The Blue Door Pub

The Hot Chicks have taken a couple outings (family and boyfriends included) to the faraway and sometimes mysterious land of St. Paul to visit this bar/restaurant. I love the meaty, juicy, greasy goodness of a burger, and this place has lots of 'em. The Blue Door Pub is located on Selby Ave, and it is teeny tiny. The food here is so good there are always people lined up and squeezed in the entry (and sometimes out the door), so if you can grab a booth or a spot by the windows so you can enjoy your food while watching these people drool while they wait.

The Blue Door Pub offers its take on the infamous "Juicy Lucy," that super yummy ingenious burger with the cheese stuffed inside the ground cow. The BDP calls their burger a "Blucy" (SO clever). With all of the Blucy options, it's like they've taken the classic on a vacation, or dressed it up for Halloween... If you are brave, (Hot Chick is NOT) you could try "The Luau" a burger filled with mozzarella cheese and pineapple chunks, and topped with canadian bacon. The menu has many interesting and exciting, though also kinda gross-sounding options for your tasting pleasure. If you get all jazzed up about burgers, attempt the "Blucy Challenge." The BDP will give you a punch card with each Blucy option listed, and once you have eaten them all (please do not attempt this on one visit) you get a really cute shirt. Make sure to ask for one size up, because you will have a small food-baby sized gut after eating all 10 mouthwatering hamburgers.

Hot Chick loves that the BDP offers many beers on tap that change frequently, and that they support awesome MN breweries, like Summit and Surly. There is also Michelob Golden Light and Schlitz on tap for those of you who like piss water beer. There are about 5-6 options for red and white wine on the menu.

I suggest ordering The Blucy (stuffed with bleu cheese and chopped garlic-YUM) with NO pickles, a side of beer battered green beans, and a Surly Furious for a fantastic meal. Get some cheese curds for an appetizer and while you wait for your food you can sketch on the chalkboard wall. (idea: portrait of that weird looking dude sitting across the bar)

Hot Chick did go to the BDP for lunch on a Sunday, and could NOT be served beer because she was sitting outside. The food was still great, but not the same with a diet Coke. St. Paul has an ordinance to not serve beer to restaurant patrons sitting outside on Sundays. St. Paul, epic FAIL! The Hot Chicks are in favor of beer being served 7 days a week (um, like in Minneapolis).

The Hot Chicks think this is a totally super great place to go on a casual date. Menu items are priced right, and the atmosphere is fun and laid back. Remember to let your Blucy cool a little before taking that first bite, a scorching hot cheese/grease fountain in the face could put a damper on that date.

Red Stag Supperclub

This establishment is located in NE Minneapolis, one of the Hot Chicks verymostfavorite places to hang. We really wanted to like this place and gave it a total of four (4!) attempts to wow us with delish dishes. However, to our dismay, all four visits fell extremely short of our expectations.

The Red Stag is the first LEED-CI registered restaurant project in MN, which is very cool if you're into that whole "green" thing. However, this Hot Chick thinks they use it as a gimmick. Like other eateries owned by Kari Bartmann (Bryant Lake Bowl, Barbette), the Red Stag offers live music one or two nights a week and "Cheap Date Night" on Tuesdays, where you can get a bottle of wine, 2 entrees, and dessert for only $32. A steal, but one that provides entree options that leave a lot to be desired.

The drink menu is wonderful (so we'd go back for boozing) but the only thing worth ordering on the menu besides wine, beer, or liquor, is the gnocchi appetizer/side dish. (And maybe the homemade waffle chips that come with most lunch dishes.) Unfortunately, after online menu review, the gnocchi are no longer being served. At the Red Stag, we've experienced: bad wait staff (hipster scumbag with bad attitude and worse attire), cold and undercooked food (VERY bad idea to eat undercooked pork chop), and sitting next to patrons who looked like hippos quickly shoveling their faces full and smacking their lips. Yucka. We loved the atmosphere and decor, which is designed to look like a supper club you would find in the Northwoods of MN. I think it is fun to eat in a place that reminds me of home (Iron Range), but the walleye fish fry served up North is much better. And cheaper.

The Hot Chick's reccomendation: steer clear of the Red Stag Supperclub if you are looking for a great meal. Head instead to another one of Kari Bartmann's restaurants. Like Barbette, in Uptown, which is sure to please.

