.com

2. Through her Cafe Brenda and Spoonriver restaurants, Brenda Langton has been championing the virtues of healthy eating and sustainable agriculture for nearly 30 years.

www.spoonriver.com. 2010 update: Cafe Brenda closed in 2009.

www.chefshack.org

5. Dessert becomes an art form in the gifted hands and fertile imagination of Cosmos pastry chef Khanh Tran.

www.cosmosrestaurant.com

6. -- 7. Working together like clockwork, Tanya Siebenaler (she's the chef) and Julie Steenerson (she's the gracious welcome at the door) make their Sapor Cafe and Bar the city's most underrated dining gem.

www.saporcafe.com

www.rainbowrestaurant.com

9. Brioche queen Michelle Gayer makes every visit to her superb Salty Tart bakery an event.

www.saltytart.com

10. Barbette, Bryant-Lake Bowl and the Red Stag Supperclub all bear the energetic touch of Kim Bartmann, leaving diners wondering what the enterprising restaurateur will do next.

www.barbette.com, www.bryantlakebowl.com, www.redstagsupperclub.com

www.frenchmeadow.com

12. For almost a quarter-century, Lucia's Restaurant (and its younger siblings, an adjoining wine bar and bakery) has personified Midwestern goodness, thanks to namesake (and three-time James Beard nominee) Lucia Watson.

www.lucias.com

13. At Clancey's Meats & Fish, Kristin Tombers showcases, like no one else, the best animal proteins coming off local family farms.

www.clanceysmeats.com

www.broders.com

15. Museum without walls

The Minneapolis Institute of Arts takes window shopping to a whole new level. The museum's "Modernism 20: Past/Present/Future," displayed in cases plugged into the vast, marble-clad lobbies of the Wells Fargo Center, spotlights how taken-for-granted kitchen objects - a teapot, a punch bowl, an espresso machine - can, in the hands of 20th-century artisans, be transformed into unforgettable works of art.

www.artsmia.org. 2010 update: The "Modernism 20" show closes July 11, 2010.

16. Beauty in a box

www.ruby-moon.com

17. Healthy babies

Baby food doesn't have to come in a jar. Local nanny Lori Karis has been making her own for nearly 20 years. Now her all-organic formula, prepared weekly in small batches using Minnesota-grown grains, is available to Twin Cities parents and their happy offspring under the Sweet Cheeks label.

www.sweetcheeksbabyfood.com

18. Career change

www.seward.coop

19. Morning must-have

Drop that Egg McMuffin habit and jump-start the day at Surdyk's, where the breakfast sandwich gets the respect it deserves. Don't miss the "Green Eggs and Ham," a winning marriage of scrambled eggs, thin shears of Italian ham and sauteed spinach stuffed between thick slices of focaccia.

www.surdyks.com

20. Best of Taste

www.leedeanbooks.com

21. Farm in the city

As the growing season progresses, Common Roots Cafe will be featuring a diverse selection of herbs, vegetables and fruits harvested from its new garden, which was, up until a few weeks ago, a pair of asphalt parking lots across the alley from the restaurant. "I wanted a way to get people thinking about where food comes from," said owner Danny Schwartzman, who is managing the garden with Delano, Minn., farmer Cathy Rose. "Maybe it will inspire more people to plant things and eat local foods."

www.commonrootscafe.com

22. Cleaning up

www.mrsmeyers.com

23. Summer lovin'

Here's what we want to eat all summer (well, all year): Isaac Becker's light and cool crab salad at 112 Eatery.

www.112eatery.com

24. Candy classic

www.candylandstore.com

25. Raise your glass

Not only does Jacquie Berglund brew a great beer, but her Finnegans Irish Amber does good; 100 percent of the company's profits go to supporting poverty relief programs. Last year's donations added up to $30,000. "This year the goal is $45,000," said Berglund. "I think of us as the little beer company that could."

www.finnegans.org

26. Tea time

www.starwoodhotels.com

27. Reader's haven

New, used, overstock, out of print, pocket size-small to coffee table-huge, the cookbook selection at Magers and Quinn Booksellers - supplemented by a fine array of wine and food titles - can keep browsers occupied for hours.

