Interesting new places, free vegan meals, and one more Vegan Chef Challenge

 

BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE

Openings, closings and changes

Forepaugh’s, the venerable fine dining place in St. Paul, has reopened in its original place, a mansion built by a guy named Forepaugh. Wife and husband duo Mary Slater and Tenzin Dechen have opened a new Lao cafe called Asian Duck Cafe in the ground floor of the MN46 apartment building at 46th and Minnehaha Avenue.
Cross Bridge Noodle is open in the old Bad Waitress spot on Eat Street. The name of the restaurant refers to the iconic dish of Yunnan province China, which is on the menu. Barcelona Wine Bar is a popular national chain, and the new one at 508 N. Washington Avenue, helmed by chef Alex Dayton, is the first in the Midwest.
Tap In, a restaurant, cocktail bar, and community space in North Minneapolis, from real estate collective New Rules, opened in June to much acclaim. Its tight menu and creative cocktail program feature upscale African American favorites, with catfish and beef brisket elevated to fine dining standards, and Hennessy cognac used in classic cocktails.

Chicago Taste Authority has closed in its longtime location on East 42nd Street in south Minneapolis. Attributing their departure to an unreasonable rent hike, they are planning to reopen at some point, at some place. Pourhouse has closed in downtown Minneapolis, and Gray Duck Tavern has closed in downtown St. Paul. Presumably both closings are part of the general decline in downtown business both cities are experiencing.
May Day Cafe is in the middle of a crowdfunding drive to save the beloved business by becoming a worker-owned cooperative. You can contribute here: givebutter.com/maydaycafe. The Italian Eatery building on Cedar Avenue is for sale. At Eat Street Crossing food hall, there have been two further changes in the lineup. Ouro Pizza closed, and their space reopened as House of Hue. Previously, Sushi Dori closed to make way for PinKU omakase.

Food politics and hospitality labor section

UNITE HERE Local 17 filed federal unfair labor practice (ULP) charges against Kim’s and Vestalia Hospitality, the restaurant group behind the now-closed Kim’s as well as Young Joni, Pizzeria Lola, and Hello Pizza. Charges are based on three months of anti-union behavior by the company, culminating in its unilateral decision to close Kim’s without bargaining.
A 2020 review of existing research found that food insecurity is associated with behaviors associated with eating disorders in adults, such as binge eating and “compensatory behaviors” to control weight, such as using laxatives.
Reporter J. D. Duggan of Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal published his interview with two leaders of the popular downtown restaurant Hell’s Kitchen. The topic was the proposed Labor Standards Board that the city of Minneapolis may set up to try to help mitigate labor conflict and abuses in the hospitality industry. Hell’s Kitchen CEO and co-founder Cynthia Gerdes turned the company over to workers at the beginning of 2020, which gives its current management of employee-owners a unique perspective. Read or listen here: archive.ph/TSeaS.

“Best things” and other food-related gossip

The latest Best Budget Bites from racketmn.com is the Lions Tap’s (Eden Prairie) single cheeseburger priced at $5.80. That’s a long way to go for a bargain though. My suggestion is to try the simplified burger at Hamburguesas el Gordo for $9.99 or the “Jr.” version for $6.99. If you are not a burger-eater (and almost all the BBBs have been meat-centric) they also have vegan tacos for $3.99 each, and guac with great chips for $8.99.
Even better is if you can find vegan, vegetarian and halal meals for nothing! A piece in Racket by my friend H. Jiahong Pan covers just that. Read it here, and my comments:
racketmn.com/free-meals-minneapolis-saint-paul-vegan-vegetarian-halal

Grocery store news!

Grocery news stories are like buses. You wait for hours (or months) for anything to happen, and then three come along at once. Loma Bonita Supermercado, a small local chain of Mexican groceries is planning to expand - greatly – by opening a new branch in the former Rainbow Foods at the Hub Shopping Center in Richfield.
This came shortly after the opening of the second Colonial Market in the former Aldi’s store at Hi-Lake Shopping Center at 2100 E. Lake Street. A third one is planned for a December opening in another closed Aldi’s, this one in North Minneapolis.
In St. Paul, meanwhile, Mississippi Market joins several other local cooperative groceries in being a union shop. Workers at Mississippi Market recently announced that they had joined United Food and Commercial Workers Local 663.

Mini-reviews: India – Last day of Vegan Chef Challenge + Cumin Club simmer sauces + cookbook plug

I managed to get to one more Vegan Chef Challenge meal on the last day of August, when I went to Himalayan on E. Lake Street. I am car-less now, but I bummed a ride with a DSA comrade who is totally vegan and somewhat new to the area. We had an excellent meal of their special for the challenge – Jackfruit Tikka Masala. I think it was my favorite of the three.
I had canceled my Cumin Club subscription a while ago because I am too lazy, and the packets were piling up. The Cumin Club is an international mail order meal service that sells “dry and fly” Indian regional vegetarian meals for about $5 per serving. There is something magical about the method (they are all prepared in kitchens around India, by chefs using local ingredients) because they are

prepared in your home by simply pouring a dry packet into boiling water and cooking it for a few minutes, but they really do taste fresh. Anyway, I briefly renewed deliveries in order to try their new offering – simmer sauces. These packets are just dried sauce, so you can combine it with your own choice of fresh ingredients. I have only tried one of the ten packets I got. I made a combo of a sauce packet of palak (spinach) with my own paneer (cheese) and green peas. It was excellent!