Now I’ve definitely got a certain amount of loyalty to the Birchwood Cafe – it’s the neighborhood deli in my neighborhood, after all – but I’ve got to shout out to the Cheeky Monkey Deli in St. Paul too. Beautiful fresh bread. These amazingly airy homemade potato chips. Organic meats. It’s the good stuff.

Cheeky Monkey is my friend Sarah’s neighborhood neighborhood deli, so I called her up to see if she’d be interested in letting me take pictures of her with a meatloaf sandwich – one of the signature dishes at the deli. As it turns out, Sarah orders the meatloaf sammie every time she goes to Cheeky Monkey. Her husband Craig has traveled the menu, but not Sarah. And, as she told me, every time a meatloaf sandwich lands in front of her she makes this face:

and that’s one of the reasons she’s my friend. : )

Here are a few more photos from our lunchtime shoot. Thanks loads to the fine folks at Cheeky Monkey for their hospitality and for plating up such photogenic and delicious food. Hopefully we can collaborate again.

What’s your favorite neighborhood joint? I’d love to hear about it in the comments.

The magnificent Pot Roast Sandwich. Oh, the pickled onions. Ah, the horseradish sauce. . .

The Brothers has been around for a long time, in several incarnations; I remember eating at one in Southdale Mall when I was a kid and my mom was a secret shopper for Dayton’s (speaking of old school). Regardless of the location, The Brothers has always been the kind of place that serves bowls of pickles on the tables and slow roasts its pastrami and corned beef on the premises. Which is the only way to go when it comes to a deli, as far as I’m concerned.

I talked to Jeff, the head brother, by phone a couple times to set things up – telling him that I’m a big fan, that I’d love to shoot some during a lunch rush sometime. Our two phone conversations lasted about 15 seconds combined (Jeff’s clearly a guy who has 14 hours of work to do in an 8 hour day), and next thing I knew my assistant TJ and I were there ready to shoot.

Jeff’s crew is a well-oiled machine. All of his employees have been with him for years – many for more than ten – and they know how to get a lunch rush fed. As I tiptoed around everyone, it kind of blew me away how calm everyone was, even though the line was out the door and down the skyway for much of the lunch rush. Each person had their station, and everyone knew exactly what was needed. It was beautiful to watch.

Salad station

Soon-to-be Corned Beef Sandwich

The Grill Captain

Jeff surprised me by asking if I’d be interested in shooting some food shots to put up on the walls of the restaurant. Based on our amazingly quick phone conversations I figured he would have his head down and would forget about me a minute after I was done shooting. But as it turns out, my photos now hang over the deli bar and behind the counter, and there may be more coming shortly. You gotta love it when personal work turns in to paid work.

Next time you’re in the skyways, keep an eye out for a two foot by three foot reuben floating over The Brothers deli bar – that’s my work. Sweet!

Josh is one focused dude, like the other chefs I’ve met this year. He’s organized, straightforward, always moving. And man, can he cook. For last night’s Sample Circuit in the Living Room he sent out a huge assortment of dishes, forming a huge spectrum from comfort food (beef tamales, pigs in the blanket with Fisher Farms pork), to gourmet (curried king crab sushi roll, crostini with rare beef, roquefort, and smoked tomato marmalade), and points in between (truffled deviled eggs, scallop and kobe beef sliders).

Aside from actually eating and photographing all this amazing food, my favorite moment from the night illustrates another side to Josh. It was getting to the end of the evening, and the pigs in a blanket had run out. They were, after all, delicious, and made of pig. My friend Val noticed the absence of the pigs, grabbed Josh, and pretty much demanded more. (You’ve got to know Val to understand that this isn’t particularly surprising behavior.) It would have been the easiest thing in the world for Josh to blow her off, say sorry, how about some lamb meatballs instead? But he said he knew where there were ‘a few more,’ ran off, and three minutes later came back with a small plate loaded with pigs in blanket, just for Val.

That, my friends, is how to build a fan club.

Last image from the night: not the best picture I’ve ever taken of my wife Johanna, but we just had to get a shot of these Diva Glass Slippers given to her and Val. Like a coozy, but for your wine glass! Brilliant!

Johanna really wanted an Obama one, too, but all that were left were white Obamas, and that just didn’t seem right.

Asher and the gang on the line

Given the fact that 20.21 resides in the Walker Art Center, and is one of the most upscale of Wolfgang Puck’s current restaurants, you’d maybe expect the snootyness index to be high, but despite the dramatic dining room space and fusion menu, everything about 20.21 feels pretense-free. And everything I’ve tried there (granted, on two trips only) speaks hospitality through attention to every detail. Example from last night: a simple mini cheeseburger, perfectly cooked with a honey curry ketchup that put it over the top.

Both of my trips to 20.21 have been with the Sample Circuit, but I’ll definitely  be going back on my own.

Roasted Alaskan Halibut with Pineapple Sambal

Sweet Corn Soup Shot with Croutons and Chili Oil

Tempura Shrimp with Pickled Ginger Vinaigrette

Korean Beef Short Rib Satays

Chocolate Dipped Cookie Lollipops

The view on the deck

Now that’s a subject! First of all, you’ve got to know that I love cheese. Second, beautiful as the new Santorini is, it’s not actually the Mediterranean. It’s a very nice restaurant in an Eden Prairie strip mall. Tough to muster maximum excitement for that kind of setting. But you throw in some flaming imported dairy, held by a guy who’s been serving this dish for over 30 years? My attention had been piqued.

