How do you properly celebrate 70 years in the restaurant business?
Counter Intelligence: Market Bar-B-Que celebrates 70 years
March 23, 2016 at 4:13PM
If you're Anthony Polski, and your grandfather founded Market Bar-B-Que (1414 Nicollet Av. S., Mpls., 612-872-1111, marketbbq.com) during the early years of the Truman administration, you do what all the kids are doing these days: launch a food truck.
"The summers have been slow lately, and when I'd go downtown and see the food trucks — and see 20 or 30 people standing in line — I was so impressed," he said. "I thought, I have to do this."
For his truck — you can't miss it, it's appropriately awash in bright, cartoon-piggy pink — Polski is planning to keep the menu simple: pork spare ribs, chicken wings, a pulled pork sandwich and a sliced brisket sandwich. Sides, too: coleslaw, fries, cornbread, baked beans. Dessert will be chocolate bars, custom-made to Polski's specifications by a local chocolatier.
The restaurant has been following the same brick pit-cooked formula since June 1946, lighting an oak fire (occasionally fortified with cherry or pecan wood) each morning and carefully cooking meats over a direct flame.
The fire-cooked meat is refrigerated all day ("That allows the smoke to really penetrate the meat," said Polski), then broiled just before it's served, with sauces on the side.
The truck's debut? While the Minnesota Twins host the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim for a three-day weekend at Target Field April 15-17, Polski will have the truck parked at nearby Fulton Brewing (414 6th Av. N., Mpls., 612-333-3208, fultonbeer.com).
"They're going to make a special smoked beer for us," he said.
Polski is also using the birthday celebration to launch a new barbecue sauce, a sweet blend developed by longtime Market employee Patricia Graham. It'll be available at the truck.
The Market — so named because the original home was near the Minneapolis city market — is owned by Polski and his father, Steve Polski.
"Actually, I don't own this place," said Anthony Polski. "I'm just preserving it for the next generation."
Now in bookstores
"The Duluth Grill Cookbook" proved so popular that two years and 7,000 copies later, it has spawned a sequel.
Author Robert Lillegard and photographer Rolf Hagberg are back for more with the just-released "The Duluth Grill Cookbook II" (Duluth Grill Publishing, $29.95), which features stories and 100 recipes from the Duluth Grill (118 S. 27th Av. W., Duluth, 1-218-726-1150).
Recipes drop into all corners of the restaurant's menu, including hummus with preserved lemon, green bean casserole, beet-apple pizza, Swedish meatballs, bison-stuffed peppers, and layered carrot cake.
The book is available at the Bibelot Shops, Cooks of Crocus Hill and Kitchen Window.
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Read full reviews and other restaurant news at startribune.com/dining.
Deep-fried puffy tacos, dough ‘knots’ and s’mores ice cream sandwiches scored high on our list.
