Crowdsourcing the Citizen Cafe

Wanna be a restaurant critic? Wanna be a citizen journalist?
Let’s try an experiment. The Citizen Café is opening tomorrow, at 24th
Ave.and 38th St. in south Minneapolis. Instead of just me writing a
review (which I will do eventually), how about all of you readers out there
visiting the restaurant and sending me your impressions. You can either post
them online as comments on this post, or send them to me as emails, to Iggers@rakemag.com.

You don’t have to write a full-blown restaurant review,
though you can if you want to. Don’t bother with star ratings, either (I always
hated those), but do use lots of adjectives and adverbs. There’s no prize or
payment or anything, just the glory of being quoted in Breaking Bread. I’ll read
through your comments, and combine them into a collective review – and will add
some comments of my own. Of course, keep in mind that it isn’t really fair to
review a restaurant the first week it opens, so go prepared for the usual
opening week screw-ups, and don’t be too harsh. Deadline for submissions is
Sunday, June 29.

To whet your appetite, here is what we know so far: Chef-owner
is Michael McKay, who opened the Sample Room in northeast Minneapolis, and
still owns a piece of it. The Citizen Café will be open six days a week for breakfast, lunch and dinner –
closed Mondays and Sunday night. The menu is basically classic American fare
made from scratch – McKay says he’ll make his own catsup from fresh tomatoes,
and stuff his own sausage. For breakfast, McKay will offer scones, muffins,
quickbread, homemade gravlax, and a Citizen Breakfast – two eggs over easy with
hashbrowns, toast, your choice of meat, and a basket of breakfast breads ($6).

The lunch menu adds salads and sandwiches – ranging from a
Reuben to a shrimp po’ boy ($7-$11), while the dinner entrees will range from
pot roast ($13) and brick chicken ($12) to braised short ribs ($15) all served
with Yukon gold mashed potatoes and roasted vegetables. The most expensive
entrée will be a $17 certified Angus strip steak

The Citizen Café is open Tuesday to Thursday 7:30 a.m. to
9:30 p.m., Friday 7:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., Sunday 8
a.m. to 2 p.m. Website coming soon: www.citizen-cafe.com
.

 


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