Doritos-coated cheese curds at Arts + Rec
This week we've been talking a lot about restaurants lost. Walking through the near-empty mall on the corner of Hennepin Avenue and Lake Street in Minneapolis, it's easy to conjure the ghosts of Figlio, Famous Dave's, the Independent, Fig + Farro and more. But from the ashes rises a creative new endeavor that's fueled by artist murals, fine cocktails and a Minnesota-born fever dream of mini-golf. The long-awaited Arts + Rec complex, inside the former Libertine space, is finally, fully open.
While there's probably a story about an artistic rebirth in a neighborhood that was once a creative hub before being taken over by corporations — now trying to find new ways to build on old business — that's not what brought us here. For the purposes of this story, we must talk about the Doritos cheese curds ($14).
The whole Arts + Rec menu is snacky, and there's plenty of fun to be had that includes fresh veggies. But this is the kind of dish invented by someone up way past bedtime; the kind of genius born from letting go of reality (cheese curds don't belong with corn chips!) and embracing a new consciousness that defies polite society and dives head first into crunchy, oozy, sweet and spicy decadence. Ellsworth curds are creamy on the inside and stretch when you pull them apart — like the lava lamp of the food world. The Doritos crisps remind us of those crumbly bits at the bottom of the bag where hope lives, and the hot honey brings a sweet/tangy spicy from the habañero sauce that really ties the flavors together. (Joy Summers)
3001 Hennepin Av. S., Mpls., 612-354-2958, artsandrecuptown.com
Kasha bread from Asa's Bakery
As a born-and-bred East Coaster, my bagel and bialy hopes are continually dashed whenever I try them outside the New York tri-state area. But I finally made it to Asa's Bakery's newish cafe to sample Asa Diebolt's buzzed-about breads. These are the bagels that other former New Yorkers have assured me live up to our malty, yeasty memories. And they're right. The bagels — and onion-smothered bialys! — hit all the marks. My only regret? I didn't stop to take a photo before devouring a bialy with housemade roasted shallot-and-kohlrabi cream cheese and nova lox.
Fortunately, I also grabbed kasha bread — available only on Thursdays — to take home. The tangy sourdough has little nibs of toasted buckwheat hiding in the nooks and crannies. A whiff of it reminded me of the holidays, with my mom's kasha varnishkes on the table.
Diebolt has similar memories from his childhood in upstate New York. "I grew up eating kasha. My mom would make it. It was in the rotation," he said. He developed the recipe — a sourdough with whole wheat and twice-cooked buckwheat groats — back in 2018 when he was starting out at Twin Cities farmers markets, but he said "it didn't fly off the shelf right away. There's a little less familiarity." He hit pause on the kasha bread, but when he came back to it, "it eventually found its customer base." Now, people trek to the Nokomis-area bakery, which opened in March, every week specifically for that bread.
The flavor of kasha is hard to describe, Diebolt said. "I think of it as earthy and sweet. It's fragrant, and the dough has a beautiful purplish tint, this cool tone from the kasha." Slathering slices with salty Irish butter, this hearty loaf ($7) didn't last long in my house. I'll be back next Thursday. (Sharyn Jackson)
