If you are what you eat, and if you are anything like me, neither a gourmet nor a foodie, then what you are is a gourmand, someone who takes great pleasure in food. Whether driven by my state of mind or palate, this new blog post series you are reading, Plate 52, is a one-year journey and opportunity for me to explore new dishes from fifty-two (new to me) restaurants.
Anyhow, I hope to share my plate experiences at the latest every Wednesday, so check back weekly. I’m just a guy who likes to eat, so you won’t find industry jargon in this series, but what you will find are my experiences shared with honesty and possibly a bit of humor. If, for some reason, that motivates (or prevents) you to make that reso, well, that’s fantastic!
But back to me: the launch of Plate 52 could not have come at a better time in my life. Last week was the three-year anniversary of when I moved to Minneapolis and my last semester in the part-time MBA program at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management. I was in the mood to celebrate, to try new things, to jump-start the next chapter of my life! I was feeling unpredictable and sought restaurant recommendations from my friends; two people recommended Victory 44. So last Saturday night, my friends Kathryn Frankson and Ryan Stadt and I ventured to North Minneapolis for a celebratory dinner in honor of, well, me! Fabulous!
Now, my objective at Victory 44 was to eat well and select a favorite dish from the possibility of two choices (an appetizer and an entrée). The menu was written on the walls and the items were listed by name only, so after asking, the waiter answered our questions that we had on specific items. Now, I would have preferred the waiter to have proactively explained the menu like they do at Sidney Street Café in St. Louis (seriously, one of the best restaurants, ever).
After several minutes of bantering while trying to get a better understanding of the menu, the waiter suggested we select a few items to share in the form of a tasting menu (and before I forget, let me thank him for being patient and describing each item as I transcribed them into my BlackBerry). I personally wasn’t keen on the idea but Kathryn and Ryan were game and I figured, “Why the hell not!”
Our first course was a mozzarella agnolotti and it was very good. It was made from pork belly, snap peas, peaches, Tasmanian honey, and truffles. The pork was tender and delicious but the agnolotti was all kinds of buttery goodness. Kathryn can confirm. All I remember was the taste of butter and it was heavenly, especially since I rarely eat butter these days. I don’t even remember the rest of the flavors but Kathryn said they were complex.
Our second course was a foie hot dog and it was very good, as well. The hot dog was homemade with bacon jam, Julian apple, foie gras torchon, and French fries with homemade ketchup. It really may have been one of the best hot dogs I’ve eaten and I know that Kathryn and Ryan thoroughly enjoyed it as well. Same goes for the French fries and the homemade ketchup. And let me take a moment to talk about the ketchup – I don’t know what was in it but it certainly wasn’t Heinz. The waiter said there were “800 ingredients” in the ketchup but regardless of what was in it, it was whimsical and brilliant.
The third course was the “chefwich” – chef’s ingredients of choice. On the Saturday we visited, the chefwich consisted of braised pork, sauce gribiche, dried feta, and whipped lardo on a garlic baguette. Horrible. In fact, none of us finished it. I don’t know which ingredient it was – I speculate it was the dried feta – but there was this odd taste that dominated the rest of the sandwich. Bleh. But we did manage to finish the French fries and homemade ketchup that came with it. Our second helping, okurrr!
Next up, not really a course we ordered, but they called it a pre-dessert platter. It consisted of a homemade Oreo, cookie dough, peanut butter maple bacon cookies, and meringue. I don’t really recall anything special about it but it was a decent presentation.
And lastly, the fourth, or arguably the fifth course, was the dessert platter. By that time, the wine had kicked in and since the waiter said that the dessert platter changed, I didn’t bother writing anything down. All I remember was the dried beet cracker that sat prettily on top of the beet dessert. It had a stern crispness and was surprisingly more flavorful than the anchoring larger beet base. Sadly, I don’t remember details of the other desserts.
All in all, I’d say the plates were fair but that's because there were so many and that's the risk of averages -- things can end up subpar.
- Hadley
Also tried: Maria's Cafe
