Element Pizza

It's been way too hot and we did not feel like cooking, so we decided to go out on a weeknight and try Element Pizza. It's just over the bridge on Broadway in Northeast Minneapolis, so it is not too terribly far from where we live. I think it has only been open a year or maybe more or maybe less. It's fairly new, let's put it that way.

I tried the Earth pizza which had artichokes, salami, garlic and basil on it, in addition to red sauce and mozzarella. It was a pretty tasty pizza overall. The red sauce was a bit on the sweet side and the crust was a bit more substantial than the crust at Punch Pizza. It's difficult to not compare Element to Punch and I'm not sure the comparisons are fair. Both are plate-sized wood fired pizzas, but I think the ovens are different and the ingredients seem to be different as well.

John tried the Fire pizza with spicy sausage, roasted red pepper, goat cheese and basil on it, in addition to red sauce and mozzarella. He said it was a good pizza but he did not care for the goat cheese on it very much.

The restaurant is counter service only and in a very small building. You can eat in, but there are only 6-8 tables inside. There is also a nice little patio with additional tables. The people at the counter who helped us were friendly and they brought the pizza out when it was ready.


Deals & Discounts: We used the Metro Dining Club punch card on this visit. We were able to buy one pizza and get one free, valid anytime, which is a great deal.


Element Pizza
96 Broadway Street Northeast
Minneapolis, MN 55413
(612) 379-3028

elementpizza.com

Sushi Fix Food truck

I finally went to check out the Sushi Fix truck the other day. I admit, I was a bit hesitant to order sushi from a truck. I read a few reviews that said it was great, so I decided to just give it a try. They had someone standing on the sidewalk outside of the truck to answer questions and take your order. He was very nice and helpful and not at all intimidating.

Distinctive carrying case for your sushi!

I ordered the Crunchy Spicy Tuna roll. Oh my. This was a wonderful sushi roll. It has spicy tuna, cucumber and avocado inside with tempura flakes for the crunch. The fish was very fresh tasting, the rice had a great flavor and I especially liked the sauce. I'll be the first to admit, this was not a cheap sushi roll. It was $13. So the price will slow me down a bit in returning. But I think it is a lot better than the sushi I've had from skyway shops, which are cheaper, but I think they use lower quality ingredients.

I would like to go back soon and try the seaweed salad. I've read about it and it sounds great, but they were out of it on my visit.


Sushi Fix
www.sushifix.net
Twitter: @SushiFix

Ike's Food & Cocktails

Must confess... Ike's is one of my favorite spots downtown for lunch, dinner, happy hour or brunch. I also love the airport location. It is darn close to being as good as the main location, which is hard to do as airport locations of most dining spots tend to be not nearly as great as the originals.

We decided to stop in to Ike's recently before a Twins game. Silly me, I forgot to make a reservation so we had to wait 15 minutes or so. Not bad, but the place is tiny so I don't know what I was thinking by not calling ahead.

John started off with one of their signature bloody Mary's. There is a buffet of goodies on a stick in there. It is apparently a great bloody too, though those are not my thing at all. John said it was good because it was spicy and did not taste like a mix.

John had the bacon cheese burger and fries to eat. I love the fries as they are very crispy and I think they may be hand cut in house, but I could be wrong. Their burgers are great because they use good quality beef and it comes on a big fluffy bun. The good quality bacon helps too.

I went with the weekend brunch. You can choose form eggs any way you want them or an eggs Benedict or an omelet. I went with over easy eggs and white toast.

You also get pancakes, bacon, sausage and hash browns. The pancakes were quite good. I was not expecting to be all that impressed with their pancakes, but they were light and fluffy. The bacon was great, lots of maple flavor too. I'm not that crazy about breakfast sausage in general, so it was just OK to me. I think they do something to their hash browns to jazz them up a bit, though I have no idea what it is they do. They are very crispy and delicious though.

Check out the cinnamon roll. That is a small serving for one too. Usually it is the size of your head, but I asked for a smaller roll. It was warm with lots of carmel and butter and great cinnamon flavor throughout.

We sat at the bar on this visit and the service was just fine, though I did have to ask for the cinnamon roll. Other than that we had a great visit.

Ike's in downtown Minneapolis is pretty tiny, so you might want to make reservations, especially if you are on a tight schedule. I'll have to do another post soon on dinner or happy hour because their whole menu has lots of great choices! I highly recommend their margaritas!


Deals and Discounts: Ike's has a great happy hour Monday though Friday from 3-6pm with drink specials and food specials. The small plates are all but one get one free during happy hour last time we visited a few months ago.


