Sebastian Joes Kingfield and the kids who brought it there
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE
Openings around town and coming soon
Darling (3311 25th St. E.) opened in the former Birchwood Cafe space in the Seward neighborhood in mid-June. A friend and I went there for a late-ish brunch in early July, and it was pretty packed. I only had one thing, so don’t feel qualified to say if it’s better or not. But it was good. Although I haven’t made it there yet, the new Gatherings Cafe (1530 Franklin Ave. E.) reopened after renovations, also in mid-June, about six weeks later than the American Indian Center, within which it’s located. The cafe is twice the size from before the renovation, and with twice the kitchen space, a new executive chef, and a more decolonized (but still “approachable”) menu.
Brühaven Craft Company (1368 La Salle Ave.), a new opening in Loring Park, is a brewery tap room and more. It’s also a coffee shop, and the brewery produces NA hop water seltzers. It’s family friendly, dog friendly and designed for both big events and all-day hanging out. Ococo (811 La Salle Ave.), a Malaysian and Thai Monday – Friday breakfast and lunch place, has opened in the Residence Inn in downtown Minneapolis.
A letter from some Kingfield area school kids pleading for an ice cream shop had immediate results. Sebastian Joe’s opened up a shop in the former Apoy space (4301 Nicollet Ave.) Read all about it in Southwest Voices here: tinyurl.com/DKRatSSP-SebastianJoes. La La Homemade Ice Cream and Luncheonette (3146 Hennepin Ave.) in Uptown has expanded its space into a deli, serving mostly local and scratch-made foods and an old-time soda fountain. The name of the new enterprise is Sugar and Salt.
Unionizing workers and whiny management: restaurants today
In the July 12 Flyover at racketmn.com, Keith had this to say:
“Susan Du does an excellent job in the Strib writing about how the city of Minneapolis’s proposed Labor Standards Board is continuing to make restaurateurs lose their collective mind. Du catches the owners in several fabrications. For instance: ’Nobody here is saying no to a Labor Standards Board,’ [Nettie Colon of Red Hen Gastrolab] said, contradicting [a] letter signed by the 100 restaurant operators.” Ordinance-opposed owners have also complained that there would be seats on the board reserved for union officials. (There won’t.) All this over an ordinance that doesn’t even exist yet—not even in draft form!
Cafe food at Sugar and Salt – La La Ice Cream Uptown
Also in Racket, on July 3, Jay covered the then-developing story about almost overlapping unionization drives at the very pinnacle of trendy dining in the Twin Cities, Kim’s in early June, and Café Ceres and Colita a couple of weeks later. These establishments are all helmed by James Beard nominated or awarded chefs: Ann Kim and Daniel del Prado, respectively. The article is worth a full read (tinyurl.com/DKRatSSP-UnionSEIU) delving into both recent (pandemic, start of union push) and early 20th century (founding of HERE) history, citing current UNITE HERE Local 17 officer Sheigh Freeberg and labor historian Peter Rachleff.
Bitter Southerner does it again!
“The Taste of Memory” is the latest gem of food writing from Bitter Southerner, which has been winning awards for the quality of its writing on food and culture. It’s about Laotian and Hmong rainbow-hued rice varieties being grown today in North Carolina. Read it here: tinyurl.com/DFRatSSP-NCriceBS.
More foodie news, mostly local
The Best Budget Bites series is a great occasional series where Em Cassel or a guest writer highlights a great meal or dish for $9.99 or less. The latest one, by Cassel, is the breakfast sandwich from the Band Box Diner (729 10th St. S.), a tiny diner in the Elliot Park neighborhood just south of downtown. Look for the series in the Food & Drink section of racketmn.com.
No Appetite for Apartheid is a subproject of the BDS project seeking to end the war in Gaza as well as eventually achieve full democracy for Palestinians. This project focuses on consumer boycotting of specific products that would impact the Israeli economy. On the weak side, this will only have an effect if a LOT of people do it, but on the strong side, there are no barriers to doing it, like there are for divestment and other BDS tactics. If you think you may want to participate, go to na4a.org for more information.
On another Quixotic consumer boycott front, I wrote a letter to Oatly, trying to determine if their chocolate was fair trade or not. Here is their not especially helpful response: tinyurl.com/DKRatSSP-Oatly-cacao.
Heather Olsen and Tatum Barile of Nice Time Market
Mini-reviews
Nice Time Market (2402 38th St. E.) opened a couple of weeks ago in the spot of the last Tom Thumb in the Twin Cities. It’s a cozy little dream of an updated Mom and Pop. All it needs is a bodega cat. They have a curated selection of basic grocery and convenience needs, and then a whole bunch of great deli offerings that they are working on getting approved for EBT.
Vegan Chef Challenge 2024
Next month I will be reviewing several vegan dishes in the Twin Cities Vegan Chef Challenge, an annual celebration of vegan food and awareness of animal rights and welfare, presented by Compassionate Action for Animals (CAA). This unique Twin Cities event has grown from a week or two in August to the entire month, as well as including more restaurants each year (26 this year.)
Anyone can participate by simply visiting some of the restaurants and eating their vegan challenge specials, then voting on the website for the best dish, and posting on social media to win fun prizes. By the time I publish my reviews (it won’t be all of them sadly) the voting will be closed, but the winners are announced and awarded at the other main CAA event, the Annual Veg Fest, September 22, 2024. Details here: exploreveg.org/twin-cities-vegan-chef-challenge.
