0 BYO Burger – West St. Paul, MN

D.Rough and I drive past this place every time we go to the gym – which I’ll tell you is NOT very helpful. We caved one day and I thought I’d let you guys know how it is.

The inside of this place is interesting. Odd, but interesting. It’s a construction-themed restaurant, which makes sense when you use the Build-Your-Own part at the beginning. So there’s all kinds of black and yellow stripes on things and orange warning signs and such.

Once you look at the various menu boards, you can decide to build your own burger or pick one of the signature pre-designed burger options. I figured I’d take the easy way out and get one of the signature ideas. The Hawaiian Burger sounded good to me – grilled ham, pineapple, salsa, lettuce, and tomato, served on a multi-grain bun. D.Rough go the Atomic Burger – fried onion strings, pepperjack cheese, jalapenos, horsey sauce, and BYOB sauce on an onion roll. And we caved even further when we ordered some cheese curds – I may or may not have talked D.Rough into getting these with me.

The Atomic Burger looked good, though I thought it would have more onion rings on it. That being said, it was a delicious burger. The meat was juicy without being greasy, and the sauces were well developed. This was a good burger!

The Hawaiian Burger was also quite good. The salsa didn’t taste like it was from a can/jar and the ham (or Canadian bacon) added some good flavor to the already delicious burger. It was a little messy, but really quite fantastic.

And of course, the cheese curds were amazing. It’s hard to mess these things up. They were really what we both wanted.

Not enough things to do a Top 5 list on, but pretty much everything was great, especially for a small chain burger place. It wasn’t a greasy spoon burger, it was just a well put-together burger. I’m looking forward to going back and trying out my own concoction on these guys. (and more cheese curds).

www.byoburger.biz

Detail: BYO Burger – West St. Paul, MN

0 French Hen Café – St. Paul, MN

D.Rough and I headed over to the French Hen Café for breakfast (well, more like brunch since we slept late). I had heard good things about this place and couldn’t wait to eat here.

We started with a few blood orange mimosas (D.Rough got Prosecco and I got Moscato). It’s hard to have a bad meal when you start with these things.

D.Rough ordered the Croque Suzette – a grilled sandwich on Brioche with smoked ham, Gruyere, Dijon béchamel, and topped with a sunny side up egg and served with hashbrowns. I ordered the Omelette a la Florentine – spinach, tomatoes, mushrooms, and Brie and I got a side of root vegetable hash.

The food came out pretty quickly and we shared each of these things like pros.

The Croque Suzette was really good. Dense but tasty bread with all kinds of messy toppings. Great ham and Gruyere flavor were especially good combined with the runny egg. Great work on this thing. The hashbrowns had great flavor and were thinly cooked, so there were lots of crunchy parts.

The omelet was tasty and had a lot of fresh tasting ingredients on the inside. I will say the highlight for me was the root vegetable hash. Really seasoned well and lots of good textures and fresh flavors.

We didn’t spend long here, although we did pop into the flower shop next door (run by the same wonderfully nice family). It’s a very nice atmosphere and they serve really good food. They also serve dinner, so I’m curious how that’s going to be when we return. Looking forward to it!

www.frenchhencafe.com

Detail: French Hen Café – St. Paul, MN

0 Kaposia Park Disc Golf Course Signage – South St. Paul, MN

This is one of those posts where I complain about something I’m passionate about. Some people don’t like it when I post negative things here, but this is my outlet and that is why Al Gore invented the internet (yes, I know that isn’t true). Be offended if you want. I’m not hiding behind anything by writing this. If I knew who to talk to, I’d talk directly to them. This is just a heads up to anyone designing future disc golf courses around the world.

I’ve been playing disc golf for 20-ish years now, so I’ve seen a lot of courses. This also means I’ve seen a lot of basket styles, tee pad styles, course amenities, pay-to-play courses, as well as public and many private courses. I don’t mind pay-to-play courses, especially when you can actually SEE the results of that money going into the course. The Twin City area has a handful of pay-to-play courses and you can really see the results in the upkeep, maintenance, landscaping, and improvements on the courses. I LOVE this area’s disc golf community. Especially since the Twin Cities is hosting the Amateur World Championships this year at some of the area’s best courses.

