Restaurants…

gator said

Bertogliat said My wife and I were talking about how they need to have this as an option.  But I don’t see myself driving to Miesville on any Wednesday, much less during the off season.

I asked them about that and why it’s not an option more often.  And basically it’s to busy during baseball season to be cooking sliders and keeping the grills from overload for all the orders.

That is a hell of a good problem to have.  Good for them.  They likely have more people in that one restaurant at any given time of day during the summer than they have in total town population (136).  Last weekend, hardly anyone in the building was local.  Lots of Eden Prairie and St Paul clothing items.  Quite the draw.

Bertogliat said

gator said

Bertogliat said My wife and I were talking about how they need to have this as an option.  But I don’t see myself driving to Miesville on any Wednesday, much less during the off season.

I asked them about that and why it’s not an option more often.  And basically it’s to busy during baseball season to be cooking sliders and keeping the grills from overload for all the orders.

That is a hell of a good problem to have.  Good for them.  They likely have more people in that one restaurant at any given time of day during the summer than they have in total town population (136).  Last weekend, hardly anyone in the building was local.  Lots of Eden Prairie and St Paul clothing items.  Quite the draw.

 

They do. Them and House Of Coates off of Hwy 52 (also tremendous burgers). I do need to get back there. Met up with Karlsson and Jane Fonda/wife a few months back at the latter’s place, and we couldn’t even get in the door at King’s.

Even if it was their top selling app it may not have been the most profitable and the beans and chips taking up space may not be the most efficient. Generally restaurants trying to do too many different things is a bad sign for quality, but I checked and even without nachos they are still trying to do about 100 different things.

I think that is one of the biggest downfalls of restaurants today is having too big of menu thus making the customer experience very complicated.  I don’t think you need 40 burgers and 50 beers on tap to have a good restaurant.  Keep things simple and do them very well with great customer service.  This is something here in Mankato is a failure in every restaurant.  Even the Loose Moose where my wife works the kitchen can’t cook the food consistently good and there are no basic items on the menu.  Sorry for the brag but my wife is the best waitress there and it’s not even close.

My requirements for a good restaurant; a simple menu that doesn’t take 5 minutes to read over where the food is well above par and you don’t need a bank loan for (I understand food costs are high right now but restaurants here in Mankato were getting bad before 2020), and decent selection of local and national beers on tap.

g-manpuck said

I don’t think you need 40 burgers

Agree… King’s has nearly 100 burgers, but that’s their thing. That’s the novelty of going there.  Though like you mention some places have way to big of a menu, just in the burger selection.

• This reply was modified 1 month ago by gator.

gator said

g-manpuck said

I don’t think you need 40 burgers

Agree… King’s has nearly 100 burgers, but that’s their thing. That’s the novelty of going there.  Though like you mention some places have way to big of a menu, just in the burger selection.

King’s is like a mexican restaurant.  They have about 20 ingredients that can be easily mixed and matched into couple hundred unique options.  It doesn’t really change the quality if they add a new combination.

Interestingly, there was a video I watched last week on this very topic.  The point of the huge menu at Old Chicago (or worse, Cheesecake Factory) isn’t that it’s great food.  It’s that you can go there with a group of people with wildly different tastes, and everyone in the group can find something that works for them.

We came home late Saturday night and drove past the Apple Valley Raising Canes at around 12:30… There was over a dozen vehicles in line… LoL!!!

Cowgirl said

gator said

We came home late Saturday night and drove past the Apple Valley Raising Canes at around 12:30… There was over a dozen vehicles in line… LoL!!!

Slow night apparently.   I rarely see less than forty cars in line during the day.

Owning a Canes is a license to print money.  Every single one that I have seen is always busy… all the time.  Maybe I should purchase a franchise

Bonin21 said

I may need to take back what I’ve said in the past. Was up in Blaine and stopped into Canes for the first time in ten or so years. Went inside because I’m not a dummy waiting in that line and got my food almost instantly.

For under 11 bucks, I enjoyed it more than recent trips to CFA. Everything was more flavorful (albeit probably over the line of too much grease and salt so easy to have flavor). At that price in this current world, it’s good cheap fast food. Just don’t wait in a line of 30 cars for it.

Sorry but I think you’re wrong about the flavor of Canes vs. CFA.  Pretty sure Canes just uses flour and fries them up.  No seasoning at all so if you don’t like their sauce, you are SOL.  CFA has seasoning which IMHO add to the experience.  Plus I love the spicy at CFA.  Not to say Canes doesn’t have quality food.  It’s always fresh and cooked very well.  It’s just very plain.  That’s why I don’t understand the hype Canes gets.  It’s exactly like going to a fancy ice cream shop and getting vanilla.  Sure it’s good, but come on!  Way better stuff out there.

Yes you are definitely correct.  Always go inside.  Maplewood just opened up and walked right in to the counter.  Woodbury always has a huge drive thru line and same thing there.  Order almost right away.

