Minnesota State Fair 2016

I managed to work in three fair visits this year, the first on Friday, August 26th, with my friend Stephanie. We arrived around 11 am and basically wandered around all day. I had no agenda and we had fun checking things out.

 I started with a pronto pup.

 Tom Thumb mini donut machine. 

 The final product. Very light and fluffy and fresh. 

I enjoyed the Premium Blu beer from Schell's again this year. Love the frozen foam! We had cheese curds as well, but I forgot to get a photo.

We stopped by the Minnesota Wine building, to do the wine flights. I tried the whites and Steph went with the sweet and fruity flight, each flight cost $10.

Key lime pie on a stick. Very tart and good. Form Kermit's in Key West, so not made locally, which is maybe OK.

Steph got some Sweet Martha's cookies to take home. We ate quite  few to try and close the lid, but did not do too well. It is a lot of cookies! 

I stopped by the fair Saturday night for awhile to meet Kelly and Michele before the Dixie Chicks show. I started with a burrito from Taco King across from the Miracle of Birth Center. It was very bland and basic, but it was large and quite filling.

I also had the garlic cheese bread with sauce from Vescio's near the Grandstand. I've had it many times before and it was very good as always, but I forgot to get a photo.

Sunday John and I headed to the fair for our day of fair fun. The day started off cool and rainy, but it was not raining by the time we arrived at the fairgrounds.

Bacon from the Big Fat Bacon stand. Just go get this because it is always great!

Fudge Puppy is a chocolate covered waffle on a stick. The waffle was very fluffy and fresh.

John always has to get french fries, these are from World's Greatest French Fries, across from the Food Building. They were hot, fresh and crisp. Very good.

We only tried one new fair food this year, the bang bang chicken from Lulu's in the West End. The chicken was crisp and fresh and the breading was slightly spicy and the dipping sauce was also a bit spicy, but not overly so. I'd highly recommend these.

Another great fair is in the books for us, as we won't be able to make it for the second weekend of the fair. I think three days in a row was maybe a new record for me and maybe too many days in a row. It is probably better to spread it out a bit more next time around.

RS Sports Grill

Now that Redstone in Minnetonka has moved across the street into Ridgedale Mall, the old building has been rebranded as RS Sports Grill. The interior looks pretty much the same as before, but they have added a lot of flat screen TVs all around the restaurant. It would be a good place to watch football or something.

John had a buffalo chicken sandwich with waffle fries and seasoned sour cream. The sandwich was OK, the fries were decent and the seasoned sour cream was acceptable. The buffalo sauce seemed to be simply Franks Red Hot sauce. I guess I had been hoping for something more like the Redstone buffalo sauce, which is very flavorful.

I had the cheeseburger sliders. The hamburgers were cooked perfectly, but did not have a lot of flavor. I did like the deep fried pickles on each. A nice touch.

The service was OK, but I don’t think either one of us were too impressed with them menu selections. The menu seemed a bit limited and what we had was not very impressive. I had been hoping for more creative and better executed bar food, but I think we got average bar food. Hopefully, it time they revise the menu and step things up a bit.


RS Sports Grill
12501 Ridgedale Dr
Minnetonka, MN 55305
Phone: (952) 544-0993

Market BBQ food truck

Market BBQ restaurant is a mainstay in Minneapolis for BBQ fanatics. Earlier this year they rolled out a food truck to join the food truck trend. That works for me, as there are not tons of great BBQ options for lunch in downtown Minneapolis.

I tried the pulled pork sandwich and asked if I could substitute a cookie for the potato chips, which the order taker quickly agreed to. The sandwich was large with a generous portion of pork inside. The bun was fresh and soft. The regular BBQ sauce was a bit bland, but I liked their hot sauce quite a bit. The pork was juicy and had good flavor. The cole slaw was quite good with lots of dressing. The cookie was commercially made, but locally and it was a good snack later in the afternoon, but nothing I’d seek out.

Overall, the Market BBQ food truck is a solid option. There was no line, the service was quick and the food was ready quickly as well.


Market BBQ Food Truck
Twitter: @marketbbq

Bibuta Food Truck

The Bibuta food truck was intriguing to me from the first time I spotted it in Downtown Minneapolis. I read the menu and skipped it, but once I heard it was operated by the Sushi Fix owner, I decided I had better give it a whirl.

The menu consists of two main items, sushi burritos and sushi rice bowls. I was a little apprehensive of the sushi burrito,  but I see it is not wrapped in a tortilla but in soy paper, for a light and flexible exterior. I may have to try that next.

On both of my visits I went with the sushi rice bowls. The first rice bowl was the Sushi Bowl for $12, which contains tuna, salmon, ginger, pickled eggplant, avocado, cucumber and sushi rice. The sushi rice is very good and plentiful too. I liked the mix of the cold fish with the warm rice too, nice contrasts. The fish tasted and looked very fresh as well.

The second time I visited, I tried the Hawaiian poke rice bowl. This is a home run for me, with tuna, salmon and avocado with a light sesame sauce. The fish was very good and the avocado throughout just kicks it up another notch.

I enjoyed both sushi rice bowls and would recommend them to anyone. They are a great way to sample sushi without having sushi.

The truck can often be found in downtown Minneapolis and at Minnesota United FC games. I would recommend following them on twitter for the latest information.

Bibuta Food Truck
Twitter: @eatbibuta