Plate 52, Week 5: Molly Cool’s

Let me preface this blog post by saying that within Minnesota, I rarely venture to another city or town outside of the Minneapolis proper or county zip code of 554XX. (St. Paul is a constant exception due to some of their delicious downtown restaurants, the Xcel Energy Center, and the Ordway.) And after Week 5’s experience, I don’t know if I feel more strongly about that decision or intrigued by abnormal places like Molly Cool’s Seafood Tavern in Lakeville.

Molly Cool’s. Oh, Molly Cool’s. It means so well, it really truly does. I do hope it does well but I fear it will need a quick and life-changing lesson in the concept of cohesion before it’s able to sustain itself. Nadege Souvenir (of Week 4’s Haute Dish) took Jamie Nieman (of Week 3’s The Bulldog, N.E.), another opera friend Eric Norman, and me there for brunch last Sunday. It was, shall we say, a true subcultural experience. Here’s why:

Food: Jamie, Eric, and I had the All-You-Can-Eat family style brunch. It came with a free glass of orange juice or a mimosa, which tasted like a full glass of orange juice; a cinnamon roll for
the table, which was good; home-style scrambled eggs, which really could have benefited from adding some cheese or any other ingredient, but it was fine enough; creamy hash browns that weren’t nearly as creamy and delicious as the ones served at Salut in Edina but that’s a completely different experience, a different planet; applewood smoke bacon, which were good; sausage links, which to me, were the best component of the brunch and I had more than I should’ve; and French toast, which should’ve had a warning that said they were fried because it was quite a surprise to me when I bit into them (the waitress may have explained that they were fried and I just wasn’t paying attention; it happens). However, all these carbs were only $12.95 per person and they replenished items that we had devoured and you could even take home leftovers. I know, right?! I did, and I ate them later that afternoon!

Décor: Good lord. I have to say, even though the interior was mismatched, the personality of Molly Cool’s brought character to Lakeville, which seemed lifeless. Everything was taupe. Seriously. Molly Cool’s is a seafood tavern and carries on the tavern décor of having prominently displayed fish taxidermy on the walls. But since Molly Cool’s kept the furniture, tiling, lighting, and other contemporary touches of the previous establishment, its décor is comical. The ceiling light fixture looks like white bristles of hairbrushes, and in the men’s bathroom is a wall of framed pin-up girls and above the urinals are ads for Snap fitness. It would be a perfect candidate for a makeover show on HGTV. No lie.

Service: The good: the waitress Roxy was darling. When I ordered a Bloody Mary and then the free mimosa, she said, “Oh, that’s a lot of alcohol,” to which I replied, “Are you judging?” We all laughed. But really, she was darling. The bad: the busboy (man, actually) kept grabbing our water glasses right around the rims of where we drank from and that grossed me out but I choose not to say anything. It was a challenging to drink the water. So note to any server, host, or anyone pouring water for someone else: please grab the glass from the bottom. I don’t want to taste your palm.

Cost: Considering I essentially got three meals for the price of $12.95, I’d say the cost was pretty darn good.

All in all, I'd say the plates were good for what you expect.

Best,
Hadley

P.S. – For Week 5, the other restaurant I tried for the first time was Nami but it was before the Scissor Sister concert and I really wasn’t focusing on food.