Minneapolis, Part 3

It’s pretty tough to leave Minneapolis without swinging by Surly Brewing Company. So we crossed over the Mississippi, drove through U of M campus and sauntered into Surly’s digs. Right at the front doors, you are met by Surly personnel giving the low-down on the beer-making operations at the beginning of their beer tour. Just beyond the tours, a hallway led to a large German-style beer hall fit for a hundred beer-swilling Vikings (except for the fact that they were pumping in reggae music). I ordered a Bender and Cindy ordered its sibling, the Coffee Bender. 

I like oatmeal brown ales and the Bender fits the bill. Dark as cola with a finger of tan head, the Bender smells slightly of chocolate and Nutella. Easy drinking and smooth, if you like sweet beer, this is a selection for you. Obviously, Coffee Bender is simply regular Bender except with the addition of Guatemalan coffee, roasted in Minnesota. In the Coffee Bender, the coffee aroma pushes out the Bender’s lighter hazelnut, and coffee bitterness stomps down the sweetness of the Bender with a longer, roastier finish. The question of which you would like to drink really only depends on if you like coffee or not. I prefer the Bender with food, and the Coffee Bender without.

As we left Surly, we stopped by their large gift store and had to purchase a couple of T-shirts featuring Surly’s most famous product by far, their annual Darkness offering- rich, black Russian Imperial Stouts graced with labels sporting some of the underworld’s creepiest denizens from Cerberus to minotaurs.

Minneapolis, Part 2

The Mississippi River, where Marvel Bar sits, is the northeast border of the revived Minneapolis warehouse district, while broad Washington Avenue cuts it right down the middle. On Washington, near the newly-restored lumber mill-turned hotel The Hewing (where we were staying), is a small liquor shop called the North Loop Wine & Spirits and it’s well worth your time. Tiny as it is, the NLWS is packed from ceiling to floor with bottles. Its floor displays are mainly devoted to world wines and craft beers. Its walls are lined with a surprising array of odd liqueurs, specialty vermouths, and wide-ranging whiskeys. The great thing about NLWS is its lineup of Minnesota products. Seemingly every liqueur Tattersall makes is here, including its glorious 80 proof grapefruit crema; Vikre aquavit, flavored and otherwise, and Norseman gins and rums also make an appearance.

I couldn’t wait to open my Tattersall grapefruit crema until I got home, so here’s the cocktail I made at the Hewing:

Viking Spring 

Holly’s Original

1 ½ ounces Tattersall grapefruit crema

½ ounce Farigoule

3 ounces Spruce Soda orange blossom tonic 

Just around the corner from the North Loop Liquor is the Red Cow, a upscale hamburger joint that features a good beer collection. Here we sampled a number of local brews including a Steel Toe Brewing’s Dissent, a dry wintertime stout; Lift Bridge Brewing’s Cow-laboration #5, a dark porter that is imbued with coconut flavor at the middle and through its finish; a Brau Brothers Moo Joos Red Velvet, which was a sweet milk stout that wouldn’t interest many beer drinkers due to its overwhelming cocoa forward nature, but chocolate cake lovers might dig it; and a Fulton’s Lonely Blonde, a rather ordinary pale ale that still went great with a Red Cow Philly cheesesteak.

Minneapolis, Part 1

We love that cities are revitalizing their old factory areas into art and entertainment districts. From Oklahoma City’s Bricktown, to Old Sugar in Madison, to Red Hook’s Widow Jane, America’s cities far and wide are converting their industrial and shipping areas to cocktail clubs and breweries. One of the best examples of this is the mill and warehouse districts of Minneapolis, where, slowly, abandoned buildings, one-after-another, are trading in their mill status for sophisticated cuisine and smartly-crafted libations.

We scoured the warehouse district for some of these tasty treats and found that our first destination was pretty darn hard to find- Marvel Bar. Despite its huge acclaim in bar circles, Marvel is a true modern speakeasy. If you use Google maps to find it, you still might not find it. It involves going to the Mississippi riverside at the end of the bar’s block under the Bachelor Farmer cafe, going down a flight of stairs on the outside and through two signless doors.

Once in, Marvel is almost as nondescript as the outside. It’s small with a few funky chairs surrounding short tables; its only distinctive feature is their golden maneki-neko forever beckoning cocktail lovers toward their next liquid treat. Marvel’s bar travels the entire length of the room with three barmen working so furiously concocting cocktails or cracking ice that it prevented the smallest of talk. We started with Marvel’s most famous drink, the Oliveto. The Oliveto is a velvety mixture of olive oil, egg, lemon, and liquor that lives up to its reputation. Though its recipe looks challenging (both in pour and in taste) to the novice cocktail drinker, it is not as intimidating as it appears; it only entails a couple of shakes and it tastes like lemon meringue. Yummy! That recipe is below:

Drink: Oliveto 

Establishment: Marvel Bar

Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota

First Connoisseur: Cindy

2 ounces dry gin

1 ounce fresh-squeezed lemon juice

¼ ounce rich simple syrup (2:1)

¼ ounce Licor 43

½ ounce full-bodied extra virgin olive oil

1 fresh egg white

Combine all the ingredients in a shaker in preparation for a dry shake. Shake hard, without ice, for about 20-30 seconds to emulsify the egg white and olive oil. Add ice to the shaker and shake again for 20 more seconds. Strain into a chilled coupe.

Of course, we couldn’t leave Marvel without trying a few more cocktails. And although we don’t know the proportions of these, they do make for interesting combinations if you are an amateur mixologist! Strongwater: a mixture of Farigoule (French thyme liqueur), Carpano Antica Formula vermouth, Marvel’s own select Old Scout 8 year bourbon, Maison Rouge, and water. The Oakenshield: salt, Cynar, Toschi Nocello (Italian walnut liqueur), Isle of Skye 8 year scotch whisky.