The Strip Club - October 24, 2015
The full name of this restaurant is The Strip Club Meat & Fish. I think the meat based pun in the title is meant as a disarming technique, but don’t kid yourself. These are a bunch of flesh peddlers. This place is a den of iniquity, and the sin it caters to is gluttony.
A friend, who I frequently refer to as dining companion - as a small tribute to Grand Forks herald food & culture critic Marilyn Hagerty - had their mother in town and was showing her around to some of their favorite spots. Friday we dined at Pizza Nea in Northeast Minneapolis, followed by dessert at Corner Table another great spot at the southern end of the Kingfield neighborhood.
They spent the day zipping through the trees at Kerfoot Canopy Tours, and visiting Minnesota’s massive candy store. I poured beer and played makeshift bouncer -(apparently I’m an imposing dude?)- at Surly Brewing’s annual day of awesome - Darkness Day. We decided to meet up -(I was tempted to misspell it “meat”)- with some other friends for dinner around 7:30pm.
One of the members in our dining party was a more frequent diner at The Strip Club and suggested that we do chef’s choice, served family style, the only stipulations were that we had to have the duck and the fish du jour. When there’s six people, and half haven’t been to the establishment before and several want to try new things, it’s a good way to go. You can generally trust chefs to treat you well when you put yourself in their hands. The crew at Strip Club especially so.
It wasn’t a coursed experience, but more of a series of waves. I’ll try to delineate where each wave inundated the table, what the crests were (to me), and maybe what notes I’d put in a bottle to be carried out by the receding tide.
Most of the dishes were easily shared, if there were any hacks or slight challenges I’ve tried to note them. I also didn’t get a good picture for the first dish, so I used one of the other diner’s photos and credited them.
Wave 1
Soup du Jour - Broccoli Rabe & Pecorino Romano Bisque with lemon infused Extra Virgin Olive Oil: good, earthy, herbaceous, nice funkiness from the cheese and a touch of sour from the oil. This was a good start to the meal. I choose to think it’s an intentional playful departure from the often done and traditionally homogenous broccoli and cheddar soups that dot a lot of restaurants menus. This is a good subversion. This dish was shared by ordering 3 and putting half servings in 6 bowls, 1 for each diner. (Photo credit to another diner: Andrew Padon - check out his Instagram for great food)
Carnitas with sweet corn crema, chipotle, cotija cheese, cilantro, and tortilla chips: Super flavorful dish and the texture of the creamed corn made me think of the best soft polentas I’ve had. A little heat from the chipotle was excellently tempered by the cotija and corn crema. The charred kernels, cotija, and crema evoke elote, a favorite late summer/early fall preparation of corn. The pork was super tender and fork shreddable.
Fried Oysters de Jonghe with tarragon aioli, garlic mignonette, and parsley: I’m a big fan of these. My preferred preparations of oysters used to be raw with a bit of horseradish, grilled, baked (Rockefeller, casino, etc.), and somewhere below, fried, but these are rising up the charts to number two, still can’t beat raw, but these are really good. Cooked just long enough to get a good crunch on the light batter, but still have a succulent briny interior that reminds you of the sea. I’m a big fan of the woefully underutilized herb tarragon and I’m glad that Strip Club uses it on more than just eggs and lobster like a lot of places are wont to do. Fun fact? Apparently de Jonghe is named after the breadcrumb coating and garlicky sauce style originating at the DeJonghe hotel in Chicago.
Beef Tartare with egg yolk, chilies, olives, capers, bell peppers, pecorino, and gem lettuce: First time trying this incarnation of tartare. Great flavors. The texture veers more towards the French filet américain than a lot of the other tartares you’ll find around town, there’s nothing wrong with that, difference is good. If you’re expecting the slightly chewier and more resistant tartare served elsewhere, be prepared for a different mouth feel. All of the flavors and textures were great, I may eventually try to replicate something akin to this during a dinner party, as an homage in attempted reverence.
Cheese Truffles with chèvre, bleu cheese, almonds, pepperonata, raisins, and crostini: You see this pic and you ask “Where are the almonds?” I know because I was trying to figure that out too, I think they were ground up and mixed in with the chèvre and blue cheeses. My notes were “great textures and surprising flavors - funky AND chunky.” We need the funk, got to get that funk. The macerated golden raisins brought a great sweetness, as did the onions, that played off the bleu & chèvre funk really well. Plus it’s fried cheese. Get it.
Market Salad made with freshly procured chioggia beets and frisee: Lightly dressed and minimally altered, the frisee and beets were great. It was refreshing to see still procurable produce still available. Good textures and flavors.
That ends the first wave, if I were forced to pick favorites it would be a close call between the tartare and the cheese truffles with the tartare edging out the victory. It’s a good preparation, the texture helps it stand out, and it brings back a lot of memories of travels past.
Wave 2
Sweet Corn Risotto with pecorino romano and pea sprouts: really good, great textures and flavors. The sweet corn made it harken back to the crema accompanying the carnitas, but different in an awesome way. I’ll be ordering this or whatever incarnation the risotto is next time I visit.
