Minneapolis / St. Paul Food Blog

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Our friends at The Wine Thief have carefully chosen unique Thanksgiving wine and beer selections which we are pleased to present. Just click here for the perfect compliments to your meal.

Photo courtesy Summit Brewing Company

Summit's new 90/- Scottish Style Ale.

​ It seems Summit has outdone itself with its new 90/- Scottish Style Ale, the second installment in the brewery's Unchained Series. The delicious new ale features a robust, smoky flavor with caramel overtones and will see limited local release in six packs and on tap between now and the end of the year.

In advance of Monday's 90/- event at Cherokee Sirloin Room, Hot Dish talked with brewer Eric Blomquist, who oversaw the development of the new brew.

​(Photo by awshots)

This week the WPCA (World Society for the Protection of Animals) announced the launch of EatHumane.org, a website featuring a database of over 150 restaurants in 15 cities throughout the nation that meet their criteria as a humane restaurant. Thirteen restaurants in the Twin Cities have made the cut.

cursedthing/Flickr

​It's always a good week when a new Summit comes out, no? This week witnessed the official launch of the second beer in the brewery's "Unchained Series," which gives brewers a chance to showcase their skills and come up with a dream beer. This one's called 90/-. It was a good week for some other reasons too. Check it out yo.

• We've got some great croissants in town. We got a glimpse of two.
• What gross things grace your Thanksgiving table. Comisserate with us.
• Viagra + passion fruit + the elderly = ?
• Are onion blossoms really all that bad? They got voted one of the decade's top worst dining trends.
• What "schizophrenic" local sandwich approaches Jabba the Hutt size proportions?

Is it gonna snow this weekend or what? Have a great weekend, everybody.

riptheskull/Flickr

They are totally thinking naughty thoughts.

​Hoping to get some action this Thanksgiving? Thanksgiving's always been one of the sexier holidays in our book. Drunken overindulgence is always a turn-on. Here's a hand-picked Thanksgiving meal idea -- recipes included -- inspired by the site (and book-in-waiting?) Cook to Bang. Think of it as your Thanksgiving Guide to Getting it On.

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Big Ginger
Cooper Pub and Restaurant
1607 Park Place Blvd. (Hwy 394 and 100)
St Louis Park
952.698.2000
website

When visiting an Irish pub it is difficult to forgo tipping a pint-o-ale, but this drink makes that choice worth your while.

avlxyz/Flickr

​Black Sheep, Chef Shack, or Tosca? Which is the Twin Cities' best new place to eat? We don't envy Heavy Table's position one bit. The local food blog nominated the three terrific eateries as potential "Best New Establishment" for its Silver Whisk Awards. The blog also announced nominees for local "Best Chef" and "Best Purveyor." Totally cliché to say but all the nominees truly are already winners. Here's the quick 'n easy:

​I just got off the phone with Brenda Langton who broke the news that her landmark cafe will be closing after 23 years of business on December 5. Langton will continue to run Cafe Brenda's sister restaurant, Spoonriver, lead the Mill City Farmers Market, which she helped pioneer, and work on other projects relating to food and health, including teaching at the U's Center for Spirituality & Healing and publishing a new cookbook. Whew!

Cafe Brenda has been a longtime Minneapolis favorite for serving healthy, vegetarian-focused fare in a serene, window-filled dining room. Over the years, as neighbors like the New French Cafe closed, Cafe Brenda's approach became something of an anomaly among the incoming Hard Rock Cafe, Hooters, and sports bars--but its cooking always stayed fresh.

Langton, her husband, Timothy Kane, and her devoted staff hope that Cafe Brenda fans will come by for lunch or dinner to share memories--was anyone there the night David Byrne visited?--and celebrate the restaurant's success. Outstanding Cafe Brenda gift certificates will be honored at Spoonriver and many beloved Cafe Brenda dishes--including the mock duck tacos and the tempeh Reuben, I hope--will migrate over to Spoonriver as well. For more information, see Langton's note on the Cafe Brenda website.

riptheskull/Flickr

​Another holiday, another opportunity to torture (or be tortured by) our nearest and dearest at the dinner table. Thanksgiving puts us all in kind of in a pickle. You can try to get away with not taking the Peep-topped sweet potatoes or the potato chip-encrusted potatoes but you have to be pretty covert and chances are someone will notice and say "What, you don't like great grandma's special recipe?" But Option 2 poses a dilemma too. If you do take great grandma's apricot salad (made with cream cheese and that secret ingredient: apricot baby food!), unless you can somehow swirl it up with your other piles of actually good and tasty things, it will be left staring at you like an angry eye. Ah, what to do.

Here are our Top 5 Thanksgiving foods best avoided or artfully disguised:

​Chowhounders, foodies, and food critics united in recent months over the rumored departure of a critical mass of employees from the beloved St. Paul Chinese restaurant Little Szechuan. The exodus was followed shortly thereafter by the appearance of a new Szechuan-style restaurant in Bloomington called Grand Szechuan. A lawsuit filed this week in Ramsey County by Little Szechuan's former head chef -- now heading up Grand Szechuan -- provides a few more pieces to the puzzle.