The Birdhouse

I went to the Birdhouse at 25th and Hennepin with my friend Patty on Thursday for lunch. It was the first time I had gone there. It is in what used to be a residential house, but it has been re-purposed into a restaurant. From the inside, you can tell that it used to a house, too, but that lends it kind of a nice atmosphere. I ordered the lamb burger with yogurt and cilantro sauce, and Patty ordered the roast beet salad. We also order their "westies" (fries), which are served with aioli, to split. Patty's salad looked very artistic, it included beets, goat cheese, some type of sprouts, and a balsamic vinaigrette. She let me try some and it was very good. I felt like the portion was a little small, though. My burger was good; the yogurt-cilantro sauce was quite delicious. It was served with some fries. We both agreed that we would have preferred somewhat crispier fries, as the fries were kind of soggy, but it does say on the menu that the fries are in the style of In-N-Out, where I have not been, so the Birdhouse is probably staying true to that. So maybe don't order the fries if you like crispy fries. My friend said that their cocktails are good, too, I thought I would pass on them at the time since it was noon. The cocktails have interesting flavor combinations, such as white pepper, lavender, and chamomile infused vodka, ginger beer, and lemon bitters, which are in a drink called The Raven. Apparently they make their own lemon-lime and cream sodas, too. I definitely want to go back there to try more of their drinks.

St. Croix Chocolate Company in Marine on St. Croix

Last Sunday my friend Beth and I went to the St. Croix Chocolate Company in Marine on St. Croix, which is between Stillwater and Taylors Falls on the St. Croix River. Marine on St. Croix is a small, very picturesque town that has one main street with some shops and a few restaurants. The St. Croix Chocolate Co. won The City Pages' prize for the best chocolate store in the Twin Cities, and rightly so, in my opinion. All of their ingredients are sourced from only a few miles away, for example, the chocolate that they use is made across the river in Osceola, Wisconsin. You can taste that the chocolate is really high quality and the chocolates they sell are truly works of art. They are probably the best-looking chocolates I have ever seen. I got the Madagascar bon bon, which is decorated to look like a cocoa bean and has 65% cacao, the honey whiskey bon bon, which is the one with the white swirl, the raspberry bon bon, which is red, and a violet bon bon, which has a violet on top and tasted a bit like the flower, too. Beth got the Madagascar, the raspberry, and one called Salt and Smoke, which she said was made with milk chocolate and filled with salted caramel. It was covered with hickory-smoked almonds. They were all really good; it is definitely worth the drive to go there. We also went to the bar and grill in Marine on St. Croix, where I had an avocado turkey burger with sweet potato fries, which was quite good. The bar and grill has a nice atmosphere; it kind of feels like a cabin. I have also heard that the ice cream shop in town is very good. Unfortunately, it was quite cloudy when we went there, I'm sure it would be even prettier on a sunny day. We stopped in Stillwater on the way back and walked through town and along the river, which is always fun. We stopped in a few antique stores, too.

Pizza Luce

I went to Pizza Luce at 32nd and Lyndale yesterday for dinner with my friend Becky. We got the artichoke dip, which had lots of artichokes, cream cheese, garlic, and parmesan cheese in it, and which was cheesy and delicious. It was served with two loaves of focaccia bread, and both the dip and the bread had lots of parmesan cheese sprinkled on them. We also ordered a medium shrimp al pesto pizza to share, which is my favorite pizza from there. It has lots of basil pesto, diced tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, garlic, and shrimp on Bianca sauce (their white sauce). It was delicious. Another pizza that I've had from them in the past that I really enjoyed is the Pizza Athena, which is a Greek-inspired pizza that has spinach, tomatoes, feta cheese, kalamata olives, artichoke hearts, Greek oregano, toasted garlic, and mozzarella on Bianca sauce. My friend pointed out that she really likes Pizza Luce's crust because it's of medium thickness; it's not thin crust, but also not thick crust, and it's doughy without being too doughy. We thought about getting their tiramisu for dessert, which is also good, but were ultimately too full for it. They also have a peanut butter brownie that's really good; it's a brownie with peanut butter on it and a layer of chocolate on top of that. Now they have a sundae that is made with that peanut butter brownie that I think sounds delicious and I want to go back and try. They also have these paintings hanging on the walls there right now, that are kind of cool, but also kind of creepy, that are paintings, some of them quite large, of extreme close-ups on people's faces. One of them was of Snoop Dogg and another looked like it was of Bob Marley, but I didn't recognize any of the other faces.

The Uptown Diner

This morning I went to the Uptown Diner (26th and Hennepin) with my friend for breakfast. I really like going there because it has really good breakfast food, a lot of different options ranging from sweet to savory, friendly, competent servers, a pleasant atmosphere, large portions, and reasonable prices. I got the Crab Cake Benedict, which was basically  two eggs benedict, but with crab cakes instead of ham, so an english muffin with a slice of tomato and a crab cake with hollandaise sauce. The eggs benedict were served with hash browns. My friend got two chocolate chip cookie dough pancakes, which she said were good. Sorry, I started eating the food before I remember to take the picture. My food was only about ten dollars, which I thought was reasonable, considering how large the portion was, and I even took some of it home with me because I didn't finish it all. We then went across the street to the Tea Garden and got bubble tea. I got green tea with lychee and peach flavoring and tapioca pearls. It was a good mixture of sweet and sour flavors with the zing of the lychee and the sweetness of the peach flavoring.

Chocolove Chocolate

I really like Chocolove Chocolate. It comes in a wrapper that looks like a love letter, thus the name, Chocolove and each chocolate bar has a love poem printed on the inside of the wrapper, which is kind of fun to read to your friends. The chocolate is of really good quality and is available in lots of different flavors, from milk chocolate hazelnut to 70% cacao dark chocolate. Some of my favorites are the dark chocolate peppermint, which is very minty and refreshing, the dark chocolate raspberry, which I think has a really good combination of flavors, and the milk chocolate pretzel, which everyone in my family (including my mom, who's from Germany) agreed was delicious. Chocolove is made in Boulder, Colorado, but the chocolate itself is made from Belgium chocolate made with African cocoa beans. It is available at a little fancier grocery stores such as Kowalski's, Lund's, and Whole Foods. Another thing that I like about it is that it is a good value for the money, as it only costs about $2.60.