Red Cow (Minneapolis, MN)

The Red Cow (www.redcowmn.com) is one of the newest restaurants on our list, having been established in 2013. It’s located in one of the more trendy neighborhoods in Minneapolis on West 50th Street near Lake Harriet and when you enter it certainly feels the part. We decided to give the place a look after the recommendation from a coworker of mine and also based on the fact that they serve a variety of creative burgers along with Cheese Curds and, more importantly, two kinds of poutine; Beef and Beer Cheese and Apple and Bacon Blue Cheese; very exciting indeed!

Atmosphere – Oddly enough when you enter the Red Cow one of the very first things you’ll notice is a large picture of a distinctively Blue Cow; perhaps they just wanted to be whimsical. Aside from that the decor is what you’d expect in a modern trendy restaurant and bar: colored concrete floors, exposed rafters, tattooed waitstaff, some interesting art and so on. I’d say the decor was borderline hipster but the designers didn’t choose the look before it was cool so it clearly can’t be a genuine hipster hangout. Gavin and I decided that since it was an amazingly gorgeous day we’d prefer eating out on the patio which was modestly (and nicely) decorated with one minor drawback: the tables. While the tables looked nice, we were seated at what was essentially a 4-person table divided in half by a patio umbrella. This would have been just fine if there weren’t already 2 people sitting there when a perfectly good and shaded 2-person table was wide open. Now, it might sound like I’m being a bit nitpicky but the tables were 2 and a half feet wide at best and separated by no more than 3-4 inches so for all intents and purposes, the two “tables” were really two halves of the same table. This means that the conversation our table-mates were having may as well have been directed at us for how well we could hear. Seating two separate groups together I felt was inappropriate (and rude to those already seated). Lastly, for the first time in our adventures I was displeased with the size of the water glasses we were given. Seriously, even a small toddler would go thirsty these things were so small. At least the food around us looked really good, so I’ll move onto that.

Food – As I noted earlier, the Red Cow has a wide assortment of unique dishes which included their burger offering. To give you an idea as to the extent of this creativity, they offer the following different types of “burger” patties: Traditional Angus Beef, Bison, Elk, Lamb, Salmon, Chicken, Turkey, Duck, Curried Chickpea, and the apparently world famous Pat Lafrieda Angus patty… whatever that means.

Appetizer – We don’t often come across restaurants that offer Poutine so considering the Red Cow offered the dish we knew we couldn’t pass on the opportunity. We decided to go with the Braised Beef and Summit Beer Cheese Poutine as Gavin doesn’t really care for Bleu Cheese and something about throwing apples into the mix didn’t sit right with me. The braised beef poutine was exceptionally good and I could easily have just had an entire dish for my entree and would have left happy. The only down side was that there wasn’t a whole lot of braised beef in the dish and considering that was the best part I was a little discouraged. Overall we were both still very happy with the Red Cow’s version of poutine.

Burgers – Gavin and I both went for the Breakfast Burger which is the Red Cow’s take on the Hangover Burger. Beef, bacon, egg, cheddar and creamy peanut butter were sandwiched between sourdough slices. The burgers were really fantastic and the peanut butter added a really nice and smooth flavor to the mix. While the sourdough wasn’t what I would have preferred for “buns” it definitely made the burger feel a bit more like a breakfast item. The egg was just a little runny, the bacon not too chewy, and the Angus patty well seasoned. Overall I was impressed with the burger and was left very satisfied upon completion. If there is one downside to the burgers at the Red Cow it’s that they are rather expensive with the cheapest and most basic rolling it at $10 and the more gourmet topping out at $15.

Service – Despite the fact that I didn’t like being seated right next to another group (and honestly felt like I was intruding on them) the service was very good. We didn’t have to wait too long for service or food and never felt forgotten. The waiter was relatively pleasant and overall pretty professional but not exceptionally personable. The rest of the waitstaff we encountered were equally nice and professional (and certainly all a bit hipster). This said, while there wasn’t anything inherently wrong with the service it felt a bit… sterile; like the waitstaff didn’t really care one way or the other about being there. I can’t really quite place it but while it certainly didn’t detract from the experience it didn’t go without notice.