Kaposia Park is one of the longest running courses in the area and has a history of being a top notch course, in both challenge and appearance. To prepare for a host of upcoming national-level tournaments, Kaposia (with some members of the Minnesota Frisbee Association and the South St. Paul Parks Department) has done a lot of work on the course. Fixed some baskets, cleaned up some tee pads, trimmed some foliage appropriately, and put in some brand new tee signs. Sadly the tee signs are what have brought about my displeasure this particular day.

Here’s what the new tee signs have going for them:

• Distance from both tee pads – Check – extremely helpful and important on a sign
• Elevation Change – Check – not necessary, but helpful to top-level pros and impressive in some cases
• Quirky individual hole “name” – Check – not necessary, but amusing and nostalgic and interesting
• Flight path of the disc – Check – not necessary, but it can be helpful to know where the majority of people will throw their shots and where obstacle, out-of-bounds, streams, and trees are
• Pointer to the next tee – Check – again, not necessary, but VERY helpful in walking the course for the first time
• Compass/North Arrow - Check - really not necessary, except in a zombie apocalypse when I will be lost in the woods with my discs

What’s the one thing that’s an absolute MUST for a tee sign and the reason tee signs were created, especially for a course with parallel fairways and close groupings of tee pads??????

THE HOLE NUMBER

If I had never played this course before, I’d be extremely upset that I couldn’t tell if I was on hole 1 or hole 3. Or if I was on hole 2 or hole 18. Or if I was on hole 11 or hole 14. Or where to go after hole 16.

Yes, these signs look really fabulous and are high quality. I understand someone or some group took a lot of time to design and make them look nice, but tee signs are for people who haven’t played your course before and so people don’t get lost. It’s a really simple thing to do, and probably easy to forget if you’ve played that course a hundred times. The hole number is an absolute requirement on a tee sign.

Having run many tournaments, big and small, and designed many courses, public and private, one thing you always hear people say is “If you can think of that scenario happening, it WILL happen at some point.” If you think people could possibly get lost during your tournament because your holes aren’t numbered and then have to penalize them for playing the course out of order, then it WILL happen. For that matter, during a tournament (filled with non-Twin City players), how will you send people out to Hole #14 if there is no indication as to which hole is #14??? 

Sorry to go off like this, but it’s really frustrating to see high-quality work go into something and then the most important detail (not even a detail really – it’s the overriding reason to even HAVE a tee sign) has been overlooked and not included. I’ll repeat: the new tee signs look fantastic! There’s just a glaring mistake on all of them.

Again, I realize no one cares about my rant, and I’m fine with that. I just needed to get it off my chest.

Rant over.

Now, I’ll be straight up honest with you and tell you that Kaposia Park also has some of the most hilarious and creative graffiti I’ve ever seen. It’s things like this that absolutely crack me up when I see it and make me relax during the round. Despite it being vandalism, it’s (at the very minimum) hilarious. Thankfully, there’s a huge lack of racist comments, pot leaves, mushroom drawings, and proclamations of love. All of those things aren’t welcome anywhere. But hilarious comments? I can get behind that. Here are two examples.

Detail: Kaposia Park Disc Golf Course Signage – South St. Paul, MN

0 Acme Deli – St. Paul, MN

D.Rough had heard good things about this small mom and pop deli in St. Paul. We had a lazy Saturday afternoon, so we thought we would check it out.

When you get inside, you need to grab a yellow piece of paper, which has a sort of checklist menu on it. The menu has a few special sandwiches on it, but you can also build your own (you pick the bread, meat, cheese, veggies, sauce, etc). We found two that we really needed to try, which is not uncommon. But we heard the sandwiches are normal-human-being sized sandwiches and not a foot-long gargantuan sandwich with more calories than you need for a week. So we didn’t feel too bad about splitting two sandwiches.

We got the Acme Special #2 (roast beef, cream cheese, cucumber, and tomato on marble bread) and an Acme Special #3 (roast beef, turkey, swiss cheese, and cole slaw on a hoagie bun). They sent us into the small dining room to wait for our order. The dining room has four small tables and some really fun photos on the walls. Most of them are framed foods they serve there in the deli or of the people working there. Really a fun atmosphere.

