Eastside - November 5, 2015
Given my fondness for novelty, the announcement of a new restaurant piques my interest. When details of the restaurant start to emerge and I learn it’s from the mind of a restauranteur I’m a fan of, it makes me more interested. When it’s equidistant from the sites of my current office and my future office, I get a little more excited. When I realize I was making the false assumption that they’d be serving lunch, I get a little crestfallen because there’s a severe lack of good lunch spots in the “Downtown East” area of Minneapolis, while I love Zen Box, sometimes you want something else. I was still interested because it might be a nice spot to meet after work.
Ryan Burnet has had a hand in a few restaurants that I’m a fan of or that still reside on my list of places I want to eat. Barrio is good, Bar La Grassa great (and somewhere I need to get back to soon), Burch Steakhouse I’ve only heard great things but need to get there. Wait, I’m noticing a pattern, do people that work here, or are in the industry, actually call it Beastside? Because given the alliterative nature of the others, that would make total sense. I hope people start referring to it as Beastside, at least in jest.
Since I work in the Grain Exchange North building by day (and was under the self delusion/wishful thinking this was going to be open for lunch) and it’s just a block away, I was eagerly awaiting the August opening of Eastside. I’ve learned recently that any initial date given for a restaurant opening is usually ~2 months optimistic. That optimism is very similar in the software industry, I’m guilty of it, so I empathize.
On September 29th Eastside opened, Birdie had their first public seating that day and I was going, otherwise I would have tried to make it. In October I was trying to cut way back on my food spending, which I was able to do, so I could donate to food related charities, but I had some unremembered dental work that ended up not being covered by insurance, so the donation’s going to wait a couple months. I’ll try doing it again some month other than October next year.
So November it was, and is.
I have a short list of friends that I really want to check out new restaurants and dining experiences with. While I like decor, ambience, and “scene” at a restaurant, and appreciate their significance to the overall experience, first and foremost it’s about the food. So I like to invite the adventurous ones, the ones with good palates, the ones that take good photos, the ones that will appreciate it with me.
That’s how, on a suddenly seasonably chilly early November night a good friend and I ended up at Eastside. (Tip: If you’re going on a non-sports weekday, the meters a block down and east on 3rd Street are free after 6pm and usually open.)
Walking in you’re greeted by the hosts at a small kiosk, to the right of the wall behind them is the long open kitchen which is behind a stainless steel bar top. Along this bar top is an interesting seating situation, instead of seats at the bar, tables that would normally be four or six tops are abut the bar, and set for parties of five. This seating configuration is new to me and strikes me as a little odd. One person, ostensibly at the head of the table, gets to look both ways into the kitchen, the persons to their right get to look at the hot line, the persons to their left the cold line. I foresee a lot of the left seats seeing the eyes of the other three light up when something cool happens (flame up, awesome dish, what have you) that they’ll be forced to crane their necks trying to see, only being too late. Maybe it’s great, that’s not where we sat.
Opposite the open kitchen and its bar is the liquid bar, above which is I think the solitary television in the establishment, I almost wonder if zoning near a sports stadium requires that you need to have a television. Between them is some sort of storage unit/room divider that breaks up the room while allowing sight lines through, I’m sure there’s an official name for them, but it escapes me, East side uses a few of these to break up the bar, kitchen bar, dining room, and south west dining room. Besides the weird (to me) tables against bar thing and the TV, it’s a really lovely Shea designed space. It is a tad loud around 7pm, but it’s a new space, on a weeknight, these are probably people that worked late trying to destress.
Also, not sure if intentional, but a good portion of the dining area restaurant is pretty well lit for those of the food photo fan club, the tables more so than the booths. We sat at one of the four top tables in the main dining area. I’m also going to start doing something new and linking to my photos taken at the meal by the people I’m dining with, because while my pictures are good enough to get a sense of what it looks like, sometimes my friends’ pictures blow mine away, if you agree, go ahead and give them a like and/or follow.
During the first 2 courses we drank a Gruner Veltliner from Austria, it had a pleasant sweetness on the back end.
Shishito Peppers with lime and paneer cheese: These were really good and, paraphrasing dining companion, “very sharable.” A characteristic of shishitos, a few of the peppers had a nice heat that went well with the lime, but it was easily quenched by the cheese.
Red Snapper with Crispy Scales, Chermoula, Pine Nut, and Mint Yogurt: I think we agreed that this was the best dish of the night. It had a few extra ingredients that weren’t listed on the menu; fried shallots, sultana raisins, white beans, caper berries, what looked like shaved haricots verts, and peppers. The textures and flavors all paired well together. I’d definitely recommend this one.
For the next two courses we passed on the recommended Willamette Valley Pinot Noir and opted for the house red priced Cotes du Rhone.
Brussel Sprout Leaves with Lime and Garlic Butter: I think dining companion said it best when proclaiming these would be a great gateway Brussel Sprout dish. It was light and acidic, not too bitter. Crunchy leaves. Really simple and enjoyable.
Braised Pork Shoulder with Minnesota Apple, Curried Caramel, Peanut, and Sage: I love the concept of this dish, but I didn’t love it. The flavors were great, the textures on the apple were good, the nuts too, but the pork itself was a little dry for my tastes. The chill on the apples threw me off a bit, but dining companion enjoyed the temperature contrast. If/When I go back I’ll probably look at the half chicken or some other entree.
Then we had desserts, of course.
Pear Pie/Tart (Pie on website*, Tart on menu) with Lavender, White Chocolate, and Ginger Ice Cream: The best part of this dish was the red puree. It was interesting concept and pretty on the plate.
Maple Pecan Pie with Banana Rum Ice Cream: We both agreed the ice cream stole the show here with the caramel playing an awesome assist. The ice cream and caramel are so good the pie is an afterthought.
Some thoughts on their desert menu over all. The only options are pie like pastry/baked good + ice cream:
I personally think it needs to be a little more diverse. I’d personally love to see a playful take on the banana split with the banana rum ice cream, maybe strawberry mochi, chocolate tuille, crushed candied pecans or peanuts with spices, and that banana caramel sauce? I don’t know, but I’d focus on the ice cream. Dining companion suggested an almond cake drizzled with sauce, topped with the ice cream and candied pecans - I think that would be great too.
Whatever they do, I hope it moves from just pie/tart + ice cream.
Now to take off the Writer doing research hat for a bit and put on my real Software Engineer job hat.
*I think they need to work on the website a little bit, make sure the menus match what’s in the restaurant and allow for deep linking to their menu directly. For example: http://eastsidempls.com/#eastsidedes is the URL for their dessert menu on the site but, due to the implementation, it doesn’t bring you to the dessert menu if you try to go directly there, it takes you to their main page, where you need to click on “DESSERT” to see the menu in a modal dialog.
Overall, a month in, I think Eastside will probably do well. They seem busy. They’re getting ready to start a small brunch next weekend. One of what I assume was the managerial staff said they were considering a small lunch menu sometime soon for maybe just the bar areas to see how it works (I hope they do). On top of that they’ve got a great location, the next closest restaurant of similar fare or caliber is a good 4 long blocks away by street or double that through the skyways. Given the caliber of Burnet’s other spots, I’m confident they’ll get to the next level.