Previous outings include:
Cafe Maude - thumbs up
Cafe Agri - thumbs down
Gigi's - thumbs up

It's not the Blackbird Cafe or Cafe Blackbird or even Blackbird's. It's just Blackbird. It's less than 2 miles from our house, and we'd been meaning to try it out for quite a while. But sadly it is not open for dinner on Sunday, our favorite day for eating out. Boo. Also, inexplicably, they don't have bike racks out front.

However, other than those little complaints, it gets a rave review from both of us. I actually had lunch there last September and like it a lot, but this is the dinner review. Yum. That's the verdict. The decor is still charming, sunny and airy in the front, dark and intimate in the back. The menu has the same pleasantly schizy quality; you have a choice of familiar beef-based meals served with big plates of home-cut fries or subtle and inventive combinations of fruits, vegetables, nuts and meats. Naturally, we went for the subtle and inventive side of the menu.

Because I'd been biking and swimming for much of the day and was ravenous, we ordered appetizers right away, and were very glad we did. We had the Crispy Duck Rolls and Chevre with Almond Crust, Fried Shallot and Apricot Chutney. Both were exquisite. And despite being described in the menu as "tidbits," they were perfectly normal appetizer size servings. The "almond crust" turned out to be a cross of 4 crispy little flatbread crackers with a mound of chevre (soft goat cheese) perched on the cracker crossroads. What made this dish shine was the smaller mound of apricot chutney under the chevre. If you like fruit and spices with meat or cheese (which we do), this is a heavenly combination. The duck rolls were the best deep-fried spring rolls I have ever tasted, nicely presented with tiny quantities of two different sauces right on the plate. The sweet and piquant red chili pepper sauce turned a very good spring roll into something really special.

We were tempted by the Thai Rabbit Salad, but settled on the Sweet Pea Ravioli (With sauteed pea shoots, black trumpet mushroom custard and ricotta) and Griddled Walleye (Walnut crusted, with organic baby spinach, basil curry, pickled pepper relish). Both were very very good, with light sauces and just enough piquant ingredients to keep the side dishes interesting. The "black trumpet mushroom custard" (in case you were wondering) was a little mound of dark creamy stuff with a very intriguing musky flavor, paired with a similiar size white creamy mound that must have been the ricotta. It was a nice presentation that made the oddly colored mushroom mousse a lot more appealing.

We shared a creme brulee for dessert, which didn't really live up to the quality of the rest of the meal. The dessert chef had gone a little nuts with the brulee iron, and overcooked the sugar crust. It looked beautiful, but the crust was so hard that you had to strike it sharply with an implement to break through it. Not too surprisingly, it tasted a little burnt, which made the overly delicate custard underneath just seem tasteless. On the other hand, the 2 almond biscotti that came with it were delicious. The waitress had recommended the bread pudding, and we probably should have listened to her. Oh well, maybe next time.

The prices are not at all unreasonable, but things add up quickly, especially if you order drinks. With wine, fancy lemonade, appetizers, entrees and dessert, it came to about $60 (before tip). Lunch is much more affordable.

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.

For some reason, we like to eat out on Sunday evening. Historically this has been a problem in Minnesota. I remember a time when it was hard to find a restaurant open on Sunday evening that wasn't a 24-hour chain. But now there's lots. We decided to see a movie at the Lagoon so we could reasonably combine it with dinner at "Passage to India," one of our favorite restaurants.

"Passage to India" was as good as ever. They have the crispiest, lightest papadums anywhere. I should probably try something besides Kashmiri Lamb sometime, but theirs is SO good that I always get it. I have to wonder, however, why Kashmiri anything should have pineapple in it. It's hard to think of a locale less conducive to fresh pineapple. Or are there parts of Kashmir that are not high, cold mountains? Richard got Bombay chicken, which is another creamy dish but with entirely different seasoning that went very well with the lamb.

For the cinematic portion of the evening's entertainment, we finally saw "Juno." It was really good - much better than I expected for some reason. Maybe it's because I took so long to finally see it that the buzz had moved from over-hyped to backlash. It might not be as wonderful as the original critical reaction suggested, but it's a lot better than the backlash said.

The restaurant is at 50th and Bryant, right next to the Malt Shop. It's called the Blackbird Cafe. It's yet another of those charming little neighborhood bistros that have been popping up all over. Like the Grand Cafe, Cafe Ena and God knows how many more, Blackbird serves a limited menu of imaginative, tasty dishes attractively presented in a charming one of a kind space, with maybe a coffee bar off to the side.

Blackbird's coffee bar is also a wine bar, and it's front and center in the airy little storefront along with a handful of tiny tables. However, there are larger, more private tables towards the back of the bigger-than-it-looks restaurant, with one particularly romantic table location back by the antique fireplace. The lunch menu is mainly sandwiches. I had a really delicious turkey sandwich with provolone cheese and pinenuts on some kind of special bread they call a "Pullman Loaf," homemade fries and a bottomless glass of iced hibiscus tea. Yum. Came to about $10 plus tip. Some sandwiches are also available at dinner time, along with some fairly expensive but interesting entrees. Dinner looks like it would be about $25 per person, more with wine. So it's not exactly cheap, but certainly a good alternative to lunch at the Malt Shop.

The other items came from yard sales.