Fish du Jour - Tilefish with fregula sarde, sauteed rapini, preserved lemon, and red peppercorn: Today’s pasta lesson? Fregula sarde is a pasta from Sardinia that is frequently described as being like Israeli Couscous because of the size and shape, the couscous is made from hard whole wheat, whereas the fregula is made from semolina. There was some initial confusion as to whether this was corvina as described by one server, and tilefish from another, but we were assured it was the initially mentioned and described tilefish. Regardless, I trust them, and it was great. Good firm flesh on the fish that had a light crust from the Maillard reaction, the pasta had a nice tooth, and the flavors were all great. Good bitterness from the rapini and a high note from the preserved lemon’s acidity.
Meat du Jour - Szechuan Lamb with ginger rice and broccolini: Great preparation of braised lamb, but I’m not sure if it’s taste memory or the spicing, it tasted more Middle Eastern to me than Asian, I was able to pick up some of the Asian influence on the broccolini. Regardless, I thought this was a great dish, lots of flavors and textures that compete for attention, just what I look for in a dish.
Pork Chop with peaches, chilies, pecans, molasses BBQ sauce, and chives: while I would rank the current flavor profile of Spoon & Stables just over this one, this is a damn good pork chop. Perfectly cooked, very flavorful, excellent. The accompanying unnamed grain is also exquisitely prepared and completely enjoyable. This one is tough to share due to the requisite cutting, but if you do the work, everyone will get a good bite or two of this great chop.
10 oz. New York Strip with grilled lemon and poached carrots: There’s a reason this place calls itself “The Strip Club” and this is probably it. Super simple presentation that represents all the tastebuds on your tongue. Lemon for your sour, carrots for your sweetness & bitter, and the steak brings home the other two, salt and umami. The salty crust of the steak is just a peek into the flavor each bite has in store. I seldom order steak because it’s mostly about technique, not creativity - and I can cook a great steak at home. I’ll probably make an exception for this one once in a while, it was that good.
Fingerling Potatoes with horseradish aioli, garlic, and arugula: Great, the garlic is really pronounced and I thought the heat was from that, but reading the description, horseradish makes way more sense - garlic heat is usually from raw garlic. I’m not a huge potato fan, but this was an enjoyable preparation, if you enjoy potatoes, I highly recommend.
Duck Breast with blackberries, green garlic, pistachio, radishes, and farro: Duck is always a good dish in Minnesota, and not because of its taste, prep or anything like that. It always starts a no holds barred argument between the seemingly ubiquitous yet wrong “Duck-duck-goose” folks versus the correct “Duck-duck-gray duck.” Our table ended up evenly split with three people that spent their time in the land of 10,000 lakes and learned the correct version, whereas the California, Wisconsin, and I think New Mexico raised people that couldn’t help where they matriculated into the wrong song. One thing we didn’t disagree on however, is that Strip Club makes a great duck, good prep, nice crisp on the skin, tender, rare, sweetness from blackberries and nuttiness from the farro. A favorite dish.
Wave 3 - Everybody grab a spoon to share these and dig in.
Panna Cotta with blueberry compote, port wine and honey glaze, and Szechuan peppercorn sprinkle: Totally solid. Good texture on the panna cotta that was complemented by the compote, good sweetness and touch of spice from glaze and sprinkle. Great.
Chocolate Ganache Torte with vanilla bean ice cream: Very chocolaty. One diner said it reminded them of a brownie, the server said it reminded them of S’mores, I can’t disagree with either. This is definitely a super shareable dish unless you’re a huge chocolate fiend.
Spice Cake with apples and vanilla been whipped cream: Dig deep on this one to make sure you get some of the apples. Spice cake isn’t a favorite, but his is enjoyable. Watch out when passing, the ramekin is hot.
Dessert Wine - Essential Viognier: The same diner that was gracious enough to let me use their soup picture also brought this in from their cellar. Nice and fruity, clean on the palate, not cloying like the botrytized noble rot wines or sauternes. It’s enjoyable, but my personal preference tends towards the sweeter and more cloying generally. This did pair really well with the chocolate ganache though, helping bring some levity to the darkness.
Writing about my experience at La Belle Vie earlier this week has made me think about restaurants in a different manner. I think a lot about the food, the service, and what the chefs are doing. I don’t, or hopefully didn’t, think about what the place might mean looking back. I’m trying to start. Thinking about it, it’s either the third or fourth time I’ve eaten at The Strip Club and every time is a great experience. At night it’s a dark, romantic, intimate, sort of place. Good for quiet, languid conversations. Brunch has been solo most of the, if not every, time, but it’s generally bright and inviting, with great doughnuts and other breakfast fare. I don’t look at yelp or other reviews usually so I don’t know what most peoples thoughts are, but I get a lot of personal recommendations. I’m generally not sure with what the future holds, but I’m sure I’ll make many memories here.