Doug Flicker in his kitchen at Piccolo restaurant
Piccolo
Remember in December when Doug Flicker dropped a big old hint that he'd be doing something soonish, with burgers? That was on the occasion of the announcement that he was closing nationally acclaimed Piccolo (still open a few more weeks) since he had the Walker Art Center's Esker Grove as a finer dining playground. Well, friends, the mists have cleared: The burger concept is ... Bull's Horn!
Here's the scoop. You know the cute little 3.2 bar Sunrise Inn, on the corner of 46th street and 34th Avenue, just a pop off Hiawatha? Well, if you don't, no worries—it's cute, it's got a classic golden wood bar-top and one of those tiny flat-tops like they have at Matt's, which lets a bartender grill onions. And Doug Flicker and his wife Amy Greeley are buying it! They will close it in April for a little update and freshening, and re-open as soon as they can as Bull's Horn.
Bull's Horn will have a kissing-cousin relationship to Sandcastle, the summer-only beach hut on Lake Nokomis that Flicker and Greeley run. Kissing-cousin in that new Bull's Horn will carry some of the same beers as Sandcastle, and will share some staff. But it will also be different. They'll offer distinctly un-cheffy Heggie's Pizza, the local cult bar pizza that Flicker is famously a fan of, burgers, and maybe a warm roast beef sandwich, if they can get the right kitchen equipment. They are also going to offer two kinds of pizza burger. "Do you think a pizza burger has the cheese on the inside?" Flicker asked me. Hell no! I answered. I think a pizza burger has pizza stuff on top. Nope, he said: Pizza stuff inside. Evidently Flicker's wife Amy also thinks pizza stuff goes on top, not inside, so Flicker says he plans to offer a real life experiment at Bull's Horn, offering both pizza-on-top and pizza-inside pizza burgers, and the most popular one will be crowned correct. But wait!! If you have announced your intentions, isn't the experiment no longer blind, and won't we be blocked from a pure answer forever??!!??
These, Flicker explained, are the questions the jukebox is there to answer. It'll be stocked with good old Gen X classics like Echo and the Bunnymen and Bauhaus, and will make Bull's Horn the kind of place Flicker has always wanted to go—and the perfect place to decide if you're an innie or outie, pizza burger-wise. Well, cool we'll all get ready for Bull's Horn, which should open this spring, as soon as construction allows.
