Café Twenty Eight 2724 W

Cafe Twenty Eight
2724 W. 43rd St., Minneapolis 612-926-2800

A Lunch away from the Rat Race

A Beer Drinker's Paradise

Are we hip or influential or what? Two weeks in a row The Lunch heads to Linden Hills in Minneapolis, and today, Saturday, I see in the paper that Target Corp. is introducing an exclusive clothing line for active baby boomers ("zoomers") called Linden Hill after the neighborhood.

Normally when we look around the dining room during one of our outings it’s a businesslike environment. Even if wheeling and dealing aren’t going on, deals aren’t being cut, offers aren’t being proffered and countered, the diners have that air of people who’ve taken a short break from the daily grind. By the looks of it, the clientele at Café Twenty Eight (located right next door to last week’s venue, Rice Paper) consisted of homemakers and retirees meeting for lunch—whether they were zoomers or not, it’s hard to say. I am sure there’s a daily grind associated with being a stay-at-home mom or dad or retiree, but it often seems less arduous to me from the other side of the domestic/professional divide.

Factor in the fact that 28 drips neighborhood charm, located as it is in an old refurbished fire station (the building also houses a well-known architectural firm) with an entrance passageway that is a veritable minimusuem of Linden Hills … old photographs and subdivision maps and descriptions of how life used to be … and you’re virtually guaranteed that those meetings and work deadlines that are on your mind will be put into perspective. And it doesn’t hurt that 28’s space itself is soothingly attractive, that the staff is friendly—friendliness being more important than competence in this context—and that the menu features some intriguing, non-run-of-the-mill items.

Speaking of which, the menu combines south-of-the-border and Continental fare. The appetizers are biased toward the former, and include quesadillas (including a vegetarian one) and salsas, although there’s also calamari ("tentacle-free") and a pan crust pizza. Two soups are offered, a curried cream of pumpkin and a spicy chicken and butternut squash. The main courses include sandwiches, a bison burger, a gruyere and caramelized onion quiche (with a pear salad on the side), and chicken, steak, and fish preparations that, for the most part, sound worth trying (e.g., "buffalo flank—grilled medium rare, seasoned with zingy Latin spices; served with a bacon and yam hash"). Three salads are also available, and although there really isn’t a simple green salad you can get any of the three in a half size (good deals at $4). If, on the other hand, you find the full salads not substantial enough they can be supplemented with grilled portabello, chicken breast, or steak.

The wine and beer list is distinctive too, with, in particular, brews that I would think are hard to find on this side of the Atlantic—and especially in between the Mississippi and the Continental Divide! On tap there’s a Belgian dark beer called Maredsous 8º … I had that the last time I was at 28 and liked it; this time I went with the Bellhaven Scottish Ale, which came in a can—one of those with a rattling "widget" inside. It was creamy but not rich or intense, almost watery but in a pleasantly quaffable way.

I ordered a half champagne pear salad as a starter, a combination of pears, pistachios, gorgonzola, mixed greens with a champagne vinaigrette. The pistachios were the highlight of this dish and were in abundance. The gorgonzola was an extra-mild variety; I would have mistaken it for a creamy feta. The half salad came with two slices of an excellent baguette.

B and I opted for main courses at opposite ends of the conventional/novel spectrum. For some reason I reflexively ordered the lunch special, a grilled ham and cheese sandwich on sourdough that was saved from being run-of-the-mill by a lightly applied spread of Thousand Island dressing. The sourdough was thick cut and nicely grilled. The cheese was cheddar—not my choice for a ham and cheese generally, although its sharpness complemented the slight tang of the Thousand Island. The accompaniments were excellent crispy potato chips, lightly sprinkled with black pepper, and a pickle that was disappointingly insipid.

You can get a ham and cheese sandwich anywhere, but there’s one item on the menu that was new to my food lexicon, the Rojo chicken tingas—shredded chicken breast in a tomato and chipotle sauce served atop tostadas. The menu includes a boldfaced warning, "this dish is spicy." Thanks to B, who ordered it, we can vouch for the veracity of this assertion. It was indeed spicy; surprisingly and refreshingly so.

