Bike and Bistro Neighborhood Tour - Cafe Agri

[dreamshark]

There seem to be wonderful little neighborhood bistros popping up everywhere these days, which makes it seem increasingly silly to keep getting in the car and driving to our favorite restaurants in distant parts of town. This summer, Richard and I vowed to eat at more charming little restaurants, especially ones we can easily bike to. And, since I have a blog, why not review them all?

first up, Cafe Maude.

This past week we hit two - one a great success, one not so much. First the bad news: Cafe Agri.

We really wanted to like this place. It's less than a mile from our house and practically next door to laurel, who is excited about a new restaurant on her block and alerted us that it was opening. I hope she likes it better than we did. *sigh* Maybe they'll improve once they settle down a little. Right now, it seems to be all about Concept and not so much about tasty food.

And the Concept is more than a little hard to follow. The mission statement on the front door of their website sounds good: "Agri is an organic restaurant with a focus on food that is locally grown using sustainable methods." There is more inside the website about eco-gastronomy and the Slow Food movement. I was expecting something like the Grand Cafe, which buys local produce in season and then comes up with recipes that taste really good. I have gone back to Grand Cafe twice for their Warm Beet Salad, and I don't normally even like beets.

Unfortunately, that's not Cafe Agri. It turns out that almost all their food is vegan, heavily spiced but unsalted, and unaccompanied by any kind of bread products (because all their food has to be gluten-free, for reasons that are not clear). The result is just not very appealing. This seems to be a restaurant that is all about what they WON'T serve, rather than one that serves tasty food.

This first impression was not improved by the psycho waiter, who insisted that we come in even though the place was technically closed, told us we could order anything, and then came back a few minutes later to tell us that the cook was mad because we were seated after 10pm and was refusing to make any of the things we had ordered.

At this point, the waiter pretty much insisted that we get the Baked Yam Crisps with Kalamata Avocado Dip. He also strong-armed Richard into ordering a beverage that he described only as "a very nice blood orange." I kept asking, "A blood orange WHAT?" I thought he was talking about a cocktail of some kind, but thought it might have been an appetizer. Finally he let slip that it was an Italian soft drink. I declined, explaining that I don't like soft drinks. He kept insisting that it was great and we'd love it, so Richard ordered one. However, the waiter didn't bring him a glass - he showed up with an unopened 1000ml bottle!! I said, "We just ordered one glass," but the waiter was already opening the bottle and pouring into two glasses, announcing expansively, "It's for both of you!" Well, Richard liked it.

The yam crisps sounded good, but weren't that great. For one thing, there was way too much avocado dip for the small pile of chips. The guac was okay but kinda grey looking, and the chips were dry and tasted faintly burnt. I also ordered Cool and Creamy Spinach Soup. I like spinach a lot and I love creamy soups. But this one wasn't creamy at all - it was CRUNCHY. I finally realized that this particular dish was affiliated not only with the Eco-Agronomy Movement and the Sustainable Food Movement, but also with the "Live Food" Movement. In other words, it wasn't cooked at all, it was just ground up raw vegetables. Ground, not pureed to a creamy texture. And of course it didn't have any actual cream in it, because they don't approve of dairy products in this place.

Richard ordered the Roasted Tomatoes: brushed with olive oil, balsamic vinegar and basil and ostensibly stuffed with a "local mozarella cheese" (although there was very little cheese in evidence). The tomatoes would have been really tasty with a good crusty bread. But all by themselves they were awfully acidic. And we can't have bread, can we? All that nasty nasty wheat gluten.

Originally we'd planned to get appetizers and dessert, but the cook was glowering at us from the kitchen, so we just left. I don't think we'll be back.

Comments

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

Oh, dear. I was hoping it would be good, but I don't think I'll even bother to try it.

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

You might want to try it anyway and form your own judgments. I don't want to be responsible for killing a newborn restaurant. I'm just reporting my own experience. Yours might be different.

Maybe the food is better if it's not closing time. And maybe they'll get rid of the psycho waiter, or he'll calm down.

On the other hand, maybe the psycho waiter is one of the owners, in which case it's probably hopeless. :-)

[laurel]

Wow, that's really too bad and sounds awful. You certainly didn't catch them at their best, that's for sure (at least I hope normally, if one goes during regular hours, that things are better).

We haven't tried it yet because we've been fairly broke and have been (mostly) trying to avoid eating out.

Also we're mourning My-T-Fine, I think, a bit longer. It really is too bad you never got to really try them out as they served great sandwiches, excellent brunches, and good meals (usually a few specials each day in addition to the sandwich and soup options). They suffered a slight decline when their pastry chef left, but that just meant I wasn't tempted by dessert. We liked the two places that were there before My-T-Fine too (Amie and Mary Martha's). Was hoping this would be another good option.

'Course there are plenty of other options, as you said, in S. Mpls. We should try more of them ourselves. I've still never even been to Victor's and Kevin's only been to El Meson once (I've been there lots more times from before I moved here). Want to try Blackbird and Grand Cafe and Cafe Maude and so on.

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

Well, now you should try them just to see if you can find reason to write them a better review. I know how much you wanted them to be a good restaurant and I felt bad being so negative. If you have a better experience there I hope you'll tell everybody about it. Sometimes the first month of a restaurant's existence isn't the best time to review it.

Give Gigi's a try! It's not much further from your house than Agri, the food is better, the prices are lower, and it's lively without being too crowded. It's just the kind of place that you and kaustin seem to like - a local hangout that also serves good food.

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah, I meant to tell you that you were a lot of my inspiration for the Local Bistro Tour. I always meant to try My-T-Fine and feel vaguely guilty that I never did. Neighborhood restaurants come and go, and we should enjoy them while we can.

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

It's not possible to have a restaurant that *absolutely everybody* can eat at, since food sensitivities don't actually avoid a core set of foods that everybody can eat; if you strike off everything that even one person can't eat, there's nothing left. And it sounds a bit like that's what they're trying for.

I've come to the unfortunate conclusion that places that make a big deal about catering to rare dietary requirements are rarely very good overall. I'm sure it's wonderful for the people who have those requirements, and can find little or nothing safe to eat at most ordinary restaurants.

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

I don't think they are trying to cater to food sensitivities so much as political ones. Your point is still valid, however. One form of political correctness they could get away with and still serve enjoyable food. Trying to hit ALL of them doesn't leave a lot of latitude.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

I bet you anything that the blood orange soda is the same stuff they are selling at Costco right now. We bought a case, because it sounded interesting. Has lots of chewy floaty bits, right?

K. [not so impressed... if they want to serve something like that, they could make switchel or a really good lemonade]

[laurel]

Simon Delivers carries it too and we bought a bottle because I love blood oranges (I highly doubt it can be as good as Sonny's blood orange sorbet though, which so far is my favorite blood orange related food).

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

Well, it came in a bottle with an Italian label, but that doesn't mean it isn't the same stuff inside. I don't know about the chewy bits (blecch) because I didn't drink any of it.