7.26.2012

On Minnesota Restaurants

We’ve been in Minnesota for three weeks now and because we’ve been eating out a lot, I’ve observed a few things about the restaurants here that kind of surprises me:

  1. The tables and chairs in the outdoor dining spaces of many restaurants here are not chained to anything or locked up during closing time. I mean, sometimes you can see the FOH staff bring the chairs inside during close but everything is just…left out. Chef’s first comment on this was, don’t people try to steal it?, simply because outfitting an outdoor dining space is so damn expensive. [Disclaimer: We’ve lived most of our adulthood in a place where garbage and recycling bins are locked or chained though so we’re used to being, er, cautious and skeptical of others. Oh, New York. We still love you.]
  2. 75% of the restaurants I have been to have served my orders really hot — like see-the-steam-coming-out hot, just like the food commercials on TV. Only 25% it was okay to do so given the nature of the product (Jucy Lucys!)
  3. Bloody marys come with beer chasers (aka a “snit”). I find this really weird and apparently it’s a Midwestern thing but why is it necessary? I don’t understand it so I would love an explanation. [Disclaimer: Even though I grew up in Minnesota, I learned to order drinks, drink, and drink legally in New York]
  4. Why is the wine by the glass here so goddamn cheap? My brut rosé cava was $6 per glass at Muffuletta today and I’m pretty sure the exact same glass would be priced at $10-12 per glass in New York. The labor costs for front-of-the-house vary very little between the two cities but perhaps it’s primarily due to the rent prices for restaurant spaces in Minnesota (since they don’t cost like, $8,000 a month for 100 square feet or something like it does in parts of Manhattan)
  5. Lastly, I’m still getting used to the Minnesotan accents again…because I’m still really amused by it. The servers at the small town/more rural family-run establishments usually have the super thick accents (“Doooo ya want freeench friehs with thaaaat?”). I haven’t heard anyone say “you betcha” though but please note, I might actually pee my pants if I do hear it. [For a refresher on Minnesota accents, please skip to 4:41 in one of my favorite movies of all time, Drop Dead Gorgeous]

That is all.

16 notes & comments
  1. alexieileen said: Oh, girl. Come down south, and you’ll see that we can leave our expensive bikes unchained outside while we shop/eat/whatever! ;)
  2. whatiskimdoing said: Youuu betcha doncha knowww. That, and Kirby Puckett and underground tunnels and golden gophers.
  3. jacobvanloon said: the fuck is a snit? - from chicago
  4. fritesandfries posted this
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