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Monte Carlo
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| Sampling the Past | A tale of two cities | |
| We live in
uncertain times, so here’s a short lesson in applied statistics. Say
you want to evaluate a restaurant. Its food, service, value, ambience,
and other factors render this a complicated matter. Ideally you would
like to try every dish and every beverage, each at all different times
and days, and in short exhaustively cover every possible combination of
factors. Well, that’s prohibitively expensive, both in time and money,
so what can you do? It turns out that the best approach is to do
completely random tests! This is optimal in the sense that, for
the same number of tests (i.e., visits to the restaurant), you will get
a closer estimate of the truth of the matter (the unknown
"real" evaluation if you were in fact to go the exhaustive
route) than with any more systematic approach. (End of lesson)
What does this have to do with this week’s review, you ask? It turns out that this random sampling approach is referred to as "Monte Carlo," which happens to be the name of our restaurant this week! Monte Carlo, the restaurant, is older than Monte Carlo, the statistical technique, the former having been established in 1906 per the menu. The place pretty much drips nostalgia, but not in the obnoxious "retro as savvy marketing" guise. Rather, you can think of it as an authentic and authorized evocation of the past. Thus we heard a waitress waxing nostalgic about the good old days when people used to come and have a martini or two over lunch—she used to come for lunch here with her dad as a child. This reminiscence was occasioned by our ordering a glass of wine each, a flouting of modern lunch habits apparently, but one that was well appreciated. The menu, too, harks back to bygone days. Among the "Monte Carlo Classics" are a steak sandwich, "as served at Charlie’s Café Exceptionale for 48 years" and a burger with Caesar salad that credits Billy Reeds of Palm Springs. Perhaps if the reader’s been around longer than we have (not that we’re exactly in the primes of our youth) these will elicit some recognition; they didn’t for us. There are other items on the menu that, one suspects, have remained unchanged for decades. The chopped liver appetizer, for example, is likely not an attempt at modernizing the offerings (otherwise it would have been a paté!). But there are many other starter options if chopped liver or other treats from yesterday aren’t what you’re craving for, such as spicy Szechuan green beans, calamari with Japanese breading, and a lavosh pizza with cilantro pesto, havarti, and a number of toppings. The menu also lists seven salads including a number of Caesar variations, four pastas with chicken and seafood, and a "Steaks, Chops, and Seafood" category. Along with much of what you’d expect to see under this last heading you’ll also find Southern style fried chicken and beef liver with onions. Sandwiches include meatloaf, crab salad, Reuben, turkey club, and Cajun chicken. Faced with this variety and in recognition of the restaurant’s name, I should perhaps have ordered at random! Instead after some deliberation I went with the cold salmon salad. This was disappointing, with the potatoes undercooked somewhat and the salmon, promised as medium-rare, poached a little too long. The dish also came with green beans that were nicely done (slight undercooking being no sin here) and a peppery cucumber salsa that provided some much-needed spark to the otherwise bland preparation. I tasted B’s order, the Lavosh pizza, and and thought it quite good, especially the aromatic cilantro and basil base. The wine list has about ten each of whites and reds by the glass (and if you must there’s also a white zinfandel). I went with the Michele Chiarlo Barbera di Asti, a dry full-bodied red that might not have been the best accompaniment for my meal but I liked it regardless. There are also several cabs and a couple of merlots and shirazes available. At the end of the meal my order of an espresso solicited a "did you want any cream with that?" query. But it turned out to be an acceptable brew, although I do wish so many restaurants wouldn’t automatically assume you want a double. Monte Carlo is quite a charming place in my book, the quibbles about the food aside. There is an attractive and hip bar up front, juxtaposed with the main dining room with its dark wood, leather appointed chairs, and antique chandeliers (I suspect B will complain about this being the smoking area, but to my mind this imparts an appropriate atmosphere to the space!). Two additional dining rooms are nonsmoking and one features a more modern look. Al fresco dining is also offered now that it’s summer, and the sidewalk is broad enough that the seating area isn’t congested and doesn’t inconvenience pedestrians. Our waitress (especially) and all the other staff we had any interaction with were friendly and attentive. Complementary valet parking is also available, even for lunch! All in all, a good place to while away the lunch hour, a glass of wine or martini in hand, letting the place (its name notwithstanding) take you back to when life used to be less complex and uncertain. A |
Monte Carlo,
the restaurant, hearkens back to the early days of Minneapolis. The menu
claims a date of 1906, which would place it in the hey days of the
timber trade. The restaurant does retain a historic look that consists of red wall paper and leather chairs.