www.magersandquinn.com

28. Super scooper

www.pumphouse-creamery.com

29. Chief asset

Ask 20 Wedge Co-op shoppers why they shop at the store, and you're likely to elicit 20 different answers. Here's ours: The cookies. Baker Gary Robertson and his crew turn out more than two dozen splendid varieties every day (two thumbs up on the good and good-for-you Trail Mix cookies, pictured here), including plenty of vegan and gluten-free options.

www.wedge.coop

30. Bookmarked

31. -- 33. Rising stars

Right now, promising young culinary talent is running in threes: Jason Engelhart's Japanese-inspired small plates upstage the house-brewed sake at moto-i, Adam Vickerman's Italian cooking at the newly opened Trattoria Tosca is off to an impressive start, and Sameh Wadi puts a contemporary spin on Moroccan and Lebanese flavors at his elegant Saffron Restaurant & Lounge.

www.moti-i.com, www.saffronmpls.com. 2010 update: Adam Vickerman has left Trattoria Tosca.

34. On tap

Make that graduation party come alive with a keg of crisp, honey-kissed River City Root Beer made by the Vine Park Brewing Co. Can't consume the whole 15.5-gallon keg? Vine Park will re-carbonate and bottle the rest so you can enjoy it all summer long.

35. Elvis would have loved it

The ingredients in super-rich, super-creamy Parkers Farm peanut butter? "Peanuts, and a pinch of salt," said Rick Etrheim, owner of the Coon Rapids-based company. "It's just like eating fresh-roasted peanuts." That's not a sales pitch; it's the truth. It's great on bananas, better on toast and it's the essential building block for a spectacular peanut butter cookie.

www.parkersfarm.com

36. Towering kitsch

Run down to Rochester some Saturday morning this summer to shop at the city's excellent farmers market, and while driving through town don't miss what's surely the world's tallest ear of corn, a 60-footer that doubles as a water tower for Seneca Foods; it's a real standout in a state chock-a-block full of kitschy food-related civic landmarks. Runner-up: Lindstrom's water tower, done up to resemble a Swedish-style coffeepot.

37. Low-profile, high impact

St. Paul's Dayton's Bluff might not have the real estate cachet of a downtown or Uptown address, but that hasn't stopped Strip Club Meat & Fish chef J.D. Fratzke from making the neighborhood a dining destination by demonstrating exactly how a modern gastropub should work.

www.domeats.com

38. They were robbed

If we ran the James Beard Foundation awards, we would have handed a nomination - at least - to a pair of Minnesota-written cookbooks from 2008: "The Splendid Table's How to Eat Supper" by Lynne Rossetto Kasper and Sally Swift, and "660 Curries" by Raghavan Iyer. The so-called "Oscars of the food world" did have the good sense to nominate as a finalist "The Best Casserole Cookbook Ever" by Beatrice Ojakangas of Duluth.

39. They pave paradise...

Savvy real estate entrepreneur Daisy Haung is a lover of outdoor flea markets. She took one look at an underperforming warehouse and converted it into the Golden Globe Mall, an indoor Asian flea market notable not only for its sights but its tastes. Memo to the city of St. Paul: Is it really necessary to put a road through these bustling shopping and eating spots?

630 Pierce Butler Route, St. Paul

40. Get happy

Don't expect to find Taco Tuesdays at the Dakota Jazz Club & Restaurant. Instead, chef Jack Riebel takes a refreshing approach to Happy Hour on Thursdays and Fridays - in other words, he doesn't treat it as a throwaway - offering a tempting assortment of elaborate bites, served dim-sum style, at just $1 a pop.

41. Seal of approval

For many local chefs, the signal that they've arrived doesn't come in the form of a multi-starred review, it's seeing uber-diners Bob and Sue Macdonald walk in the door. When the discerning Minneapolis couple (here at Heidi's Minneapolis with chef Stewart Woodman) aren't checking out Michelin two- and three-star destinations or palling around with Burgundian winemakers, they're dining out four nights a week in the Twin Cities, passionately supporting an active list of two dozen area restaurants. How great is that?