Dessert choices are a chocolate cake, a chocolate pecan pie, and an apple crisp, all served with Sebastian Joe’s ice cream (there’s an SJ outlet in Linden Hills where you’ll often find zoomers taking breaks from their walks or rollerbladings on weekends). But we desisted. I finished my meal with a chalky and tepid espresso, but I wouldn’t say that 28 left me with a bad taste in my mouth—the attraction is the relaxing, friendly ambience and the elements of innovation in the menu more than the quality of the food.

Twice in a row to restaurants that sit in that genteel haven called Linden Hills. The Lunch, thwarted last week by closed doors, makes its way to Café Twenty-Eight and is quite pleased with the ambiance and food on offer.

Firstly the location itself deserves praise. An architecturally adroit reconstitution of a fire station into what can now pass as a combination wine bar and coffee house. The restaurant’s dining space is painted in a warm green color with a high white-plastered ceiling. The floor is wooden and finished to a golden polish. The sun streams in from the large windows illuminating the historical black and white pictures of Lake Harriet and Linden Hills that decorate the walls.

The diners—A and yours truly excepted—are neighborhood people: homemakers, retired couples, and others of the less harried class. Sitting here drinking my glass of the Boyle petite syrah, my problems, which are myriad, seemed almost manageable. The feeling of lassitude and well being made me lazily order the first interesting wine on the menu. If I had taken my time, i.e., flip the menu over (before ordering) I would have seen the remarkable range of beer on offer. On draft alone there is the Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale, Mearedsous 8º, and Summit Porter. The bottled and can selection is even more impressive: Bell’s Two Hearted Ale; Big Sky Moose Drool "Brown Ale"; Ayinger "Bräu-Weisse"; Young’s "Oatmeal" Stout; Beamish "Irish Stout "; Bellhaven "Scottish Ale"; and a host of Belgian beers. The wine offering is varied, if not as intersting as the beer list. There are six red and white by the glass. A wisely ordered the Bellhaven, which I tasted and found to be amazingly peaty flavored with hints of dark chocolate and smoke.

The food is less interesting than the décor, atmosphere and beer list. Our service was friendly in a giggly, eyebrow pierced sort of way but not entirely competent. There are two soups on the menu, Curried Cream of Pumpkin and the Spicy Chicken & Butternut Squash. I wanted to try the first but our young waitress delivered the second. The chicken that constitutes this soup is supposedly adobo rubbed; I couldn’t really tell the difference with the squash rapidly disintegrating into the thin, gruely body of the soup. A wisely had a salad. Some of the other appetizers on the menu are the Sleight Brothers Lost Lake Cranberry Bog Salsa (cranberries with jalapeño, onion, & cilantro salsa — served with deep fried pita chips), tentacle free calamari (out of Lake Harriet…?), vegetarian and non-vegetarian quesadillas. The salads are a meal in themselves. The standout appears to be champagne pear salad – A had a half of this see his comments in the adjacent column.

The entrées include a daily special, which on this day was an enormous ham and cheese sandwich and which A surprisingly ordered. Looking at the menu you have to praise the range of what’s available. It’s only later that you question the execution but the intentions are good. There is the humble open face turkey sandwich, a Gruyere & Caramelized Onion Quiche, Rojo Chicken Tingas (chicken breast in a tomato & chipotle sauce, served on tostados, with salsa verde, sour cream & jalapeños, rice and vegetables), Garlic and Ginger Marinated Skirt Steak, Sautéed Grouper with a Pepita & Cumin Seed Crust and finally Ed’s New Zealand lamb chops.

I ordered Rojo Chicken Tingas thinking it the most innovative dish on the menu. Alas! It was only partly successful. The chicken, it would appear, was the same chicken earlier encountered in the soup. This time it had been shredded and covered in chipotle sauce. The vegetables were equally nondescript and consisted of carrot slivers and onions. The saving grace was the tostados when eaten with a combination of salsa, sour cream and chipotle sauce. In hindsight I should have had the bison bacon burger or the steak sandwich, which I saw another diner consume with relish!

The dessert menu is slim pickings with just three choices: chocolate cake, apple crisp and chocolate pecan pie. We decided to forgo dessert and with A’s coffee the bill came to $40.00.

The food wasn’t quite up to snuff but the place has loads of charm and the best beer list in town. For that reason alone it’s worth a visit; indeed, I am contemplating a stop here after work to try and work my way through some of the magnificent beers available – what better way to duck off from the traffic on 62 and take a little detour through Linden Hills. At 28 you can literally stop and smell the coffee and of course there is all that beer!