Tiggsy said

That’s why I don’t understand the hype Canes gets.

Tiggsy said

Maplewood just opened up and walked right in to the counter.

You definitely have your choice of fast food in Maplewood.  Canes, across the street CFA and just down the street Popeye’s.

• This reply was modified 1 month ago by gator.

I’d be curious how good the chicken sandwich is at MyBurger because they have bar none the best fries of any fast casual burger place and it’s precisely because their fries have FLAVOR.  They have a very nice Sri Racha mayo but you don’t even need it because their fries are that good.

I will def hit them up again when I visit again in August.

I like Five Guys burgers, but their fries are vastly overrated. I don’t recall ever being at a MyBurger or Shake Shack.

I would put the ‘Juicy Lucy’ at the Blue Door and the Nook above both Matt’s and 58. Though Matt’s and 58 are the originals.

HandyNotDan said

Both Matt’s and 58 are overrated…yeah I said it.  I will take Shamrocks over them every day of the week and twice on Sunday.  Better meat, better selection, better atmosphere and you won’t get gut rot.

And leprechaun legs!

gator said

Bertogliat said

And leprechaun legs!

Please explain?!?!?!

Tempura green beans.

bearpaw28 said

gator said

I like Five Guys burgers, but their fries are vastly overrated. I don’t recall ever being at a MyBurger or Shake Shack.

My problem with 5 guys is they cook all the burgers the same (basically medium well to well done) while I like a burger that is cooked medium. I do like 5 guys fries thou & they give U a shit ton of them!

Is there a fast food restaurant that will give you a medium rare burger?

gator wrote…

We came home late Saturday night and drove past the Apple Valley Raising Canes at around 12:30… There was over a dozen vehicles in line… LoL!!!

YoungEagle wrote…

Cowgirl said

gator said

We came home late Saturday night and drove past the Apple Valley Raising Canes at around 12:30… There was over a dozen vehicles in line… LoL!!!

Slow night apparently.   I rarely see less than forty cars in line during the day.

Owning a Canes is a license to print money.  Every single one that I have seen is always busy… all the time.  Maybe I should purchase a franchise

They certainly appear to be so, and I really don’t know why.  I stopped at one for the first time and grabbed lunch today (only a couple cars in line, so, figured I’d try it).

Not saying it was bad, because it was decent.  But, it was only decent, nothing worth the hype.

Bertogliat wrote…

Steve MN wrote…

gator wrote…

We came home late Saturday night and drove past the Apple Valley Raising Canes at around 12:30… There was over a dozen vehicles in line… LoL!!!

YoungEagle wrote…

Cowgirl said

gator said

We came home late Saturday night and drove past the Apple Valley Raising Canes at around 12:30… There was over a dozen vehicles in line… LoL!!!

Slow night apparently.   I rarely see less than forty cars in line during the day.

Owning a Canes is a license to print money.  Every single one that I have seen is always busy… all the time.  Maybe I should purchase a franchise

They certainly appear to be so, and I really don’t know why.  I stopped at one for the first time and grabbed lunch today (only a couple cars in line, so, figured I’d try it).

Not saying it was bad, because it was decent.  But, it was only decent, nothing worth the hype.

It’s just chicken tenders.  Little ones.  Almost nuggets…..tengets.  And advertising.

 

They’re decent chicken tenders… but that’s it, just decent chicken tenders, nothing worth seeking out.

Greyeagle wrote…

Does Canes advertise?  Not sure I’ve ever seen an ad. Heck, I never heard of them until YE and a cousin went to get them one night for dinner.

They pay Cory Cove to talk about them constantly.

I’m not sure how much Sludge gets paid to constantly talk about Cane’s, I just figured he is childish enough that he does in fact only eat chicken fingers at every meal.

gator wrote…

Bertogliat wrote…
They pay Cory Cove to talk about them constantly.

Better than that moron Mearsauce.

You should meet his dad.

HandyNotDan wrote…

Cory isn’t childish, he has food issues that border on the psychotic.  I know some people like that and while it is fun to mock them, in truth they cannot control it. (if they try and eat the food they will puke it up) His daughter has some of them too.  Chicken tenders are one of the few foods his brain/body will actually allow him to eat.

Leaving whether you like the show or not out of it, all of the people on the show are very cool and some of the nicest I have met over the years.

Hmm.  I remember when KFAN had their Rube Chat and Hawkey posted there for a bit.  Didn’t come off as a nice guy at all, but I have also heard good things about Cove.  Meatsauce I have no idea.

Greyeagle wrote…

My sister loves the show. She used to host them at Oceanairre every year for a holiday lunch, great way to promote the restaurant and get mentioned on air and on social media.

Yeah I remember her being in Vegas when I was there.  They pimp Oceannaire a lot.

