Last year—I forget the circumstances but quite likely he was on his way to KC—he dropped by the Twin Cities and had the walleye at Tavern on Grand in St. Paul. He pronounced his meal the best he’d had locally and, furthermore, the walleye the best he’d had anywhere in the U.S. He’s driven here a few times since to revisit the Tavern and it continues to amaze him. It hasn’t had the same effect on me, regrettably, but then walleye (or fried chicken, for that matter) is not among my favorite foods. In any case, he’s not alone in considering Tavern among the best places for walleye nationwide; the New York Times recently had an article on this fish and highlighted Tavern. (I learnt that the walleye served is flown in frozen from Canada; walleye is apparently as good frozen as fresh.)

As the reader might have guessed, The Lunch went to Tavern this week. This wasn’t our first choice, but Mancini’s Char House, the place B had suggested we review in our "let’s do St. Paul" phase, turned out to only have dinner hours. Since we were near Grand Avenue we decided to check out Tavern—we’ve been meaning to for sometime anyway.

The Tavern is mostly about walleye. The fish can be had in many different ways. There’s an appetizer version, a side dish version, the "Shore Lunch," and walleye sandwiches. You can get your fix grilled or deep-fried. Also on the menu are soups, salads, various deep-fried appetizers, chicken, steak, and other sandwiches. And of course this is a tavern so a number of beers are on tap and there’s a full bar.

I initially ordered the walleye sandwich but when B ordered the same thing I changed my selection in the interests of review variety. My substitution was the baked quarter chicken (a larger, half-chicken portion can also be ordered). You can get the chicken in dark or white meat; I went with the former. All entrées come with a choice of salad, soup, or cole slaw and of different potato preparations. I opted for the slaw and fries.

The cole slaw was a disappointment; too wet and bland; it tasted more of shredded lettuce than cabbage. The chicken, however, was very good: lightly seasoned, moist, and tasty. It came with a small cup of barbeque sauce on the side (the menu had promised the chicken would be "smothered" in barbeque sauce; I was glad it wasn’t). A good helping of steamed, albeit somewhat overdone, vegetables—broccoli, carrots, and purple cabbage—were also included. The fries were more egregiously overcooked, to an unappetizing orange color.

I tasted B’s grilled walleye sandwich and we both agreed it was not a success. Even better bread would have redeemed it partially—the roll it came with was basically mush. As noted above, I’m no walleye fan, but I’ve had it at the Tavern before and it’s always been better. It may also be that the deep-fried preparation is the way to go, the waitress’s recommendation (which is why B got it grilled) notwithstanding.

The experience wasn’t any more positive with our beverages. My Summit Grand pint was weak and watery. B for some inexplicable reason ordered wine and suffered deservedly.

All that being said, the Tavern has a comfortable, relaxing feel to it. It’s the sort of place you expect to see people from the neighborhood frequenting. The service is friendly and the booths and upholstered seating gives it a "hangout" look. The main nonsmoking room, which is where we sat, evokes a Minnesota north country cabin with log-cabin wallpaper and paintings depicting outdoor scenes from the perspective of the cabin’s windows—an effect that is completed with molding-like frames. A little cute, perhaps, but inventive.

Partly because B was in such misery after his meal, I suggested we go somewhere else for dessert. We drove to the nearby Z Café, the casual sibling of the dinner-only Zanders and located across the street (Selby Ave.) from it. We both like Zanders (it’s one of B’s favorite restaurants) but neither of us had eaten at Z before. We’ll do a full lunch there someday soon but on this limited exposure I wasn’t impressed. Neither of our orders measured up to my expectations; both the chocolate and almond torte I had and B’s chocolate hazelnut pie lacked that intensity of bittersweet taste I seek in chocolate desserts. Service was a mixed bag, friendly but incompetent.

It was snowing as I drove back to work, traffic tie-ups underscoring the inconvenience of going across the metro area during the day. This lunch outing wasn’t worth the drive, I have to say.

Our original destination was Mancini’s Char House & Lounge. I had been there for drinks with a friend many years ago and had found the bar to be something out of Las Vegas but obviously on a much smaller scale. The patrons were mostly regulars with a median age of about fifty-five with a handful of really young people thrown into the mix. The whole thing was presided over by a benevolent old Italian: Nick Mancini. You can imagine my annoyance at discovering that the restaurant didn’t open for lunch! Instead we drove to the Tavern on Grand.

The Tavern on Grand is the favorite Twin Cities dining destination of one of A’s friends. He thinks nothing of driving many hundreds of miles from New Hampshire to eat the walleye here; normally this should be a ringing endorsement but having eaten at another one of this person’s favorite travel destinations, Stroud’s in Kansas City, I can tell you that quantity and not quality are his criteria. This person holds (or should hold) a record for having driven a small VW to the ends of the world on a single engine. He could just as easily be in the Guinness Book of World Records for the most fried chicken consumed at one sitting!

You come here for the walleye and hence it’s prepared in a variety of styles. Grilled or fried walleye sandwich. Walleye platter dinner (available for lunch) with up to three filets in it. The rest of the menu is pretty standard bar and grill fare: baked chicken, hamburger, pizza and sundry. One should really stick to beer in a place like this; I didn’t—ordered a glass of Aussie Shiraz—and paid the price. The wine had sat in an open bottle far too long and in consequence was off. I chose the walleye sandwich—grilled rather than fried as suggested by our friendly waitress. The sandwich came with fries that were burnt in some cooking fat that had given them an orange hue. Any flavor that the walleye might have possessed was masked by an awful creamy sauce used liberally in the sandwich; worst yet the bread used in making the sandwich was mushy and crumbled to the touch. I have eaten here before; indeed, I have had the walleye sandwich before and from memory it was quite good, but this particular sandwich was terrible. The service is very prompt and friendly and our food came to our table with an almost indecent haste! Perhaps my sandwich had been prepared in the small hours of the morning; it certainly didn’t taste fresh. I am told that the walleyes are flown in (frozen) from Canada and that the Tavern is one of the largest purveyors of this fish in Minnesota.

The restaurant also doubles as a favorite neighborhood bar and is quite popular with students. The look is that of a North Country cabin with plenty of exposed wood and wallpaper that masquerades as logs. The paintings on the wall are invariably of aquatic birds in flight, the sort of thing that we as Minnesotans are supposed to like. There is a bar in the front with a smoking area around it, whereas we sat in the back in what is supposed to be nonsmoking.

Already burnt by the entrées we decided to repair to Z Café on Selby Ave. for a postprandial coffee for A and tea for me. Z Café is the casual sibling of Zanders and serves lunch and then tea and coffee till six. This wasn’t meant to be our day. We were made to change tables thrice because of incompetent service and then when the dessert arrived (chocolate hazelnut pie for me; chocolate and almond torte for A) it wasn’t worth the effort. My pie should have had a more piquant chocolate flavor instead of the mild mealy flavor it did have. The layout of the café is cute with a comfortable sofa and a coffee table (the purpose of which, i.e., drinking coffee was lost on our waitress, who admonished us for trying to sit there) with magazines and books scattered on and around it. There are no menus here you look for the bill of fare on the walls where it’s probably transcribed daily. The bill for our disappointing lunch and dessert came to $35.00.

Next week The Lunch returns to Minneapolis but look for it to go back to St. Paul in the very near future.

B