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Farmers Market
Many of you are itching for one last summer weekend away from all these unprecedented times, especially as some of you stare down the fall with your brood milling about your feet. If that magical rental cabin is out of reach, why not indulge in some small stretches. Head up to a Mora farm for an afternoon hog and corn roast, explore the exotic reaches of Medina for some barbecue, or just go buy your sweet corn from a different farmers market, like in Rochester.
Doing Good in the Neighborhood
>> If you haven't found a good enough reason to join a gathering, maybe this one could be a safe starter for you. Let's plan to Support Provision with Beer and Burgers tonight at Bauhaus Brew Labs. The Parlour food truck will be onsite with luscious Parlour burgers, and a portion of the burger and beer sales will benefit Provision Community Restaurant, which offers meals to anyone who needs it, asking that you just pay what you can.
Nice To Be Out
>> We keep adding more and more things and events to our round up of ALL OF THE STATE FAIR PIVOTS ... Sweet Science has State Fair flavored ice cream? They will starting Aug 27!
>> More corn, all the corn. Get in your car and tool it on up to Mora for Sapsucker Farms Sweet Corn and Whole Hog Roast today. It's just over an hour north and a heckuva drive that finishes with porky goodness. You know they have Yellow Belly hard cider up there too. Aren't farms great?
>> Sasquatch Sandwiches food tuck and El Norte Kitchen are teaming up for a Sandwich Pop-up on Sunday at St. Paul Brewing. You can hang for a beer on the patio or grab it all to go, but make sure you have room for El Chupacabra: a jalapeno cheddar brat with tomatoes, scallions, cilantro lime mayo and tortilla strips for crunch. Full menu should be up for online pre-ordering by Saturday.
New Stuff
+ Chef Tim McKee has joined the I Nonni and Sunfish Cellars team!
+ Bay Street Burger Dive opens at 4pm today! The first solo spot for the joint which came to life in the cramped kitchen quarters of Tony Jaros, lands it in St. Paul. After today, lunch and dinner daily with perogies for all. And burgers.
+ Charlie Torgerson was planning on taking his first Labor Day off in million years, not having to work his RC's BBQ stand at the State Fair this year. But the barbecue man can't sit still, so he's opened up Charlie T's Smokehouse. The barbecue trailer sits outside Inn Kahoots, a tavern in Hamel/Medina, just west of Minneapolis and serves up ribs, pork belly, smoked chicken wings, and short ribs on W-Sa, from 4-8pm or until they run out.
+ Sean Sherman and The Sioux Chef crew have officially launched their Indigenous Food Lab in the Midtown Global Market. Taking over the former Kitchen in the Market space, the launch marks the first phase in their plan to bring native foodways into our daily lives. The site will offer classes and operate as an Indigenous kitchen and training center covering everything from plant identification to outdoor cooking techniques. Big cool plans are being worked on, along with the restaurant still in the process for the Water Works site in 2021.
+ Plans are still cooking for the Farmers Union/Birchwood Cafe restaurant that will eventually take over the old Spoonriver space. But while we wait, we can hang with them at the F + B Pop Up in the space this weekend. Yes, you'll be able to get the Minnesota-grown heirloom tomato and sweet corn kernza focaccia BLT, but also find blueberry key lime pie, maple-bacon caramel rolls, and lavender lemonade. It will also have a couple of new takes on some Brenda Langton dishes, like the lamb burger and the lemongrass-peanut soba noodle salad!
+ Fast last week, we found out that The Lynhall would be opening a second location in Edina. And they did. The cute and airy space on the main level of the Nolan Mains complex in the 50th and France neighborhood, is open and ready to serve you brunch daily.
+ Wafels & Dinges, the yellow blazing NYC waffle stop you can't not love, will open their Mall of America outpost on Aug. 24. You know what that means: free Belgian wafels from 12:30-2pm.
Takeout + Patio + Indoors Notes
>> How's this for posh? You can now rent out an iconic St. Paul restaurant all for yourself. The St. Paul Grill Experience will allow you to have the clubby space all to yourself, along with family and friends, up to ten guests. You'll have your own server and bartender, and your own chef will serve you a five course meal along with your chosen wine from a list of over 50 bottles. There's only one party per evening, from 6-10pm on Wed-Sat nights from August 26 through October 30. The cost is $500 per head, with a six person minimum, for the ultimate private dining night.
>> COCHON555 has gone from a boozy pork fest in a big room with lots of people, to a carry-out event for one night only. Click in for your collaboration carry-out dinner on September 10, and get five of our coolest best chefs (Karyn Tomlinson Queen of Porc, Jametta Raspberry, Steven Brown, Jorge Guzman, Chandra Walbot, and Jose Alarcon) designing your courses, Zooming with you while you eat and drink, and using fresh local ingredients from Iron Shoe Farms. The $115 meal package price will benefit the restaurants themselves, with 80% of the price going to the kitchens.
Closes, Cancellations, and Cuts
+ Well, pack up your long boots and dirndls, The MN Renaissance Festival has officially canceled for this year. I know, you thought it already was, but the organizers held out hope for a long time. They do plan to continue with a reimagined Feast of Fantasy under an outdoor tent, which will include a festival admission ticket good for 2021. All other pre-sold tickets will be honored next year.
+ The James Beard Awards has decided to suspend their awards for the year. The chef nominations that were handed out at the beginning of the year, will be as far as most categories go. So, Steven Brown, Christina Nguyen, Jamie Malone, Diane Moua, and Gavin Kaysen for Demi will actually just have to be honored to be nominated. The awards org plans to reboot their whole process in an effort to deal with systemic bias. So the 2021 awards will be celebrating the heroes of this year's restaurant crisis, with 2022 rebooting the more typical categories.