Slap,

Hawkey has depression issues and is very open about it and how he is medicated and how it made him a better person.  I honestly used to hate him (he and Superstar were why I never listened to that show for years) but he is very very different now.  In fact people usually complain he is way too positive.  I have never had a bad interaction with the man, including when he interviewed me completely wasted on the Podcast. (which they were forced to delete because it was 90 minutes of drunken craziness in Vegas!  Ironically Grey’s sister was interviewed right after me!)  He always goes out of his way to talk to anyone who wants to chat and says thank you more than any radio person I have met.  He also cries as much as they talk about on the show..

Sauce is nice, but people are often dicks to him because he is the butt of the joke on the show so he is defensive.  You can tell he gets uncomfortable because people say just mean crap to him thinking they are part of the joke. (they all talk about it after live shows)  I mean mocking him cause of his divorce, calling him stupid and fat to his face…just ridiculous stuff.

I would say the only people in radio I met who I liked more, were Dubay way back in the day and Nick from the Half Assed Morning Show. (Josh was ok but quiet and Weasel sucked)  Nick was a huge Gopher Hockey Rube and always remembered me and would meet up with my cousin (who was on the show) and I at bars to just hang.  Very cool dude.

• This reply was modified 3 weeks, 2 days ago by HandyNotDan.

Pizza Ranch in Maplewood also closed recently.

gator wrote…

Driving home from church this evening and I noticed the Pizza Ranch in Apple Valley is closed. I messaged my sister to see if she knew what the deal was. She replied saying that it was profitable but the owner couldn’t keep it staffed so he had to close it.

I would hate to be an owner in the restaurant or retail businesses. It has to be like herding cats.

My buddy just closed his pizza place…his big issue was places like Dunkin could pay kids better and offer better hours.  He lost 2 managers to DD alone because of it.

I’ve never been a big fan of Sludge, always trying to bait Sauce into stupid bets (and Cory’s obsession with betting in general). But I’ll also stipulate that the dynamics of the show wouldn’t work without him. Sauce isn’t as dumb as he acts on the morning show, it’s a bit. For instance, if it wasn’t for AJ, Sauce would dominate the initials game. Overall I believe the show largely dominates mornings because the competition is so weak, especially for the younger demographic.

I must have been in the minority, I liked the show with Morris on it.

Slap Shot wrote…

I’d be curious how good the chicken sandwich is at MyBurger because they have bar none the best fries of any fast casual burger place and it’s precisely because their fries have FLAVOR.  They have a very nice Sri Racha mayo but you don’t even need it because their fries are that good.

I will def hit them up again when I visit again in August.

Getting back on track to restaurant theme…I took your suggestion and tried MyBurger in Tonka (I’d previously ate at their sit down restaurant near Lake Calhoun) a few years ago. Anyway, for fast food concept, it was certainly good! They cooked (as requested) the cheeseburger medium & the fries were good, although I did indulge in the Sre Racha mayo on about half of the fries

• This reply was modified 2 weeks, 6 days ago by bearpaw28.

I really like Five Guys, but my issue with them is they are way too expensive.  I really have to decide if it’s worth it sometimes.

Hit up Iron Tap in Waconia for lunch today with a buddy, I had never been there. I was told the dry rub wings were top notch. I was not told in error. They were damn good. And even though it is a bar, they did flights, which was great, because there were quite a few brews I had not tried previously.

MNGophers29 wrote…

https://a.co/d/drMrG5P

Gonna leave this right here!

😂

Greyeagle wrote…

MNGophers29 wrote…

https://a.co/d/drMrG5P

Gonna leave this right here!

Seems like a lot of $$$ for a pamphlet. 

That probably is mostly about Olive Garden!

MNGophers29 wrote…

https://a.co/d/drMrG5P

Gonna leave this right here!

I kind of want to read the forward…

g-manpuck wrote…

Eric Vegoe wrote…

MNGophers29 wrote…

https://a.co/d/drMrG5P

Gonna leave this right here!

I kind of want to read the forward…

I had that same thought…Did Bourdain write the forward because of what he thought of Grand Forks or as a favor to the writer?

This excerpt is from the first review.

“In 2012, a restaurant review by newspaper reporter Marilyn Hagerty went viral. Hagerty has written, glowingly, about the new Olive Garden that had opened in the town of Grand Forks, North Dakota. Facebookers and others thought the review hilarious as it praised the chain restaurant so highly, and they repeatedly made fun of her for treating Olive Garden like it was a five-star restaurant. The late food expert Anthony Bourdain joined the fray, but he soon realized that Hagerty, with her Grand Forks column Eatbeat was writing about the food in her small community, doing a service to the citizens there. He met and was enamored of Hagerty, finding that she was not some addle-brained yokel, but rather a woman who had been a reporter for decades and had traveled the world. Bourdain and Hagerty became friends, and he published this book, Grand Forks: A History of American Dining in 120 Reviews.”