My Three... er, Four Day Roadtrip to the Twin Cities

Dawn, you might be able to lull the demon child into stunned silence like my nephew:

  Oh, we take the choo-choo to the downtown library at least once a week..he just wanted to go NOW!!  I put up a pic. of Faidley's crabcake a while back and Jake said " is that a crabby patty Mama? " too cute!

Leaving the Mall, I drove to the southwest side of Minneapolis to have dinner with fellow roadfooder AHI MPLS ( Dawn ) at Matt's, the bar & grill where the Twin Cities' famed Jucy Lucy originated. I arrived at Matt's at around 6:45, and Dawn joined me about fifteen minutes later. She's a lovely young lady with a truly wacky sense of humor, as one can tell from her posts on this site ( she enthusiastically approved of my use of the word "wacky". ) We both ordered Jucy Lucys, which are thick burgers with a core of molten cheese, and split an order of fries. When the burgers arrived, I attempted to photograph  both the food and Dawn, only to discover that my camera's battery was out of juice. Dawn and I both enjoyed our Lucys very much, and I wish that I had a photo of them for you, but you'll have to make do with a couple of shots of Matt's that I took the next morning.  

  " Young " lady!!  you 'ol smoothie, you!!  did you get a pic. of the " motel cookies? "  I very carefully put in just the right amount of M&M's in each one. 

nocarolina

Dawn and I both enjoyed our Lucys very much, and I wish that I had a photo of them for you, but you'll have to make do with a couple of shots of Matt's that I took the next morning.

Let me see if I understand this correctly.  We just endured umpteen photos of Opie's house, a train ride and the Sponge Bob Square Pants Factory Tour and Museum.  All the while you were draining your camera's battery, and were therefore unable to take pictures of the cute girl....errrr....the burgers.

Way to go, knucklehead.

Knucklehead????? TTM, I am wounded beyond belief ( even if the description is occasionally accurate! ) Seriously, I did learn a good lesson that evening; the first thing I did when I got home was to pick up another battery ( $68 with tax - ouch! ) It's now charged and sitting in the glove compartment, ready to serve in an "emergency". 

I have to say, I love having a camera that takes plain old double As.  /me slapping my knee over 'knucklehead'

I am glad that you both took my comment in the spirit in which it was intended.

I guess I can take some solace in the fact that some around here still have a sense of humor.

And, on a serious note - nocarolina - Be careful leaving that battery in your glove box.  Your part of the world is known for extreme temperatures in both the summer and winter months.  Make sure that you are not doing any harm to your expensive battery by exposing it to unsafe conditions.

Thanks for the advice, TTM. Think I'll just keep the battery here in the house unless I'm on a roadtrip.

Thanks to information supplied by Dawn, I was able to secure comfortable and affordable lodging for the night ( translation: she told me where the LaQuinta was! ) The next morning ( day #3 ), I took Nancypalooza's advice and headed over to Stabby's for breakfast.

In her Twin Cities trip report last month, Nancy told of finding Stabby's by chance at breakfast time, and having enjoyed their biscuits n' gravy. It's not a dish normally associated with Minnesota, but she recommended it highly so I had to give it a try. 

Here's my biscuits n' gravy breakfast... or at least what was left of it when I finally remembered to photograph it. Nancy's recommendation was a good one; I really enjoyed this meal. I'm just sorry now that I didn't try the hash browns.

But now I'd have trouble giving that up for gingerbread pancakes, and I'm really not sure which of those were better.  Glad you enjoyed Stabby's!

Nancy, thanks for posting the positive review of Stabby's; I certainly wouldn't have discovered this place on my own. I'm not 100% sure, but I think that I had the same "excellent waitress" that you had. Her name's Tracy ( sp? ) and she has long dark hair. She and I were discussing Roadfood.com, and I mentioned where I had learned about Stabby's. Her response was that, a few weeks earlier, she had waited on two out-of-town ladies who were taking photos of their breakfasts, and who had a written list of restaurants to try out. Does this sound like it could be you and Julie?

That would totally be us.  We didn't ask her name but I recall she had some awesome boots on--and yes, long dark hair.  She was a really great help to us.

