Porketta sandwich at Hagberg’s Country Market
“I feel like we’re in Eveleth,” my mom giddily exclaimed. We were actually at Hagberg’s Country Market in Lake Elmo. A grocery store with an expansive meat market and lunch counter, it reminded her of our favorite Iron Range IGA (a local, family-owned grocery chain). Cases are filled with premium cuts of meat, slabs of bacon sliced to order and a global array of sausage styles.
Off to the side is a sandwich counter where we found another taste of home in the porketta sandwich ($7.99). Up north, we’re accustomed to every well-appointed local grocer stocking different kinds of porketta. The kind of pork can vary: shoulder, loin, Boston butt, but it’s always boneless, usually held together by netting and slathered with dried Italian seasonings. At Hagberg’s, they go with a low and slow braised meat that falls into submission: a juicy, highly flavorful mix that’s redolent of fennel seed, oregano, basil and black pepper. It’s piled onto a fresh bun sturdy enough to hold up to all those luscious juices, but soft enough to melt into the meat with each bite. Balancing this beauty of a sandwich is the horeseradish-spiked cream sauce that bites just enough to keep things interesting.
If heaven were a small town with copper-colored mud caked on truck wheels and hockey as a way of life, this is what it would taste like. (Joy Summers)
11325 Stillwater Blvd. N.; Lake Elmo; hagbergsmeats.com

Ümlauttè at Brühaven Craft Co.
When sweater weather finally hits, have one of these drinks cued up. The Ümlauttè is a cleverly named espresso drink at the equally umlauted Brühaven Craft Co.
The brewery opened in the Loring Park neighborhood earlier this summer, taking over Lakes & Legends’ sprawling taproom and a few of its signature brews, but adding in a whole new line of things to sip on day and night, with former the Freehouse head brewer Alex Doering behind the beer.
But I came for coffee, and this signature latte ($5.25-$6.25) with brown sugar and rosemary was a tasty and toasty way to start the day. The food options are premade and light, including bagels from Mogi Bagel with a little tub of cream cheese. And for a more beer-forward morning, try a house-brewed seltzer-spiked bloody mary with a beer back, naturally. (Sharyn Jackson)
1368 LaSalle Av. S., Mpls., bruhaven.com