dragsmith farms

Event Recap: Farm in the Cities 2012

This past Sunday night, if you had walked into the ballroom on the third-floor of Solera Restaurant in downtown Minneapolis, the first thing you would have seen was meat. Four kinds of meat, to be precise – coppa, dry cured ham, black-pepper sausage, and fennel sausage – all made by Mike Phillips of Three Sons Butchers in Northeast Minneapolis. An entire table of meat, enough to feed the several hundred people who had turned out for the second-annual Farm in the Cities benefit dinner. And after the meat, the next thing you would have seen would have been the chefs, many decked out in their whites, ringing the table and joking around as they arranged the twenty-something butcher boards of charcuterie.

 

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Two New Projects from Victory 44's Erick Harcey

A lot of people have told Chef Erick Harcey what he can't do. He was about to open a restaurant in Northeast Minneapolis when the financing fell through. He found a place in North Minneapolis instead. The day he opened Victory 44, someone asked if he had sweet potato fries on the menu. When he said no, they said he'd never make it. In 2010, he reorganized away traditional servers and said the chefs would serve the food. Both the press and diners said it would never work. Harcey acknowledges the chalkboard menu on the wall and the tag team service, especially when the restaurant is busy, can make for an uneven experience. Yet fans and regulars praise the ambitious, changing menu, with healthful portions of high quality food at reasonable prices.

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Chowgirls: Much More than Killer Catering!

Heidi Andermack and Amy Lynn Brown of Chowgirls

On Valentine's Day, my husband and I were guests of Chowgirls, best known for catering, at their inaugural fine-dining event, the Locavore Love Affair, held in the Rosalux Gallery next door to Chowgirls' kitchen and office in NE Minneapolis. I've enjoyed meals catered by Chowgirls before, so I was especially glad for the opportunity to check out their new venture and talk to founders Heidi Andermack and Amy Lynn Brown.

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What a Great Time We Had at Barbette!

Last night's Fulton Beer Dinner at Barbette was spectacular. Chef Kevin Kathman mixed local foods with sustainably sourced seafood options that helped show off some of the best micro-brews in town. When we sat down, guests were treated to a short discussion about the importance of good food and community, followed by Heather McDougall's introduction of Share Project, a sustainability-focused start-up recently launched by Heather and her brother John. 

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