Restaurant recommendations from MnMo food critics Jason DeRusha and Joy Summers
Joy’s Picks:
I confess to having a full-blown egg obsession: OvumAYumYum, as I like to call it. I’ll traverse great expanses just to reach a golden-yolked beauty. These are two of the few places I trust to do my all-encompassing love justice.
The Strip Club Meat and Fish: The Devil’s Eggs, as the Strip Club calls them, have a zesty filling utilizing curry and Japanese fish roe. They’re salty, squeaky, creamy, spicy, and gone too fast—just like this restaurant. I’m still depressed that it will close this summer. (Dayton’s Bluff, St. Paul)
Meritage: The French have mastered all things egg-and-butter related, and one need look no further than Meritage’s perfectly fluffed omelet du jour to witness this mastery. Eggs become ethereal, rolled in on themselves, and finished with a brush of butter to shine like the north star of oeuf perfection. (Downtown St. Paul)
Jason’s Picks:
The original chef’s hat had 100 pleats in it, signifying the 100 different ways the chef knew to prepare eggs. (Yes, there are 100 different ways to prepare eggs!) Eggs are at once simple and complex to cook: It takes patience, perfect timing, and experience. For me, it takes letting someone else do the work.
The Kenwood Restaurant: Chef Don Saunders has a deft touch with eggs as evidenced by his eggs en cocotte, as decadent a brunch dish as you’ll find. The eggs are baked in a cocotte (like a ramekin) until they’re incredibly creamy with wild mushrooms, Gruyère cheese, and black truffle. (Kenwood, Minneapolis)
Eggs en cocotte at The Kenwood Restaurant
photo by tj turner
Colossal Cafe: I love egg sandwiches, and Colossal has one of the best. They make their biscuits from scratch and the sausage in house. And the egg: Sure you can get it scrambled, but I prefer it fried. (St. Anthony Park and Mac-Groveland in St. Paul, Nokomis in Minneapolis)