But first, chef Craig Johnson. Great guy, fun photo subject in part because he actually did the non-standard things I asked him to. Case in point.

Then it was time for Tony and saganaki. A testament to his true professionalism: no eyebrows were harmed in the making of this image.

As I’ve reported in these very blog pages, what Executive Chef Hakan Lundberg does with ingredients is unique to Minnesota. Hakan really gets a kick out of opening a window on to the process for his diners, and last night he and his #1 sous chef were in the dining room creating fois gras lolipops and fruit ‘explosions’ for the crowd. Cool for foodies to be able to see the magic in motion and interact with the chefs.

Fruit explosion magic being perpetrated by sous chef Shawn

Team Cosmos’ version of the Sample Circuit was unique in relation to the others so far this year: much higher degree of difficulty on all the dishes, lots more variety, but no banquet table service, only passed trays.

The Cosmos shrimp cocktail

For those in attendance on their first trip to Cosmos, I’m sure the sample they received has them intrigued and definitely wanting more.

Plenty more photos from the night on the Sample Circuit Flicker stream (supplied by yours truly).

I’m really not embellishing when I say that I loved each course, but I did have favorites. Like at the Valentine’s Day dinner earlier this year, I thought the BW’s Executive Chef, Marshall Paulsen, did an amazing job with the early courses in particular. This time around a beet and chevre terrine with tangelo and melted leek sauce had a great mix of flavors. The pairing with Lift Bridge Brewery’s Farm Girl Saison was perfect as well.

Beet and Chevre terrine

The next course was spot on as well: trout with coppa cured at neighboring Craftsman Restaurant, fiddlehead fern, sunchoke chips, parsley almond pesto, and wild ramps, paired with Lake Superior Brewery’s Kayak Kolsch. Beautiful mix of textures, and I couldn’t get enough of the coppa.

Fried Fiddlehead Ferns

Trout with Craftsman Capa, ferns, parseley pesto, and wild ramps

As with all events at the Birchwood, this one put all the emphasis on the local, the creative, and the communal. When owner Tracy Singleton got up to speak, it was to draw attention to the farmers in attendance who supply the restaurant, Peace Coffee, and Eureka Recycling – who composts over 90% of the Birchwood’s waste. Just a super fun, delicious evening, liberally lubricated with great Minnesota beer.

Marshall Paulsen and his kitchen crew cranking out the plates

Plating of the Bison Ribeye

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Birchwood All Star Zach, wrist-deep in goodness

The other cool thing about Zach is that I’m pretty sure he wasn’t on a shift when we hung out, but he got a bunch of stuff done. And he was good about sharing his ’sweet’ knives with the counter staff.

I call this one, 'I dare you to make a move for that sandwich.'

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Food is fascinating for so many reasons. It’s an art form, a vast sector of the economy, a focus of many communal experiences, a basic human need. Cooking is a broad spectrum from the most simple to the extremely complex, and each point on along the way has its own distinct kind of deliciousness.

One of the newer points on the food complexity spectrum is on the high end – it’s molecular gastronomy, and it’s a worldwide trend in cutting edge cheffing. What is this molecular gastronomy? It’s post-modernism on a plate. Familiar dishes deconstructed and presented in small, surprisingly presented, multi-sensory, highly distilled packages. Here in Minneapolis, our representative on the cutting edge is Hakan Lundberg Chef de Cuisine at Cosmos Restaurant. The dude is kind of a magician.

Here’s his fois gras plate:

Served with dried fruit compote, pistachio pickled watermelon radish, and. . . more fois gras mousse frozen in liquid nitrogen. The frozen bits look crunchy and jagged on the plate, but get them in your mouth and they melt and transform in seconds. Here are a couple shots of the making of the plate:

Breaking up the frozen mousse:

Another example: fruit ‘explosions,’ served between courses as a palette cleanser. Now I’m blanking on the exact flavors involved (strawberry and melon?), but the juice is frozen in to semi-circular forms, then dropped in to a warm solution that forms a thin gelatin layer as the juice thaws. The globe of juice is floated in another juice and served as a shooter:

And as you bite the globe, it explodes and the flavors merge. Pretty fun.

For entree-style fun, here’s a photo of the lamb chop as served.

Before being brought to the table, wood charcoal is fired, the smoke is caught in the glass globe and placed over a cut of lamb belly. Like the highest-end smoked bacon. And such a cool effect when the globe is lifted – like a micro camp fire in the middle of this beautiful dining room.

It’s fun to encounter a style of cooking that hits you in such different and unexpected ways. Obviously I’m only touching a small (and probably not the most representative) tip of what Hakan’s cuisine is all about – we only had a couple hours to hang out – but it’s the kind of experience that opens up new possibilities. Hakan is himself a blogger, so definitely check it out and see what kind of tricks he comes up with on a regular basis. And, of course, get yourself to the Sample Circuit to get your ticket to the event hosted at Cosmos Wednesday, June 3. It’ll be a party.

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Which makes it kind of funny that before photographing Diana and Kaitlin at the Birchwood we hardly talked about food at all. This actually says more about the way I think about Birchwood employees than anything – they’re all interesting people with goals and aspirations that reach beyond the food service industry. They’re just drawn to the Birchwood as a collecting place for people who think about things like community, sustainability, creativity. . . and really really good turkey burgers, preferably with brie and bacon.

Anyway, here are a few photos of the February and March Employee(s) of the Month at the Birchwood: Diana and Kaitlin. Congrats!

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