The sandwiches came out quickly on paper plates and the plastic plate holders I haven’t seen since I was a kid. Really a vintage-y touch.

The sandwiches were absolutely perfect. Great fresh ingredients and bread. Fantastic combinations without being giant servings. We didn’t lolly gag when we were finished either. We had to make room for other people waiting to eat. The place does pretty good business during lunch and we saw a ton of people picking up food to take away. Probably having a picnic with all of this nice Minnesotan weather we’re having this week!

I’m looking forward to going back here. These people were really nice and the food is delicious. I don’t know what else you could possibly need!

www.acmedelistpaul.com

Detail: Acme Deli – St. Paul, MN

0 Lucky China - West St. Paul, MN

D.Rough and I have tried to find a solid Chinese restaurant near our house, so we've been trying a handful of different places. We've found a few that had one or two awesome items, but nothing wonderful across the board. I was working from home when I remembered I had to try this one particular place and give it a shot. Lucky China claims to be serving both Chinese and Korean dishes, so I was looking forward to that.

The inside is nice and clean and the hostess and servers were all quite nice and talkative. When I got the  menu, I was bummed to see a severe lack of Korean food on the menu. I was hoping for some Bi Bim Bop or Beef Bulgogi, but it wasn't too be had. I went the traditional Chinese cuisine route. (I later found on their website that they have a separate Korean food menu, so you either have to ask for it when you go there or know ahead of time what you're going to order - NOW I know!)

I was, however, amused to see this typo on the menu. The Teriyaki Chicken apparently is slices of beef. No major deal, but it did make me laugh while I was trying to decide what I was going to eat.

The lunches come with a bowl of soup, so I got the egg drop soup. There are two different styles of egg drop soup. One with a bothy consistency, and one with a more snot-like consistency (sorry for the graphic description). The one at Lucky China was about half way between these two styles. It was pretty tasty, in fact. One of the better egg drop soups I've had.

I got the Hot Pepper Chicken, which said on the menu it was spicy. I was suspicious of that claim, but ordered it anyway. It was quite a serious amount of food and served on a bed of fried rice. Lots of green pepper, carrots, onions, mushrooms, and celery mixed in with the pieces of chicken. The sauce was really flavorful, but wasn't spicy, by any stretch. I would, for sure, order this dish again (but I'd ask them to kick up the heat a little bit - it is really Minnesota-spicy).

Based on the crab rangoon, the soup, and the flavor of the dish, I'll be looking forward to the next time D.Rough wants Chinese food. I know where we'll be going. Thanks for the awesome lunch!

Top 5 things about Lucky China
1. Hot Pepper Chicken
2. Super friendly workers
3. Pretty comprehensive menu, especially now that I know about the Korean menu
4. Crab Rangoons
5. Egg Drop Soup

Bottom 5 things
1. I didn't think there was Korean dishes on the menu, but there are secret ones
2. Food does have MSG in it, but the server said it could be made without on request
3. Couple of minor typos on the menu, which don't really matter
4. Nothing else
5.

www.luckychinarestaurant.com

Detail: Lucky China - West St. Paul, MN

0 7th Street Social – St. Paul, MN

It had been far too long since I had dinner with EnyaFace! She suggested 7th Street Social for dinner and we even picked a night that D.Rough didn’t have anything going on, so she was able to attend. She and I knew this place had opened and were curious what it was going to be like. The only other time I had been to this building, there was some definite weirdness (like me being served food during a wedding reception – NOT kidding). We walked in and I was happy to see the place had been deeply renovated. The bar area was nice and open and there was a smaller dining room – the banquet room is still there, just shut down and used as overflow on weekends and special parties. Once seated, we realized all of were the youngest people there by about 30+ years. The dining area didn’t have a real happening feel to it, honestly.

