Cafe Twenty-Eight

So yesterday, I had a bad day after water damaging my less than a year old Android phone. My whole life was on that phone from my calendar to tons of pictures. It is "drying" in rice right now, but odds are it is toast.

After making two labor intensive salads for an earlier event, the last thing I wanted to do was cook and clean the kitchen for a third time in 24 hours.  In comes Cafe Twenty-Eight.  I received a gift certificate from my boyfriend's parents for graduation and it ended being the perfect thing to make my crappy day better.

Cafe Twenty-Eight is located in the Linden Hills neighborhood of Minneapolis.  Not far from Lake Harriet, it is built in an old fire station.  The atmosphere is friendly and the cafe itself is charming. The menu is locally focused featuring Fisher Farms pork and beef from Clancey's Meat Market which is right around the corner.  The only beer they have on tap is from the Surly brewery in Brooklyn Park--which is more than okay with me.  The staff wore attire from both Surly and Clancey's which I thought was a nice touch. I noticed a lot of families--from an older couple enjoying a meal with their 30-something son and a young couple out with their almost brand new baby. It felt like a neighborhood restaurant--a place where you can always count on a good meal and a friendly face.

We started out with wild mushroom pate accompanied by a Surly Shadenfreude.  The pate was good, not great.  I think it tasted more like garlic and less like mushroom, but I still liked it.  For my main course, I had a Fisher Farms Pork tenderloin with sauteed green beans, red pepper and polenta.  Every bite was delicious. I love polenta and the flavors with the green beans, peppers and pork all worked really well with it.  My boyfriend had pork in adobo sauce with two different kinds of salsa, rice and tortillas.  I did not expect the adobo sauce to be nearly as good as it was--but it really had fantastic flavor.  The meal was exactly what I needed. 

Followed by a mini walk around Lake Harriet and a movie--I felt like my night was perfect.  Thank you Suzanne, Paul & Family.  I can't wait to go back to Cafe Twenty-Eight.