Should you go? – The Red Cow offers a lot of creative food options and a surprising number of burger patty meats; more than any other restaurant I’ve seen. If an out-of-state friend were traveling through the Twin Cities and looking for a good burger the Red Cow wouldn’t be the first place I’d send them, but if they were visiting for awhile I’d certainly suggest checking it out. The Red Cow didn’t serve me the best burger I’ve had but what they did serve was very good and certainly worth a try; be warned, however, it won’t be cheap. Lastly, remember that $15 burger I mentioned? Well that particular price belongs to the  world famous Pat Lafrieda Angus burger and after doing a bit of research has piqued my interest. The cheapest Pat Lafrieda burger patties start at $11/lb when purchased directly from the Pat Lafrieda butcher shop (www.lafrieda.com) and go up to $20/lb if you get their dry-aged angus beef! The beep really is supposed to be some of the best out there and was featured on Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservation show (See Video). This may just mean that I need to pay another visit to the Red Cow in the future.

Lone Oak Grill (Eagan, MN)

The Lone Oak Grill (http://lone-oakgrill.com/) came to my attention form a coworker and was conveniently located in Eagan, MN where I work.The restaurant is relatively new and took over the location where the Joe Senser’s Bar and Grill once stood. My coworker informed me that their burgers were amazing and not only did they have cheese curds but Juicy Lucy’s as well. This was enough to put the restaurant on our list and it’s proximity to work sealed the deal.

Atmosphere – Being that the restaurant is very new it was expectedly clean. The Lone Oak Grill has a modern theme and felt very spacious, almost to a fault. The building is pretty huge and when we visited it was pretty empty as well. Our waiter informed us this was due to the fact that it was summer and all the regulars were at the cabin but, even if it had been full it felt overly spacious. I don’t count this against the overall experience, it was just an unexpected difference compared to the Joe Senser’s that resided in that location previously. I had been to the restaurant then and was always busy after work and always felt cramped. That said the outdoor patio that was added on was very nice and they even had a live guitarist playing on the patio, which was awesome to see. The best feature, however, was the indoor/outdoor bar; while the majority of the bar was inside, they are able to open up part of the bar to the outside during the summer months which is something you don’t often see in Minnesota.

Food – Since Gavin and I can’t say no to cheese curds, ordering them was less of a decision and more of a requirement. The Lone Oak Grill advertises their curds as being Ellsworth Cheese Curds served with a Mixed Berry Compote. The cheese curds were exactly what they should have been (battered instead of breaded)and were overall very good. The dip that came with them was also good and the mixed-berry aspect of the dip offered a really great contrast to the cheese curd to help break up the flavor between bites. Off to a good start to be sure.

The Burgers – While The Lone Oak Grill offers Juicy Lucy’s none of them really struck our fancy; what really drew our attention was the hangover burger. While consisting mostly of ingredients you’d find in your standard hangover burger, the Lone Oak Grill adds a Sriracha Aioli to the mix to give some added flavor. Being that I highly enjoy Sriracha and the Hangover burger is a regular favorite, this became an easy decision for me. The burger was delicious to be sure but ultimately didn’t drown me in flavor country like I was hoping. The Sriracha Aioli was less potent than I had expected and so there was some disappointment there but overall it added a noticeably different and genuinely nice flavor to the burger. Make no mistake, this burger was still very good and I was very happy with it; it just didn’t broaden my horizons of what a burger could be.

Service – Our waiter was certainly a friendly one and so our experience started off very promising. He was knowledgeable of the menu and was pretty talkative. He was sporadic when it came to paying attention to us, however, in that he noticed that our burgers weren’t done exactly to our specifications (we both asked for Medium and he noticed Gavin’s was more medium well) which is really saying something considering no waitperson has ever noticed this on their own in my lifetime. Without us even asking he immediately offered to have them cook up new burgers and no charge (and we could keep eating what we had) which was a fantastic gesture but Gavin and I decided to stick with what we had. So while he was able to notice the preparedness of our burgers like Super Man notices babies falling from trees, he missed the fact that our water glasses were empty until we were getting ready to pay the check. Nitpicking aside, I was still incredibly pleased with our service.

Should you go? – The Lone Oak Grill isn’t an especially unique place with the exception of the indoor/outdoor bar (which is without a doubt awesome) but what they do there, they do well. This isn’t a place you need to go out of your way to visit but if you’re in the area you absolutely should give it a try; if you’re claustrophobic, however, then the exceptionally open atmosphere makes this a place a “Must Visit”. As an added bonus, this is also the only “Burger Thursday” restaurant that prepared my burger to my expectations (medium). Even though Gavin’s burger was more medium well, this still gives The Lone Oak Grill some major points in my book.