They have some creative cocktails, so we all found one we liked:

• St. Paul Sour for me – Bulleit Rye, fresh lemon juice, simple syrup, wine float – odd with the wine in there, but I came around to liking it a lot by the end

• Blackberry Old Fashioned for EnyaFace! – Bulleit Bourbon, sugar in the raw, blackberry puree, orange, soda – the sip I had was quite tasty

• Cry Baby Cry for D.Rough – hard apple cider, prosecco, ginger beer – I really liked this and would love to have this on a nice summer day outside in the yard

The menu only has a few things in each section, so making a choice wasn’t too difficult. We asked the server if he had any recommendations, which was a bad idea – he read 90% of the things from every section of the menu, which took about ten minutes, and didn’t get us any closer to deciding what we wanted.

We all started with the House Smoked Salmon with all the garnishes. I wasn’t sure what the garnishes were going to be, but we had all of them. When the dish came out, I understood what they meant. There was a nice hillock of smoked salmon, next to two stacks of buttered and crusty toasted baguettes, a mound of capers, some sour cream, lots of chopped red onions, and a pile of chopped hard boiled eggs. Honestly, this was the best part of the meal. The salmon was smoked well and wasn’t fishy in that way that makes you wonder how long it was out. The toppings were delicious, even if we had slightly smaller piles left over when we finished it all. The whole thing was worth getting again.

I got the Flat Earth Dark Beer Pot Roast – Cygnus X-1 gravy and sweet butter mashed potatoes. The dish had plenty of food on it, but once I took a few bites, I was reminded why a lot of people don’t order pot roast at restaurants. Unless you have either awesome gravy or awesome pot roast, the whole thing tastes bland. The gravy had no flavor to it, not even beer flavor, which was the main ingredient. The pot roast tasted (and chewed) like it had been around a while sitting next to something that sucked the flavor out of it. And since the assorted vegetables on the side of the plate were covered in teh gravy, those were sort of ruined as well. The mashed potatoes were good, but those are difficult to mess up, especially when you add sweet butter to them. I was a little bummed about mine.

D.Rough got the Fiorenza Burger – country ham, fresh basil, fresh mozzarella, tomato on ciabatta bread. Al of the things on the burger sounded like they might lead to a pretty good burger, but this wasn’t the case. The meat itself should have something going for it and it fell flat. No flavor in the meat. The two bites I tried were really lackluster, with the ham being the staring flavor of the whole sandwich. Thankfully, the fries were well cooked and well seasoned, so we basically fought over those and left some of the burger when it was all said and done.

EnyaFace! got the Mac and Cheese and was pretty happy with it. She said there were a lllllllot of bread crumbs on it, but once you got down to the bottom of the crock, you had some pretty good cheese flavor and a good amount of it. From the sound of things, not the best she’d had, but not the worst, either.

Somehow, we had managed to NOT eat all of our dinner by this point and still wanted something for dessert. The write-ups we had read before coming here talked about the best thing not he menu being the Nut Goodie Kro-Nut. …to which the server said they didn’t have any today. WHAT? Alright fine. He said the replacement was a bread pudding (my temporary favorite dessert for the past month) with a whiskey sauce on it. The server also confirmed repeatedly and forcefully (I’m not joking about how forceful he was about this): Raisins, but no nuts! Repeat x6. EnyaFace talked us into sharing it and it came out pretty quickly.

There was serious amount of whiskey sauce on it and surrounding it. It was drowning in sauce. But thankfully, the sauce was really good. And with that much, you didn’t have to ration it on a per-bite basis. The bread pudding was super dense and firm, but with it sogging up a bit in the whiskey sauce, it ended up being pretty nice by the time we neared the end of it. And yes, we definitely finished this dessert.

I hate to say it, but this was one of the more mediocre meals I’ve had. I maybe could have been able to foresee that, based on the amount of older folks in the dining room. We don’t plan to go back here anytime soon. We’ll go a little bit further down the road and go to Ras!!!

Top 5 things about 7th Street Social
1. Smoke Salmon Plate
2. St. Paul Sour
3. Cry Baby Cry
4.
5.