Black Sheep Pizza

Baaaaa Baaaaaaaa Black Sheep have you any.....Black Sheep pizza is located on Washington Ave. It has a small menu, and if you are clever, you will realize that its menu offers pizza. "Pizza, eeesssh so boring", says the reader. Hot Chick frowns upon this sort of thinking. If Hot Chick could she would eat pizza every single day of the year, 24/7/365 or whatever those numbers claim. And in fact, she does consume pizza frequently. Very frequently. Hot Chick considers herself something of a "pizza connoisseur". And this pizza restaurant, Black Sheep, speaks her language.

Black Sheep is a restaurant to visit when you aren't that hungry, but you are craving pizza. It's menu is limited in appetizers, and desserts. Instead it offers mostly pizza (AH HA! a PIZZA RESTAURANT!). All pizza is coal-fired, so the crust is crispy crusty fresh. It has about 9 or so pizzas that they have dreamt up, but the menu also offers you the option to build your own. Hot Chick, loving pizza as a first born, has done both. When I first dined in this restaurant I ordered a pizza based on ingredients I like (duh!), one ingredient--perhaps my most favorite ingredient of all time-- was garlic. I ordered garlic with my pizza, along with other various vegetables. Let me tell you, if Edward Cullen or whateverhisfaceisgrossickihatetwilight, was around at that moment, he would have dropped dead or ran away (I can't really remember what happens to vampires when in the presence of garlic). So, this is your ALERT:garlic as an ingredient on a pizza at Black Sheep will fill your mouth with garlic for days! If you are going on a date do not order garlic, if you are so inclined to order garlic be prepared to brush you teeth multiple times every ten minutes, and swish with mouthwash so frequently that you fail a breathalizer. The second time I visited Black Sheep I tried one of their pizzas. This pizza was called Hot Salami (yeeeeehawww hot salami) and dried chili pepper. This pizza was tasty, and it was even better when I layered it with even more red hot chili pepper flakes.

What is pizza with out beer and sports? Well, it is still everything without sports (no TV here), but Black Sheep does have drinks! Black Sheep has about 5 or so beers-on-tap, and it also offers bottled beer. For such a small joint I think that it offers quite a nice selection. Black Sheep also offers wine, House Red and House White for $5! STEAL!

Overall I think Black Sheep is a nice place to go on a casual night. It has a fun atmoshere, the servers don't pester you like a mosquitoe trying to get its last fix (uhhhh Bradstreet Craftshouse), and the pizza is down right yummy in the tummy. Plus, it's in like the coolest part of the cityy dawg. Or some would call it that.

Northeast Social

Northeast Social is a fairly new restaurant that has been getting a TON of press. Most of it good. Hopping on the bandwagon, we gave it a try, and another try, and another...never once led to disappointment. I, Hot Chick, crave what Northeast Social offers, that being FOOD, DRINK, and FUN.

To begin, Northeast Social's atmosphere gets a 10+. Its exposed brick wall, and lovely, to die for tin ceiling instantly warm the room. The tables and chairs, while fairly close to one another, make for social dining-- be it with your friends and family, or the guests sitting slightly nearby. Art lines the wall, funky and fun. Something you wouldn't see at mother's. Windows, looking out on the hipster-hopping street, offer an entertaining view. Even the location, superb. Just think, if you don't have reservations you can saunter down to Erte, Modern Cafe, of Anchor Fish and Chips. The never ending sea of hipsters, not unlike a swarm of locusts, may nearly be one of the only downsides of this charming restaurant.

While you may be surrounded by hipster filth, the food tastes as good as ever. The menu changes frequently, and often filled with in season supplies (aka winter offers plenty of root vegetables). I sampled a beet salad, and for the first time, my mouth broke into a chorus. I now believe that properly prepared, beets are neat! With each course my stomach bulged, but as only a Hot Chick must, I continued to gorge myself. I couldn't help it. The food melted in my mouth, only for my mouth to SCREAM for MORE MORE MORE! I can't speak for the entire menu, as alas I didn't consume it all. However I would guess that more times than not, the Northeast Social will come out on top.

What's dining without drinks you may ask? Nothing at all, I suggest. While the Social offers wine varieties, it's beer selection heavily lacks. This was a HUGE downside for me as I am quite the beer enthusiast. With only four beers on tap, and nothing out of this world I was left more than mildly disappointed. We Hot Chicks ordered a "Social Style" beer. This claims to be SO SO MUCH FUN, however nah, it's not. It's overpriced and lame. While it's an interesting switch from a bottle of wine or champagne, it just didn't do it for me. If you want more beer bang for your buck just order a glass, or two or three for yourself. Besides, whoever gets the last drop of the "Social Style" beer is sure to ruin the night.

So there it is, the two negatives of this Northeast gem: hipsters (eeesh) and drinks (sigh...). Besides these two, I assure you, you will leave satisfied and be begging to go back next week.