If you really wanted to hide a sophisticated little wine bar
where nobody would find it, where would you put it? Eden Prairie? Hilltop?
How about, in the back room The Newsroom on the
Nicollet Mall?
You could easily walk into The Newsroom., a high-decibel
newspaper-themed restaurant plastered with newspaper headlines and packed with
video monitors, spend the evening
dining on deep-fried Brie curds, chicken Caesar salad and coconut shrimp, and
never have an inkling that there’s a terrific
little wine bar called Taste in the back, with a completely different
menu and wine selection. You could even search the Newsroom web site and not
find a single mention of it. And if you came on a Monday or Tuesday, all you
would find is a darkened room.
On a Wednesday night when we visited, there was one lonely
soul at the bar, and nobody in the little mezzanine hideaway where we settled
in on a couch. Is it always this empty, I asked our server. Yes, she said.
Nobody knows about it. We could have canoodled all evening with anyone – except
our server – intruding on our privacy.
The list of wines by the glass – actually small carafes –
includes a few familiar names: a J. Lohr Chardonnay ($13.50/$25), a Rodney
Strong Cabernet ($14/$26), but most are more obscure: a Quinto dos Grillos from
Portugal ($13.50/$25), a Salneval Albarino ($11/$20) from Spain, a really
delightful Ruche di Castagnole from Italy, (imported by Bonny Doon, ($8.75/
$15.50). The prices seem a bit high, until you notice the size: the smaller pour
is eight ounces, and the larger is 16 ounces – the equivalent of three glasses
at most places.
The menu is built around tastes -bite-sized portions of
cheeses, hot and cold appetizers and sweets priced from $1.95 to $3.95 The
cheeses ($1.95-$2.25) are well-chosen – a nicely ripened wedge of Humboldt Fog
goat cheese, a creamy blue Fourme D’Ambert, an Italian truffled goat cheese and
several more. The only big blunder is the bread, ($1.95 for a quarter baguette,
$3.50 for a half) with no crust, and the soft, cottony texture that comes from
being stored in plastic.
The cold starters run the gamut from a tuna ceviche, (four
tasting spoons for $3.95), coarsely chopped chunks marinated in a habanero
cilantro vinaigrette to a beet salad with micro greens and a sherry Roquefort
dressing ($2.55), while the hot starters range from asparagus risotto croquettes with grilled tomato sauce ($2.65) to a sake-infused
scallop served with green tea soba noodles ($2.95). Some items were memorable (like the pear carpaccio with blue cheese crisp ($2.95), and others were not – like the cross-cut
coriander cumin fries with a gorgonzola cream sauce ($3.95), but the pricing is very reasonable and the overall batting average is pretty high. Weekdays, the happy hour specials (offered till 6:30), include a featured wine and a selection of draft beers for $3 a glass, plus mini-sandwicbes and appetizers for $2-4.
We passed on the desserts, but the options include a
chocolate wafer with chai ice cream, blueberry blini with lemon crème fraiche,
and a blue cheese and port mousse with pear (all $2.95).
Taste Wine Bar, in The Newsroom, 990 Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis, 612-343-0073.