Oh my goodness, I’m in major food detox mode after a four-day weekend in New York City. Sure, we got on the Staten Island Ferry and looked at the Statue of Liberty, of course we walked through Central Park and Times Square, and we even saw the Letterman show tape.
But mostly we ate. And we drank. And my wife and I spent a lot of time talking about which of these restaurants would work in concept in the Twin Cities.
So my short list:
DBGB Kitchen & Bar: This is the restaurant I wish Mike Phillips would open. There were 14 different house-made sausages. I loved the Boudin Basque ($14, pictured above), a blood and pigs-head sausage with espelette pepper on top of scallion mashed potatoes.
Chikalicious: Diane Yang, will you please open this restaurant right away? It’s a three-course dessert restaurant. You get an amuse, you get a main dessert, and you get petits four. I had the Fromage Blanc Island “Cheese Cake” paired with Alvear Pedro Ximenez, a wonderful sweet dessert wine. The whole thing was $16, plus $8 for the wine pairing. It was epic.
Ippudo: Masu has had some success with the ramen on its menu, and we had a successful Ramen Fest event in town, so is it time for our own ramen noodle restaurant? I waited in line at 11 a.m. Saturday for Ippudo to open. When the doors opened, we sat right down into a fun, boisterous room—with unbelievably delicious ramen. The broth was smoky and had great depth, and the noodles had a slight crunch. It was really delicious. I had the Akamaru Modern Ramen ($14) topped with Ippudo’s secret “Umami Dama” miso paste, pork chashu, cabbage, kikurage, scallions, and fragrant garlic oil. Oh baby.
PDT: I love cocktails. To get into PDT, you go into a hot dog shop, walk into a phone booth, dial 1, and they open the secret door, and in you go to Please Don’t Tell. When in there, the cocktails are killer. $15 puts them in the high range of Minneapolis fancy cocktails, but the phone booth schtick coupled with the talented bartenders made this a great value. Marvel Bar tries to have the “Secret” cocktail lounge bit going here, but I’d love to see another.
What do you think? Would any of these play in Minneapolis? What’s the NY restaurant you’d most like to see here?