42. Historic hall of fame

The Minnesota Historical Society marked the state's sesquicentennial with "MN150," an exhibition spotlighting 150 placemakers in Gopher State history. Our favorite? The affectionate homage to restaurateurs (and University of Minnesota home economics professors) Lenore Richards and Nola Treat, proprietors of the not-to-be-forgotten Richards Treat cafeteria. In its heyday, the busy restaurant, at 114 S. 6th St., routinely fed 3,000 downtown Minneapolitans daily and lasted from 1924 to 1957.

www.mnhs.org. 2010 update: "MN150" has closed.

Lean brisket, a five-day brine, plenty of peppercorns, apple and cherry wood smoke. Now that you know Mike Ryan and Matt Bickford's secret to swoon-worthy pastrami, why aren't you making a beeline for their Be'wiched Deli?

www.bewicheddeli.com

44. Drinks for dogs

If Uptown Minneapolis airedales and shih tzus are looking refreshed during summer's dog days, it could be due to the artful canine drinking fountain on the sidewalk outside Lucia's Restaurant. "It was my grand expansion in 2008," said owner Lucia Watson with a laugh. "It gets lots of use, even in this slow economy. It's the only bar I've opened where I haven't had to get a license."

www.lucias.com

Here's a government initiative worth watching: Homegrown Minneapolis, a public-private collaboration working to develop ways to improve the development, distribution and consumption of locally produced foods in the city of Minneapolis through farmers markets, community gardens, small-enterprise urban agriculture and restaurants.

www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us

46. No-frills shopping

Kudos to Traditional Foods Minnesota for doing what local farmers markets can't quite seem to accomplish, and that's bringing local farmers and consumers together, year-round. The bare-bones setting keeps prices in check (co-op-style memberships are required), and the selection grows each month.

www.traditionalfoodsmn.com

When a cookbook has sold 200,000 copies and counting, its title cemented into the summit of Amazon.com's bestseller list, its authors had better get into sequel mode. Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois, co-authors of "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day," did just that; their follow-up effort, "Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day: 100 New Recipes Featuring Whole Grains, Fruits, Vegetables and Gluten-Free Ingredients," hits bookstores in October. "After the first book came out, the most requests were for healthier breads, using whole grains or gluten-free ingredients," said Francois. "So we began developing recipes, and they turned into this book."

www.artisanbreadinfive.com

48. Drive-by smirking

One reason behind the instantaneous crowds at Burger Jones might be its attention-luring retro-chic sign, designed by Tim Sauer of Intercom Agency, a Minneapolis marketing firm. Its visual appeal didn't exactly happen overnight. "It's pathetic for grown adults to sit around the table the way we did, but we messed around a lot with his haircut and his glasses and his smirk," said Phil Roberts, the restaurant's co-owner. "We wanted to have just the right amount of nerdiness and snarkiness." Mission accomplished.

www.burgerjones.com

Nothing can quite match the allure of a fragrant and lusciously juicy Minnesota-grown strawberry. We love them over shortcake and crowned with a dollop of freshly whipped cream from Dave and Florence Minar's Cedar Summit Farm.

50. Ham it up

Ingebretsen's, the 88-year-old Scandinavian meat market in Minneapolis, is all about tradition. Butcher Gary Coleman has worked behind the counter at the E. Lake Street landmark for 40 years, "And I'm the low man on the totem pole," he said with a laugh. Lutefisk, blood sausage and lefse draw crowds during the Christmas holidays, but what we love best are the shop's exceptional hams. They're popular at Easter, but we think they make a perfect summertime picnic staple, packed in the cooler alongside potato salad and Leinenkugel's Honey Weiss. The juicy bone-in hams are rubbed with salt and dry-cured for a week - no water-pumped pork here - before spending a night in the shop's smokehouse. Nothing complicated, proof that simple often takes the prize. "I take it home to my mother," said Coleman. "That's how good it is."