I don’t live or work in St. Paul, so can I make a list of the Top 4 coffee shops in St. Paul? Sure I can!
Full disclosure: I’ve never been to Kopplin’s. It’s on my list because of the history there, and the fact that they were the first real coffee crafters in the Twin Cities. They were coffee nerds before it was cool to be a coffee nerd.
What am I missing? What should be on the list?
What a cool idea. I’m hosting a charity fundraiser for The Panther Foundation, Spring Lake Park schools, in February. For a silent auction, they asked me to list a dozen restaurants that I like eating at, and would be fun for people to bid on. I tried to come up with a list that would be fun and interesting for people. What do you think?
Saffron, Minneapolis http://www.saffronmpls.com/
Strip Club, St. Paul http://domeats.com
Jax Café http://jaxcafe.com/
Corner Table http://www.cornertablerestaurant.com/
Brasa http://www.brasa.us/
Foxy Falafel http://foxyfalafel.com/
Black Sheep Pizza http://blacksheeppizza.com/
Republic MN http://www.republicmn.com
Hola Arepa http://holaarepa.com/
Libertine http://www.libertinempls.com/
Hell’s Kitchen http://www.hellskitcheninc.com/
The Salty Tart, Minneapolis http://www.saltytart.com/
Vegan-friendly restaurants that have plenty of great food for meat-lovers:
é by José Andrés. Truly one of the most enjoyable meals I’ve ever experienced.
There are just 8 seats inside this restaurant inside the Jaleo restaurant in the Cosmopolitan Hotel. We dined with two other couples, and one solo diner (who turned out to be the Chef in charge of Jose Andres’ restaurants in Washington, D.C.)
This is a show, inside a room that’s supposed to represent the inside of the mind of José Andrés.
We loved the edible sangria, which was presented in a box and tasted a little bit like Dippin’ Dots (the ice cream of the future!) This was Spain’s street food prepared in an incredibly modern way. Lots of foams and interesting flavors working. Seriously, 18 out of 19 courses were epic. I didn’t like the lobster with citrus & jasmine because it tasted of too much jasmine- almost soapy.
The beet sandwich was amazing, the foie gras and lamb… the lamb may have been the best tasting lamb I’ve ever enjoyed. You can see each course by looking at the gallery below,
If you google e, you’ll see many articles saying that you have to reserve months in advance, but we emailed reserve@ebyjoseandres.com the week before our arrival, and we got in. It cost $195 for the tasting menu, and was totally worth it. The wine pairing was also excellent, and my wife and I split it so we wouldn’t be rolling out of there drunk.
Our expectations were high for é by José Andrés, and they were exceeded. Awesome experience, with some incredible dishes.
e by Jose Andres
Jaleo at the Cosmopolitan Hotel
Las Vegas, NV
http://www.ebyjoseandres.com/
Yes, I let a City Pages reporter spend the night in my home. More accurately, my wife let a City Pages reporter spend the night in my home.
But no, Jesse Marx was not in my bathroom observing me as I brush my teeth with jasmine-mint flavored toothpaste.
It’s hard to talk about the City Pages story on me without seeming egotistical. Which, if you read it, is one of the central questions of the story. Am I a giant egotistical jerk? Or to coin a phrase, am I a “bulbous” egotistical jerk?
You can read it and decide for yourself. In my view, Jesse Marx is an excellent journalist. His story paints an extremely accurate and nuanced picture of my personality. His questions gave me the unique opportunity to examine why it is that I do what I do. It was therapy, without having to pay for a therapist!
In the spirit of the “4 things you need to know” we end our WCCO Morning show with every day, here are the 4 things you need to know about this story:
Why did you let a reporter spend the night in your home?
Jesse wanted to do a “day-in-the-life” style piece. My day starts at 2:30 a.m. Well, read the article, you know it starts at 2:28 a.m. He went to an event with me on Thursday night, and logistically it made sense for him to drive home with me and wake-up with me the next morning, rather than knocking on my door at 2:30 a.m. We have a guest bedroom. We provided clean linens.
The story opens in my bathroom. Jesse was not there. I did email him pictures of my toothbrush/toothpaste (you can find Marvis brand at Martinpatrick3), and of the bathroom so he could paint the word picture.
My wife is a saint for allowing a stranger into our home overnight. Oh, and when: “he pauses and casts his gaze across the row of houses in Maple Grove and up to the stars. It’s too dark for witticism. Maybe in another hour.”
Truth: I was really just taking out the garbage can, and looking up.
Why did City Pages do another story on DeRusha?
The email came to me from Jesse on August 30th:
Hi, Jason,
I know you’re busy at the MN State Fair, but would you have a few minutes in the next week to talk? I’m a reporter with City Pages.
He asked, and I said yes. Indeed, I’ve been the subject of some interest for local journalists in the past. The last real profile on me was in July of 2010, more than three years ago. (the story doesn’t appear to be online, but the video extra still is)
Why am I interesting? Beats me. I think I put my personality out there more than other anchors and reporters, I immerse myself in the community and events and people, and I “come to play.” I give genuine quotes, I don’t serve up a lot of BS. This is scary to my bosses, but they are awesome and supportive.
Is that your bathrobe?
No, the art director bought it at Target, and then returned it. Sadly. I think I want to buy it now and snuggle with it at night. She was great – Emily Utne was inspired by this Conan O’Brien cover. The photographer, Tony Nelson, is awesome. The last scene in the story – we were discussing these amazing fine art projection photographs. Wow.
Lime green walls and orange coaches sound gross! What are you thinking?
Our living room was featured on HGTV’s “Decorating Cents” in 2007. I love the lime green walls, and the cool wallpaper, and our funky orange couches!
The whole process was a lot of fun for me. I really appreciate all the people who spent time with Jesse to talk about me: Jamie Yuccas spent an hour with him, Neal Justin talked with him, David Brauer wasn’t quoted although Jesse tweeted that he said: “There’s a lot of genuinely charming things about him and he’s made himself accessible.” Plus, “He’s not a dumb sh*t.”Also: Amy Gustafson, former news directors Jeff Kiernan and Scott Libin, Don Shelby, Julio Ojeta-Zapata, Tim Vetcher, Frank Vascellaro, and my current ND Mike Caputa. Oh, and C.J. I love her – and I love the banter we have back and forth.
That’s a lot of people interviewed for context and background information. Jesse spent about 6 weeks with me. I pitched him three other stories while we were working together, things I thought would be more interesting than me. But I’m honored to be profiled, just like I’m honored to have a job that lets me do all the fun things that I get to do.
These are the salad days. But many Minneapolis Public Schools don’t have salad bars. You can help, though. Read more at my Minnesota Monthly blog:
http://www.minnesotamonthly.com/media/Blogs/Twin-Cities-Taste/October-2013/DeRusha-Eats-Raising-Money-for-School-Salad-Bars/
Jason DeRusha 
