Last night in the bar-restaurant at the Bedlam Theatre, I couldn't help feeling like I was in a play - to judge by the funky décor, maybe Lanford Wilson's Hotl Baltimore, or something by Beckett. Every few minutes, somebody would trudge through the bar - a woman carrying an enormous potted plant, a man pacing with a look of intense concentration. The bartender had a shiny metal ring in his nose. The bar and theater occupy the former Baja Riverside / Knickerbockers building, a few steps from the West Bank light rail stop.
The menu seemed like a perfect set up for a comedy: it's billed as Polish fusion. Head cook Jim Bueche, whose mother is Polish, decided to put an eastern European spin on the current trend towards local and sustainable fare: he tries to buy everything from local producers and distributors, and to offer a seasonal menu, which in mid-winter means lots of cabbage, beets and beans.
The limited menu offers pirogi, a kielbasa plate, a dish of beans and barley, or chicken stew and barley, and a list of small thin crust pizzas ($7.50) that includes a Polish pizza topped with sauerkraut, beets and mushroom, a Polka pizza with sweet-potato sauce, chipotle chicken, spinach and red onion; and a John Paul II pizza, which commemorates the Polish pontiff with a pizza topped with olives, sun-dried tomatoes, red onion and feta.
I ordered the kielbasa plate, which came with a small piece of juicy Polish sausage, three delicious pan-fried pirogi, (obviously homemade), stuffed with cabbage and mushrooms, pickled beets, horseradish, and a generous dollop of sour cream, all for $9.50. The salad of goat cheese, pickled beets and pecans with balsamic dressing wasn't quite as refined as it might have been at, say, Lucia's, but for the price ($4.50), it wasn't bad. Ditto the John Paul II pizza.
There's a nice selection of cheapy wines by the glass, mostly priced at $4-$5. We arrived a bit, too late for the 4 to 7 happy hour, but the bar tender offered us the wine special anyhow: any bottle of wine for half price. This knocked the price of a bottle of La Vielle Ferme Syrah down to $10 or so, and the bill for dinner for two came to a whopping $39.83, including tax, tip, and a bottle of wine.
It turned out there was a play going on, or rather a rehearsal, behind the red curtain that separates the bar from the theater: the 20% Theater Company's production of After Ashley, by Gina Gionfriddo, which opens Friday. Tickets are $15, or $12 for seniors, students and Fringe Festival button owners, and you get a $2 rebate if you arrive on foot, by bike, or by public transportation.
I still haven't made it to a play at Bedlam, but I like their style. Bedlam's website says their mission is to "produce radical works of theater with a focus on collaboration and a unique blend of professional and community art..." and describes their "distinctive aesthetic as "combining an overtly playful performance style with low-tech spectacle, bold visuals, experimental absurdism, both cuttingly-direct and nonsensically-obtuse satyric barbarism, socio-political imagination, and usually some live music."
That sounds like it's worth going back for. Especially if you arrive in time for happy hour.
The pizza of sauerkraut and beets was radically exquisite!
Echoing your comments, I visited Minneapolis last week from Muskegon, Michigan and found the Bedlam by train from downtown Nicollet Center. I was let out right in front of the place, went inside, and had a great time. I too just missed out on "Happy Hour", but Jim B., the owner, offered up the specials anyway. And how can you not feel like a part of the production as you sit back in the cozy theater behind the red curtain? Thanks for the Polish hospitality, Jim, and John. Here's to your continued success.