This is where – if
not a timber baron – a midlevel functionary of a lumber company might
well have lunched after a successful morning of negotiating terms with
barge owners. The
restaurant now finds itself in a much different city; the mills and
barges to a great extent are gone, replaced by high-tech companies and
yuppie housing for the young and the hip.
Just inside the entrance a magnificent bar is to be found, all glass and wood, piled high with liquor bottles of every imaginable variety. The bar top is made of some metal (zinc, copper…?) and is a perfect place to sit and have one of the many martinis on offer – having to go back to work precluded any indulgence in that area! The restaurant is divided into multiple dining areas. There are tables in the room that includes the bar (sadly smoking), a back room (dark and discreet) for non-smokers and a front room (to the right from the entrance) that is sunny, light and airy. We asked for a non-smoking table and were led to the back room – non-smoking readers should ask to be seated in the front room. Sidewalk dining is offered as well. Walking to our table, I was reminded of Jax albeit a nicer version with a younger crowd. The wine list is satisfactory with ten wines by the glass each for red and white. I choose a glass of the Liberty school cabernet, which is a fat wine full of fruity bouquet – almost reminiscent of strawberry jam! The menu is divided into sections: appetizers, salad specialties, pastas, steaks/chops/seafood and sandwiches. There are ten appetizers that range from frituras langosta (lobster cakes) to a lavosh style pizza (more about the pizza later); other notable appetizers are a plate of chopped beef liver and fresh half-shell oysters. The salads are a meal in their own right and include a house salad, salmon Caesar, cold poached salmon salad and cobb salad. There are four pastas, which include a seafood fettuccini (shrimp, scallops and clams), a pasta primavera with sautéed breast of chicken, scallops basilic (sea scallops sautéed in garlic butter, fresh basil and white wine) and a lemon herb chicken. The steaks/chops/seafood section includes the Cajun style pork chops, panko fried shrimp (shrimp in Japanese breading), beef liver (the dread of my childhood!) and a whiskey peppercorn filet. The sandwiches include burgers, chicken and roast beef sandwiches. The one sandwich that stands out is the crab salad sandwich (Alaskan crabmeat blended with mayonnaise, served on a croissant with alfalfa sprouts with sliced tomatoes and Monterey jack cheese). The menu is fairly extensive but definitely caters to a conservative palate and there is an abundance of comfort food. I ordered the lavosh (cracker bread) pizza; this is a thin crust pizza with cilantro pesto, havarti cheese, tomatoes and a choice of toppings: shrimp, roast turkey, marinated chicken breast and bacon. The menu lists a vegetarian version of this pizza as well. The waitress made my choice of toppings extremely easy by asking if I’d like everything on it. The pizza was excellent, with a sharp pesto flavor and all the toppings worked well. It was also sized well (more in a pizza is better than less!) and was more than enough for lunch, indeed I took a few squares back to a hungry (and grateful) coworker! The service was very good and we were even given a menu to take with us, supposedly the menu was slightly marked and hence not good enough to be given to a customer. The other good thing about the Monte Carlo is its location. If you’re driving simply take the 3rd avenue/Washington avenue exit from 394 and you’re there. The restaurant provides complimentary valet parking in the lot next door -- this is a great boon, although alternative (metered) parking on the street is available. The bar serves the best martini in town and I recommend it as an after work gathering place. This is one of the less smoky bars in the area; can we hope that the owners will ban smoking altogether? B
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