The whimsy extends to the menu, with its remonstrations to "Chew with your mouth shut" or the $4000 1.5l bottle of wine, a "Macaroni Grill White Zinfandel," N/V of course!

Such gimmicks often turn out to be an excuse for bad food. But, as Modern shows, if you do the food right, the package comes together. You can enjoy a good meal as you chuckle at the insouciance.

And it’s not as if the restaurant plays it safe when it comes to food preparation. In a way it reminds me of Auriga in its juxtaposition of unconventional elements. This is especially so in the appetizer selections, which feature such novelties as green-tea-soaked ribs, walleye potstickers, and green lentil Johnnie cakes. Other choices for starters include a spinach salad with gorgonzola cheese and toasted walnuts, organic greens with garlic crisps and balsamic and soy vinaigrette, and a daily soup, which this day was a potato puree with arugula pesto.

We split the Johnnie cakes, uncertain and curious about what we were going to get. The cakes were small patties of rice and lentils, fried until crispy and lightly browned outside. The rice was undercooked but the dish was partially redeemed by the excellent spicy cashew butter accompaniment. A good portion of salad greens also came with this appetizer.

For our main dishes we both ordered from the "hearty main entrees" section of the menu. Selections here include carnitas con pollo, which B ordered; a penne with white beans, sun-dried tomatoes, and broccoli; pan-roasted chicken with lemon and sage beurre blanc, zucchini and squash; meatloaf with roasted tomato and balsamic sauce; and pot roast with caramelized onions. Several of the main dishes come with garlic mashed potatoes, skin-on and slightly sweet. From past experience the pot roast is one of standout dishes of the restaurant. I ordered it and wasn’t disappointed.

I would also recommend the sandwiches, which are served with fresh greens. You can take your pick from roast beef with tarragon aioli, grilled gouda with tomato and red onion, grilled pork with caramelized onion and Dijon mustard, and a BLGT, the G for guacamole. After a split starter and a hearty main dish you’re not likely to ask for dessert, but a good selection is generally available, often including a freshly made pie.

The wine list doesn’t have an extensive selection by the glass—three reds and four whites are it. However a few ½ bottles are also available, a practice I wish more local restaurants would adopt. If these don’t strike your fancy either and you’re one of the ignorant rich you can try to order the Macaroni Grill white zin!

The restaurant is located in the fast gentrifying North East Minneapolis where ethnic drinking saloons are being replaced by restaurants like Erte and The Sample Room. TMC is housed in a small shoebox sized space and diners sit perilously close to each other and perhaps it’s for this reason that a sign on the wall proscribes  profanity. There is a no-smoking section but the smallness of the restaurant makes a mockery of this. There are four booths against one wall and the rest of the diners are accommodated on closely spaced tables arraigned in the remaining space. We took one of the booths. The tables are covered with a metallic top, which were freezing as this week has seen a frigid setback to global warming in Minneapolis. The décor features a light green, cream color scheme; the art on the wall is provided by local artists and is available for sale. One side of the restaurant has a small bar, above which hangs an incongruous looking Marlin.

The menu lists three wines by the glass and I had the Mark West Pinot Noir, a well-balanced wine with fruity hints. The wine list has reasonably priced wines—although there are a few as high as $220.00—by the bottle and Tuesday’s are half-off selected bottles. The menu is small and not prone to frequent changes. The appetizers include Gorgonzola Chevere, Green tea smoked Ribs, Organic greens, Polenta crostini, Walleye pot stickers and Hoppin’ John cakes. In the immortal words of Boney M: "Friday night we had fried fish and Johnnycakes." There was no fried fish bur A & I shared an order of the lentil Johnnycakes, served with a spicy cashew butter sauce. Never having had Johnnycakes before I was disappointed with our appetizer; it was dull and dry to the taste, the butter sauce was spicy and probably better eaten alone or on a bit of bread. The best entrée in the house is the pot roast, described as "the best "u" ever ate pot roast." I am inclined to agree with this description and this is the dish I have had most often here. This time I decided to let A try the pot roast whereas I had the Carnitas con pollo, a dish consisting of shredded chicken and corn tacos served on the side, an unfortunately bland dish that was not helped by pouring hot sauce on it. Some of the other entrées are penne, spaghetti, pan-roasted chicken, and meatloaf. Several sandwiches: beef, grilled cheese, pork loin and BGLT. Your waitperson will tell you about any daily specials. The bill came to $36.00 and at least the food I had was not very good. I suspect I would have done a lot better by sticking to the pot roast or the meatloaf because those are the signature dishes of this restaurant.

The service was slow and not entirely friendly. This restaurant and Chet’s Taverna are owned in tandem by the same couple and both restaurants follow a similar theme: low budget, neighborhood operation with a passable kitchen. The Tuesday night half-off wine promotion is a great deal and should inspire people to sample more wine with their meals. The Modern Café offers affordable comfort food with some panache. It is an ideal place to wean yourself from that White Zinfandel habit – which by the way is $4,000.00 a bottle here!

B