Ike's Food and Cocktails
50 South 6th Street
Minneapolis, MN 55402
612-746-4537
www.ilikeikes.com/

Canterbury Park Food Truck Festival

We decided to visit Canterbury Park last Saturday for the food truck festival and an afternoon of horse racing. John's sister Kelly and his nephew David were visiting from Grand Forks, ND, and she wanted to check the food trucks out. (I was interested in going too!) The day started out cloudy but it cleared up later on and it ended up being a really nice day. We arrived early around 1pm so the lines for the food trucks were not too long. The lines did get pretty long later on I noticed.

The trucks were parked in front of the grandstand. 

John had a bacon brat with kraut from the Chef Shack. There was bacon inside the brat and it had good bacon flavor. Cost was $6 I think.

I just had to try a donut burger from the Eli's Donut Burgers truck. It was a different burger. I ordered it with cheese and bacon on it too. Why not add bacon, right?! The donut as a bun made this a really, really sweet treat. The bun was warm and very fluffy, with frosting drizzled on top. The cheese and bacon added a bit of salty contrast to the sweet bun, but I maybe should have asked for some ketchup. It was tasty, but I'm not sure I'd order it again. It is definitely in the novelty item category. I wonder if anyone orders the donut burger on a regular basis though. Cost was $5 for the burger and $1 extra for cheese and bacon.

Kelly ordered the deep fried green beans from the Eli's Donut Burgers truck. They were tasty, but could have used a dipping sauce of some sort. She started eating the beans out of the breading toward the end. The breading was a bit thick actually. The beans looked and tasted fresh though. Cost was $5.

The line for the Tot Boss truck was really long and slow moving. The tater tots were pretty tasty though. We really liked the chipotle ranch dipping sauce we go for the tots. It was much better than the regular ranch sauce anyway. (The regular ranch was a commercial prepackaged sauce and the chipotle ranch seemed to be homemade or doctored up ranch. It was not prepackaged anyway.) The tater tots were quite crisp, not greasy and very good overall. Cost was $4.50 for the tots and $0.50 for each dipping sauce.

The bacon wrapped tater tots were pretty good. The portion seemed a bit small for the price though. The tots were very crisp, but not as hot as I would have liked. The bacon added good flavor but it seemed to be thin cut bacon. The cost was $4.50.

We enjoyed the afternoon of racing and the food truck festival was a great change from the normal food selections at Canterbury Park and it allowed people to try the trucks that normally don't get the chance to patronize them. I know I was excited to check out some of the St Paul trucks that never come to Minneapolis. Now I feel guilty just thinking about the donut burger and the bacon wrapped tater tots I ate on Saturday...

Canterbury is having another food truck festival on August 10th. I'd recommend watching  their website to see what vendors are going to be there once the date gets closer.

Canterbury Park
1100 Canterbury Road

Shakopee, MN 55379
General Information: (952) 445-7223 or 1-800-340-6361
www.canterburypark.com

Smack Shack food truck

The Smack Shack was one of the first Minneapolis food trucks to roll out last spring and it is still one of the best and most popular due to their great lobster rolls. However, I've always preferred their shrimp po' boys over the lobster rolls.

The shrimp po' boy has a generous serving of fresh lightly breaded shrimp topped with hot sauce, greens, pickles and tomato on a crusty french roll with mayonnaise. It comes with a pickle spear and chips for $11. It is a really filling sandwich and definitely worth the wait if the line happens to be long. For the shortest lines I recommend going earlier in the week and heading out to lunch early at 11:30 am or so.

Smack Shack
Twitter: @Smack_Shack
http://smack-shack.com/

Ginelli's Pizza

Apparently there is something aobut the Minneapolis skyways that makes good pizza difficult to create. Maybe pizza is harder to make on the second floor of a buidling? I have no idea, but Ginelli's is some of the best pizza I've been able to find downtown so far.

 Three meat pizza

Pepperoni pizza

I'm not saying this is the best pizza around, I'm just saying it is the best in the skyways. I like it because it has a nice sturdy crust that is not too bready, the cheese seems to be decent quality and applied generously and the sauce has a good tomato flavor.

Deals & Discounts: Slices of pizza are on $2 if you get there between 10:30-11:30am on Tuesdays. Or 2 slices for $5 on Fridays from 10:30-11:30am.


Ginelli's Pizza

121 S 8th St Ste 235
Minneapolis, MN 55402
(612) 332-6308

http://www.ginellispizza.com/
In the TCF building at skyway level

Tollefson Family Pork - food truck

We've been buying form the Tollefson family at the Minneapolis farmer's market for many years now. Everything is always good quality, with reasonable prices and a wide selection. And now they have added a food truck to their offerings that will be at 5th and Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis Monday through Friday.

I checked it out with a co-worker over lunch last week. The menu had pulled pork sandwiches, pork patties, cheddar polish, Italian mozzarella and hot dogs.

