Ann Bauer Looking for a late afternoon glass of wine that costs less your morning latté? Try Gigi’s Cafe. Be forewarned: this is not a place to visit when you’re in a businesslike mood. It doesn’t have air conditioning, wireless Internet, or table service. And the staff tend to shuffle in circles, stirring up homemade salads, brewing … Read more
Nearly every morning but for Shabbos (Saturday, the Sabbath) and religious holidays, Rabbi Avrum Kaufmann walks from his home in St. Louis Park to the Byerly’s store half a mile away, where he serves as mashgiach: supervisor of the kosher deli’s adherence to kashrut laws. The deli cannot open until Kaufmann or one of his … Read more
Maybe this has happened to you. But it was my first time. It was a Monday afternoon, and I’d made a date to meet C., a former colleague, for a drink. I was a little late getting to the restaurant, my head fuzzy from a summer cold. So I pulled into the first parking place … Read more
The outlook is rosé My father is a Harvard-educated economist and a Jew of the highest moral order, who believes it is what a man leaves behind him on this earth — from offspring to good works — that determines his worth. He’s also wont to say things such as: “I believe that, in his … Read more
On that theory that a rising tide floats all boats (to which I subscribe), I’d like to point you to a new food blog, Eat Local Challenge, which is sponsored by the Wedge Natural Foods Co-op. The point of this new site is to encourage people to get at least 80% of their food from … Read more
by Ann Bauer There are hundreds of movies that have informed, moved, touched, piqued, or entertained me, but only a handful that have filled me with unmitigated joy: Bringing Up Baby, an off-the-wall 1938 Katharine Hepburn/Cary Grant comedy; Bagdad Cafe, a film from 1988 that got mixed reviews but has one of the most haunting … Read more
Michelle Gayer-Nicholson made a big splash when she came to town from Chicago — and a stint at world-famous Charlie Trotter’s, where she also co-authored “Charlie Trotter’s Desserts” — to become head chef at Franklin Street Bakery in 2004. It was an odd move which she explained by saying both that she wanted to raise … Read more
Like Harry Potter — OK, not quite like Harry Potter — but in the same vein: the release of Bogle Vineyards Phantom is an event which hordes of fans await. We’ve even been known to line up outside stores, credit cards at the ready, and rush in to buy cases of the thick, red, potent … Read more
Howard Hawks’ magnificent film noir classic, The Big Sleep, opens with a stark, moonlit scene of a car being dragged out of the Malibu Bay with a dead chauffeur inside. Never in the course of the film — which has Humphrey Bogart as private eye Philip Marlowe investigating a blackmailing scheme and falling in love … Read more
Full diclosure: Mitch Omer and Cynthia Gerdes (pictured below) are two of my best friends in the world. (photo by Elena Bauer) They’re also the owners — along with Steve Meyer and Mark “Pappy” Anderson — of Hell’s Kitchen, with locations in downtown Minneapolis and Duluth. Now, I’m not the only one who loves Hell’s … Read more