Bottom 5 things
1. Flat Earth Dark Beer Pot Roast
2. Fiorenza Burger
3. Out of their signature item, the Nut Goodie Kro-Nut
4. So many bread crumbs on the Mac and Cheese
5. Their website is a blog plage, not an actual website – pet peeve, sorry

www.seventhstreetsocial.com

Detail: 7th Street Social – St. Paul, MN

0 The Buttered Tin – St. Paul, MN

I had been planning to hit up The Buttered Tin for a number of months after I found out about their extra-special treat they make their – a house-made Twinkie (spelled Twin-Key for legal reasons). What could be better than that? The place is open for breakfast and lunch, so D.Rough and I went sort of in the middle of those times and ended up being able to order either breakfast or lunch. We both went with breakfast, based on what they had to offer. It wasn’t an easy decision, since most of their menu sounds pretty good.

I finally decided on the Bread Pudding dish they had that day as a special, and D.Rough got the Creamy Polenta. The server was super friendly and answered a ton of questions we had about various dishes. Plus, you can watch your food being made through the giant glass window into the kitchen. Makes it seem like the food comes out super fast (it actually WAS pretty quickly).

The creamy polenta was good, I won’t say amazing because it was even more liquid-y than either D.Rough or I expected. It had great flavor though. There are bits of something with color in there – peppers or seasoning or something really delicious. It has a smoked bacon and mushroom ragout on top with a poached egg, which, when combined all in one bite, makes a darn good rib-sticking breakfast. The grilled bread that comes with it is for sopping up the bits when you’re through, as well.

The bread pudding, which I have been eating in every restaurant I can find recently, was really good. I’d order this again and again. It was a tough choice between this and hash, but I’m glad I went with this. It was clearly bread pudding but it wasn’t the mega-dense almost pound cake consistency that some bread puddings are. This one was even a bit on the savory side, with blue cheese, ham, fingerling potatoes, and arugula, with a dollop of homemade herbed sour cream on top for some contrast. This bread pudding is delicious.

D.Rough and I were incredibly crushed to find out they had run out of the house-made twinkies for the day and we wouldn’t be going home with one. I’ll complain about it for years, but I know all I have to do is drive ten minutes to this place and pick one up sometime (which I plan to do).

This place is pretty good for breakfast, brunch, or lunch. I have a feeling we’ll be back here sooner, rather than later…

www.thebutteredtin.com

Detail: The Buttered Tin – St. Paul, MN

0 Chez Arnaud French Bakery – St. Paul, MN

D.Rough’s birthday was looming, so I was trying to figure out where I could take her for a lunch date. I threw out a couple of places and she suggested Chez Arnaud. I hadn’t been there and had heard her talk about it. I was 100% IN!!!

The place is very modern, clean, and almost minimalist on the inside. There’s a refrigerated case with sandwich kinds of things and then a dessert case. We did some in-depth perusing and finally decided we’d get a small item, a side dish, and split a sandwich (after D.Rough scaled back considerably what I originally wanted to order – sometimes, I get excited about food). We got a foot-long club sandwich with mortadella, provolone, and pistachio butter, a goat cheese tomato basil friand, and these fried potatoes with bacon, cheese, and onions.

We were going to have to go back up to check out the desserts when it was time. There’s no point in rushing into important decisions like this.

The really nice counter person actually coursed our lunch for us. She brought out the friand (like a flaky puff pastry pot pie) first, so we dug into that. Delicious. Very light and flaky crust and piping hot (she had just taken it out of the small oven). The goat cheese was just to eh point of melty and I wanted to eat a much larger version of this (the photo makes it seem large, but it was about 5 inches across – so not small either). Great starter!

The fried potatoes were split into two different bowls (this server is really top-notch) for us. The cheese was melty on the top and when you could get a bite with all the ingredients, it was super tasty. The only thing that would have made these potatoes better would have been if they had some crust on them, but I know it’s difficult and time-consuming to do that. As they were, they were great and I’m not even complaining a tiny bit. I loved them.

The sandwich was great and made me want to go back to Paris and eat outside a café in the blistering cold winter weather. Crusty bread, but not enough to destroy your mouth when you bite it. Great mortadella and cheese combo and the light pistachio butter was a wonderful touch.

It was dessert time. This took an equally long time to decide, especially since I wanted to get everything. The desserts aren’t just appetizing here, they’re beautiful. Beyond “pretty”. So pretty there are parts you’re not sure if you’re supposed to eat. Look at the photo!