I had the pulled pork sandwich and it was really good. I don't know where their get their bread from, but it is always tasty. The pork was tender and had good flavor.

My co-worker had the double pork patty sandwich. They also had a lot of toppings you could add to jazz up your polish or sandwich if needed. I had no idea they offered the pork patties. Apparently I need to buy some!


Tollefson Family Pork
http://www.tollefsonfamilypork.com/
Twitter: @tollefsonpork
and find them Saturdays and Sundays at the Minnepaolis Farmer's Market

Deadwood/Lead, SD Memorial weekend trip

We went out to visit John's mom and Al over Memorial weekend in Lead, SD. We took a different route on the way out there this time via I-94 and stopped the first night in Bismarck, ND, and then drove south at Belfield, ND. John wanted to check out the changes in Belfield since he last lived there and we drove past his family's old house and drove around the whole town since it is pretty small. Belfield was not too exciting.

We did stop for breakfast in Bismarck at a Cracker Barrel. Cracker Barrel is exciting to me because on trips down south as a kid our family always used to eat at them. John's not as in love with the Cracker Barrel concept as I am, but he tolerates it.

I forgot to take pictures on most of this trip. We arrived in Lead on Friday afternoon. After we got settled in, we ate dinner at a bar/burger place in Lead the first night. Can't recall the name of it though.

On Saturday, the weather was supposed to be rainy so John and I went to Deadwood for the afternoon and wandered around. We had dinner at the Deadwood Social Club with Susan and Al. The food was quite good and it is probably the nicest restaurant in Deadwood. Most of the other dining options in Deadwood are in the burgers, fries and buffet category and never very memorable. Apparently they want you to concentrate on gambling on Deadwood.

On Sunday, we headed over to Hill City, near Mt Rushmore and took a little tour of some wine tasting places there. I should have taken some photos because some of the wineries were quite nice. I believe we visited Prairie Berry Winery, Naked Winery and Stone Faces Winery. I liked the wines at Prairie Berry the best and they had an extensive facility with food available to order and a large gift shop. They also had a pretty patio where you could enjoy your wine on premises.

We headed home on Memorial day Monday via the usual route of I-90 and Hwy 60 and 169 in MN. Not a very exciting drive home, aside from a short stop at Wall Drug. I ordered a donut there, which was surprisingly good with lots of chocolate frosting on it.

If you go out to the Rapid City area I do suggest checking out some of the wineries in the area. Some of them are new and some are not, but I did not realize how many are in the area now. It is something different to do other than the typical tourist attractions.

Deadwood Social Club

(605) 578-3346
657 Main Street
Deadwood, SD
http://saloon10.com/DeadwoodSocialClub.aspx

Potter's Pasties Food Truck

I went to check out the Potter's Pasties food truck last week with my co-workers. Jenny and I had talked about this food truck awhile ago and we were hoping they would visit Minneapolis soon. It seems like previously they were often only in St Paul, but they have been coming over to Minneapolis a couple times a week recently. Anyway, we were very interested in trying the pasties since it sounded like something a little different than the other trucks offer.

Travis ordered the daily special which was some sort of a spicy chicken pasty. I'm not sure what was all in his, but he said it was a bit spicy and pretty good. Jenny and I both had the traditional pastie which has minced beef, carrots, potatoes, onion and gravy inside a golden brown pastry. I really liked the pastry crust. It was light and fluffy and not at all greasy. The carrots and potatoes were cooked but not overly done or anything like that. It is more of a winter comfort food type item and not ideal for a hot day, but it is a good street food item since it is easy to eat as it stays in the pastry crust and doesn't fall apart while you are eating it.  I really liked the pastie and would order it again. I might even try some of the other types like the chicken, Thai veg and pig pastie. The Thai veg sounds really good to me with potato, carrot, spinach and ginger in a red Thai coconut cream sauce.

Potter's Pasties
http://www.potterspasties.com/
Twitter: @PottersPasties

World Street Kitchen food truck- Yum Yum Chicken Rice Bowl

I've been in love with the Yum Yum Korean BBQ Rice Bowl from World Street Kitchen for awhile now. I noticed they had a new rice bowl the O.G. Chicken. I asked about it when I ordered and she described it in detail and made it sound great.

There was a good amount of chicken and it had a lot of flavor and spice to it however, the meat was described as very juicy and moist, but I found it to be quite dry actually. On other visits the poached egg has been runny and on this visit it was over hard and over done. I really do like it when the egg is runny and it soaks into the rice! All of the other ingredients were the same as the BBQ rice bowl and just fine. The chicken rice bowl was just ok overall and maybe I just got some dry chicken, but I don't think I'd get this again. I'll go back to ordering the Korean BBQ rice bowl instead.

World Street Kitchen
www.eatwsk.com
Twitter: @eatwsk1