This year’s Art-A-Whirl, in Northeast Minneapolis, boasted far more participation from local breweries and restaurants than in years past. With honed focus and improved execution, in both cooking and service, this could become an area gem.
Tamarack tap room plus#
Many of the ingredients are there - knowledgeable servers, a variety of beer and bourbon - plus a neighborhood ripe with empty stomachs. Brief but appropriate tasting notes were offered, and choices were grouped by style.Īll things considered, Tamarack Taproom has the potential to be a huge success. The organization of the beer menu was superb. The mix of classic and crowd-pleasing is a product of the surroundings, and is a far cry from other dining chains, or even the previous occupant.īright spots were the enormous Iceberg Wedge salad ($9), which was less overwhelming than some. The cocktail menu is fair, if perhaps a bit too safe. It’s not the Cheesecake Factory’s anthology, but it certainly casts a wide net that seems to say, “we’ve got to be good at at least some of these things.” Burgers are prominent, but everything from a lobster roll and mussels to tacos and pork belly is available. Some food, including the signature Loaded Tater Tots ($8), was underseasoned.
Despite the service, Tyranena Three Beaches Honey Blonde, a seasonal favorite of mine, was served at a perfect temperature in appropriate glassware, which is an important detail for a restaurant calling itself a taproom. Servers were generally knowledgeable about the beer, but the zone-defense style of service was annoying and impersonal: I was helped by about five bartenders, each a maximum of twice. The tap list, too, is impressive, although the risk of old beer is not out of the question at a bar with 70 draft lines. “Beer, Burgers, and Bourbon” is the proclaimed focus of the place, and to back that up, they serve about 25 bourbons, ranging in price and quality. The quantity of local products feels like an oasis - Prohibition Kombucha, Verdant Tea, and Peace Coffee, to name a few - and multiple from-scratch sodas prove that Tamarack isn’t just operating with hits out of the US Foods catalog. But what is behind the bar and coming out of the kitchen may surprise skeptical foodies. The space used to house a Champps, and its familiar, multi-level, set-at-an-angle layout hasn’t changed. Woodbury’s Tamarack Village isn’t a food wasteland anymore, now that the Tamarack Taproom has opened its doors to hangry shoppers. For the most part, the standard at retail complexes is still “better than fast food,” but for one development in the east metro, there is a glimmer of hope. Dragging the family on a shoe-finding mission usually means putting up with a TGI Fridays or simply leaving the shopping area. Quality, sustainable restaurant food and sprawling suburban retail development are generally mutually exclusive. In this edition of The Toast: We travel to Rochester to imbibe at Grand Rounds in Minneapolis we try the new Fair State 331 beer and we venture out to the suburban oasis that is the Tamarack Taproom.
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