After D.Rough shot down my dreams of eating an entire foot long swiss cake roll the size of my leg (I know it isn’t a swiss cake roll, but that’s what it looks like), we got a Moulin Rouge and a Cayenne Chocolate Macaron for D.Rough (since it’s her birthday), and I got a Pombleu – which she told me was a layered stack of custard, mouse and a blueberry-pomegranate mouse on top with some crumbles. I told the girl I would stop eating when I hit the gold part at the bottom of the Moulin Rouge.

The Moulin Rouge stole the show it was incredible. Very light and “happy” tasting. D.Rough always laughs at me when I describe food with non-food words, but it’s true. I wanted more of these, or maybe an entire log of these! How can I order this? In log form? Sheet cake form? Or do I just have to order a hundred of these little guys? I’m willing to do it.

The macaron was really good. I’ve gotten into these little cookies more and more over the past few years. I’ve always liked them, but I’ve had some bad ones, which means I know what GOOD ones taste like. These were really good ones. Just a tiny hint of cayenne at the end, which the girl told us people sometimes mistake for cinnamon. I can see that. Really good and flaky cookie that we both loved.

The Pombleu was really good as well. I like shooter-style desserts (I’m sure D.Rough is rolling her eyes right now). Pudding shooters. Key lime pie shooters. Cake shooters. Cake vodka shots – whatever. I like them all The blueberry pomegranate flavoring was subtle but any more than that would have made the whole thing too sweet. This wasn’t too sweet. It was perfect.

I’d say this was a pretty good showing for my first time at Chez Arnaud. The only thing I was bummed about was they were out of the giant macaron sandwiches they sometimes have. I had my heart set on one and I suppose I’ll have to come back! When this place runs out of things, they are out until the next day. Just a warning.

Oh, and there is a decent parking lot in the back of the building, in case you can’t find parking out front on Grand Ave.

Top 5 things about Chez Arnaud French Bakery
1. Moulin Rouge
2. Goat cheese friand
3. French sandwich on a long baguette
4. Potatoes, cheese, and bacon
5. Extremely helpful staff who will answer all of your questions!

Bottom 5 things
1. They were out of the giant macaron sandwiches
2. Some of the clientele can be pretty uppity at a French bakery, even in St. Paul. I would likely have “words” with some of the customers we saw this day…
3. Get there early during the lunch hour or you run the risk of them running out of things you want (and you WILL want everything)
4. It was a tiny bit pricey for our lunch (but cheaper than flying to Paris for lunch!), but still reasonable
5. ZERO pencil thin mustaches, berets, and tiny cigarettes here!

www.myfrenchbakery.net

Detail: Chez Arnaud French Bakery – St. Paul, MN

0 Michael’s Pizza – St. Paul, MN

We’ve driven by Michael’s Pizza a few hundred times going to or from our house and had always wanted to try it. The main reason for that is because Michael’s Pizza is where D.Rough’s parents had their first date. I don’t think this is the exact location, since it was a *few* years ago, but we knew it held some sort of nostalgia reason for eating there.

The inside is dark and probably hasn’t changed much since it opened. It’s got old timey wallpaper, dark wood paneling, and dim lighting. But as soon as we walked in, the staff was chatting us up and interacting (not in a bad way, thankfully). Very personable bunch and sort of a family-run unit. We scanned the menu and decided on the Super Special – if you’re there, you might as well get something that a lot of people order, right? The Super Special has cheese, onions, Italian sausage, pepperoni, mushrooms, black and green olives, green peppers, and shrimp. Sound like a lot of toppings? Sure. But it still sounded really appetizing!

The place wasn’t busy, so we grabbed a booth and hung out until the pizza showed up. During that time, the delivery guy came and collected pizzas for the next set to be delivered. This place does killer delivery business, AND we found out they deliver until like 2am most night! Now we can’t wait to capitalize on that!