Bob and Nancy,

Did either one of you investigate or know about the Colossal Cafe just down the block from Stabby's?

http://www.colossalcafe.com/

This one has been on my breakfast list to visit for some time.

We saw it, but frankly, all other things being equal I'm usually going to the place with the weirder name.  Don't know if any of you marketing types have studied that.  Didn't go back, so I'd be very curious if it was also good.

I have no idea how they compare. I was just looking up Stabby's and realized it was very close to Colossal. I haven't been to either. Since neither has a breaded pork tenderloin sandwich they were not on my priority list.

nocarolina


Knucklehead????? TTM, I am wounded beyond belief ( even if the description is occasionally accurate! ) Seriously, I did learn a good lesson that evening; the first thing I did when I got home was to pick up another battery ( $68 with tax - ouch! ) It's now charged and sitting in the glove compartment, ready to serve in an "emergency". 

While too late for you...ebay is an excellent place to buy backup recharge batteries for various cameras. I have done so, at fraction of OEM cost, and all have worked perfectly.

No Carolina, glad you enjoyed your trip to our cities!!   Not to pre-empt your report,  I have to stop and thank Nancy Palooza for discovering Stabby's.  I live a few short blocks away.  It is not a direction the dog often takes me for walks,  we mostly head over to the lake, and it would have been months before discovering this.  I had to stop in almost after her report  for biscuts and gravy.  Even  though I was bulging, I was wishing for an extra biscut to sop up around the edges while licking my plate.    Wish I could figure how to do one of Stabby's Egg scrambles sometime,  hash browns/ scrambled eggs/ and more in layers or a Farmer Pete omelet w/ hashbrown and more layers, both smothered in sausage gravy.   And, Nancy Palooza, if you thought Stabby's is weird name,  you should have checked the Colossal= I believe it seats 12, but that's if 2 keep rotating seats.   The Colossal is open Wed- Sun, best avoid the crowds, which doesn't take many, on the weekend, so that only leaves 3 days for breakfast there.  Oh, and the Colossal does something for breakfast I would never think to order at a sit down restaurant-- breakfast sandwiches.  either in burrito form or inside a very good biscut ( best bet) and then get some crispy hash browns alongside.  Now, I got 2 choices and even though they're both practically within frisbee tossing distance, the dog has to stay home.    Ted 

Davydd, Colossal Cafe's menu on their website looks interesting, but, truthfully, I suspect than any future Twin Cities breakfast that I may have will involve the biscuits n' gravy at Stabby's; I really enjoyed them. BTW, thanks for letting me know about Burger Jones on that other thread. I'll keep it in mind if I get back up your way.

After breakfast, I drove around the downtown Minneapolis area taking photos, but unfortunately most came out so bad that I ended up deleting them. This skyline shot turned out pretty decent...

My next destination was downtown Saint Paul, the state capital. I was in search of Mickey's Dining Car, a classic old time diner ( 1939 vintage ) that I learned about from Dave at the Taylor Home Inn. Not being at all familiar with St. Paul, I ended up wasting a lot of time trying to find the place; this was the first of several things that screwed up the schedule that I had put myself on. Finally, I located Mickey's... 

As you can see, Mickey's Dining Car is a real beauty; classic lines and graphics, especially all that great neon. The interior is an eyefull too. I always get a thrill out of sitting at the counter of an old-time diner.

Not being that hungry at lunchtime, I decided to pass on the burgers and other more substantial menu items, and just ordered a bowl of chili. Sorry to say, I ended up wishing that I had gotten a hamburger, as I didn't care for Mickey's chili at all. It had a thin consistency like broth, and the blend of spices did nothing at all for me. They were kind of stingy with the saltines too.

After lunch, I headed south out of St. Paul on US 52, which is my primary route between the Chicago area and North Carolina when I head down south to visit relatives. The terrain is basically farmland and gently rolling hills south of the Twin Cities until you reach the Rochester area ( home of the Mayo Clinic. ) From that point on, the scenery gets more interesting, as you can see in this photo taken near Preston, MN...