Last week I tweeted about what I called “the worst travel story I’ve ever read about the Twin Cities.”
A sports reporter for Reuters visited town and wrote a very positive story that highlighted the best places to eat like your hotel restaurant and the Capital Grille. Now I actually like Capital Grille quite a bit, but it’s a chain, and I’m not sure I’d highlight it in a piece about the Twin Cities.
At any rate, the real revelation for me was the hottest new breakfast place in town: the Potbelly in the IDS Building. So says Mark Meadows: “10 a.m. – Eat breakfast at the Potbelly Sandwich Shop at the IDS Center on Eighth Street in Minneapolis, which many see as the center of town given the indoor foyer acts as a perfect shelter from the winter cold. Potbelly has a remarkable selection of bacon, sausage, and egg combos, hence the name.”
Mark said he ate there at 10 a.m. Saturday, which isn’t possible, since breakfast is served Monday-Friday only and the IDS Potbelly opens at 11 a.m. on Saturday.
At any rate, I walked down to the IDS shop to give the most recently critically-acclaimed breakfast spot a try.
The breakfast menu is limited, so I opted for the sausage-egg-cheddar cheese sandwich for $3.25. There are smaller square sandwich sizes for $2. But I’m on the minnesotamonthly.com expense account, so I went big-time.
When the sandwich was finished toasting, the sandwich artist asked me what toppings I wanted. I told him to make a suggestion, as I wasn’t sure what to top a breakfast sandwich with. He suggested hot sauce, salsa, onions, and some peppers. I told him to go nuts.
After paying $3.25 (this price point is significant, because let’s be honest—can you get breakfast for that cheap anywhere else in downtown? You cannot.) I dug in.
And you know what? Well, it was fine. It was food. I like Potbelly’s sandwich bread, so having a full-sized sandwich was nice. The sandwich artist was wise to suggest the salsa and the hot sauce, as that concealed the plasticky flavor of the egg and the recently defrosted texture of the lifeless sausage.
As far as chain restaurants go, Potbelly and Which Wich are my two favorite sandwich places, so I really can’t argue too much with this breakfast sandwich. The bread is good, the price is fair, and the taste . . . well, don’t forget the salsa and the hot sauce.
Potbelly Sandwich Works
80 S. 8th Street, Minneapolis
612-332-1144, potbelly.com