The pizza was pretty massive. TONS of toppings and cut into squares, like typical Minnesota pizza. I haven’t had shrimp on a pizza before, but it wasn’t bad, honestly. A little odd at first, but then you get used to it. But they didn’t hold back on any of the toppings, which we were happy to see. Great thin crust that stayed crispy. While this isn’t the most mind blowing pizza in the world, it IS really good pizza. I wouldn’t hesitate to go here again and since I drive by it so often, it is extremely likely that will happen. Plus, when you need that 1:30am pizza after a roller derby bout, they may be getting a call from C and D.Rough!

Thanks for the solid pizza, Michael’s!

Michael’s Pizza
441 S. Robert St.
St. Paul, MN 55107
(651) 222-5252

Detail: Michael’s Pizza – St. Paul, MN

0 Fireside Lounge – West St. Paul, MN

D.Rough, and a number of other people, highly recommended the Fireside Lounge to me. Everyone said it had amazing breakfasts where you could have some adult beverages to wash down your steak and eggs. It wasn’t breakfast time, but I had heard there were other good things to eat there. We walked in and they were decorating for Halloween. As in, they had to move boxes of decorations off of tables when people came in to sit down. The staff were very apologetic and made sure they got things hung quickly and weren’t in the way. It was actually sort of fun, hearing them banter and razz each other’s decorating skills.

Deciding on something to eat wasn’t easy. They have all kinds of things I wanted. Turkey dinner special, burgers, tenderloins, fried chicken, spaghetti, salads, and a bunch of other things. D.Rough and I finally decided we wanted burgers. She got a Black and Bleu Burger – Cajun seasoned burger with blue cheese crumbles – and I got a Pulled Pork Burger – BBQ pulled pork on a burger. And, we had been talking about cheese curds for some time, so we got an order of those.

The photo here is two good buddies watching the baseball game on the television and drinking heavily. They were pretty hilarious with their bickering about sports and laughing about all kinds of things. It’s hard to see, but there is a cell phone on the table and they are on speaker phone having a conversation with another of their buddies who wasn’t able to make it to their appointed regular drinking session. It had potential to be annoying since they were both yelling loudly into their phone, but it was more touching that they missed their friend and were making sure he still felt included. That’s the kind of fun and friendly atmosphere this entire place has.

The cheese curds were quite tasty. A tad bit overfried, and still no match for the Minnesota State Fair cheese curds at the mouse place, but still delicious. They weren’t fried so much that the cheese had oozed completely out of them, which we’ve had before, but they were just a little crunchier than many places. That being said, we still devoured these things in lightning quick fashion and wanted another order (but we were responsible and didn’t…sigh…)

The Black and Bleu Burger was one of the better blue cheese burgers I’ve had. The presentation didn’t look like much, but the flavor of the cheese was a perfect match for the Cajun seasoning in the burger. A lightly toasted bun made the whole sandwich well above average. The Cajun fries that came with it were also good – a nice double fry on them gave them a nice crust and it was more seasoning than heat in the spice. Really good.

The Pulled Pork Burger was also top notch. More pulled pork than I expected on top of the burger and it was nice and tender. It came with a side of BBQ sauce that I think might have been Sweet Baby Ray’s (which I love) and when slathered all over the pulled pork, it was even better than I expected. The burger itself was pretty good, but the combination was even better. And I’m glad I went with the onion rings. They were clearly not from a frozen bag and had a lot of batter on the rings.

This was a great dinner at a local lounge. I won’t even call it a dive, since it’s nice inside, but it is a nice homey lounge that I’m looking forward to going back to. I’m guessing a nice substantial breakfast here, with A.M. adult beverages, would be just the thing for a weekend morning.

Thanks everyone for recommending this place. I’m just sorry it took me so long to get here.

Top 5 things about Fireside Lounge

1. Black and Bleu Burger

2. Pulled Pork Burger

3. Onion Rings

4. Super friendly staff

5. Atmosphere I could hang out in

Bottom 5 things

1. I didn’t get the coleslaw that was supposed to come with my pulled pork burger

2. Slightly (seriously not that much!) overfried cheese curds

3. I’m not even sure if the patio they have (in warmer weather) would be a better atmosphere than hanging inside with the locals

4. N/A 

5. N/A

www.fireside-lounge.com

Detail: Fireside Lounge – West St. Paul, MN