The old Dunn Bros on 9th and Nicollet is now Barrio, Tim McKee and Josh Thoma’s new tequila bar. It features a killer drinks menu designed by Johnny Michael, the cities premier mixologist—cherry-lime margarita with absinthe? Pineapple-lime chasers for aged twenty-year-old mezcals or genuine tequila? McKee and his chef, Bill Fairbanks, designed the menu, which is inspired by the street foods of the Latin world. Sounds cool—not your typical derivative junk that has been opening all over town recently. I bumped into McKee Monday night at the State Fair; we all had kids and spouses in tow, and he was very psyched with the results of the test meals and was raring to go. Check it out, and let me know what you think.

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In a rare star turn outside of his own kitchen, Heidi’s uber culi-mensch (How do you like that moniker?!) Stewart Woodman, who was named Food & Wine’s Best New Chef of 2006, is teaching a Rosh Hashanah cooking class, hosted at the St. Paul JCC on Thursday, September 18 at 6:30 p.m. The event is open to the public.

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Last week’s Wall Street Journal had a Ray Sokolov piece that really burned me up. He was writing a roundup of the convention cities’ dining scene and trashed Cosmos, seemed to be interested in the St Paul Grill, praised Heartland, and loved Lucia’s. But he also failed to go to about a dozen other restaurants that should have been in the mix, but that’s the nature of these types of articles. Out-of-towners never hit all the places; it’s an impossible task. That didn’t bug me. Nor did his take bug me that much, aside from the positive spin on the SPG, which serves some pretty uninspired and poorly cooked food these days. What really ticked me off was this: after lauding some Denver eateries, he segues into our city with this deft observation . . .

“Such a varied, sizzling food scene isn't what the McCain camp will find in the Twin Cities on Labor Day.”

C’mon, Ray! I have eaten my way around Denver, and its top-five restaurants are no match for ours, and our food scene is deeper and more varied than Denver’s is. And as far as ‘sizzle’ goes, we have it over the Mile High City in spades: more Beard nominations, more Beard Awards, more Food & Wine Best Chefs . . . and on and on.

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By now everyone has heard, I hope, that Wine Spectator magazine gave an Award of Excellence to a nonexistent restaurant that sent in the required paperwork and the submission fee of $250. The fake eatery, called Osteria L’Intrepido, was the work of wine writer Robin Goldstein, who illustrated, rather well I think, that not only is the award absurdly easy to get but that the recognition lacks the oomph that the magazine seems hell-bent on making us think it has.

All that being said, it’s a pretty cheap trick, sort of like making a lost innocence story out of getting Lindsay Lohan to share a beer with you. Last year, the magazine had thousands of submissions, and 90 percent of them got the award because that’s how the system works, which WS has been very transparent about. Goldstein wasn’t so transparent, and although his prank makes a great point about the inanity of these types of lists and awards, his methodology uses an untruth to unmask an emperor whose clothes were already off.

My friend Pete sent me an email this morning. He asked me what the following restaurants had in common after seeing them listed in another local publication:

—Campiello

—D'Amico Cucina
—La Grolla

—Luci Ancora
—Prima

—Ristorante Luci
—Zelo

Well, according to Pete’s info, this other mag said they all were listed in Zagat's America's 1,000 Top Italian Restaurants. 

This crap constantly amazes me. Who are the Zagat people relying on for that list? Diners? Are they culled from supposed experts’ lists? What human being in their right mind could possibly think that La Grolla, Luci Ancora, Ristorante Luci, Prima, or Zelo are among the best 1,000 Italian restaurants in the USA? This is not because they couldn’t be, but how do you compare them with other potential Italian eateries outside of our city? Who is expert enough to say? Now, what I can tell you is I Nonni is a better Italian restaurant than La Grolla, Luci Ancora, Ristorante Luci, Prima, or Zelo—and Broder’s is as well. Zelo is not even an Italian restaurant!

My favorite Italian restaurant, simply for the quality of food, is D’Amico Cucina. I adore the simple and honest food at I Nonni; my only wish is that they hire competent staff who aren’t seemingly working nights their senior year in high school, and the room needs a major makeover (it has always reminded me of the Parade of Homes), but the food rocks, and the wine list is second to none.

Am I alone in thinking that more so than almost any other category of ethnic dining, we have a dearth of ‘quality’ Italian eateries in this town? Cucina, Broders, Punch, Campiello, I Nonni, and a few others offer food that is respectably reminiscent of true Italian cuisine. But every time I travel, I am reminded that despite so many opinions to the contrary, there are mostly bad Italo-American restaurants in this town. Simple, seasonal food made with impeccably sourced ingredients is the hallmarks of Italian cuisine. What doesn’t fall into that category would be some of the wonderfully complex, fully flavored peasant dishes that haunt any food fan’s dreams if they have ever traveled through Italy. Am I off base here?

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For those who are interested, the new mightily expanded season of Bizarre Foods begins on September 9.

September 9: Phuket
September 16: Sicily
September 23: Goa
September 30: Samoa
October 7: Paris
October 14: Los Angeles
October 21: Halloween Special
October 28: Hawaii
November 4: No new programming, I will be out voting that day.
November 11: Ethiopia
November 18: Maine
November 25: Holiday
December 9: Uganda

The Green Movement is now mainstream—it has been for a while now—which means that yesterday’s heroes are tomorrow’s villains and that shysters and hucksters are at play in the field of the Lord. Elissa Altman, one of my fave food writers has a killer piece at The Huffington Post profiling, among others, Coleman Meats, Whole Foods, and Emeril. You read here the other week how moribund and unappealing I thought Emeril’s new show is. Well, if you want a laugh and want someone else’s opinion on the same topic, read Altman’s column.

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Speaking of green, Forbes just came out with a list of the ten top-earning celebrity chefs. And who is number one? My son’s favorite TV chef, Rachael Ray, that’s who. She makes approximately $18 million a year. She appeals to the widest swath of food fans of all stripes. Like her or not, she has a recipe for success that can’t be topped. Here's the rest of the list. The names will be very familiar to all of you, and thank the sweet Lord that I didn’t have to see Tyler Florence’s name on here anywhere or Sandra Lee’s or any of the other miserable dolts of whom I am so amazingly not a fan. I think Ramsay might soar into the low teens any day now, once his cut of the production of all his TV work comes to him next season.

2. Wolfgang Puck—$16 million
3. Gordon Ramsay—$7.5 million
4. Nobuyuki Matsuhisa—$5 million
5. Alain Ducasse—$5 million
6. Paula Deen—$4.5 million
7. Mario Batali—$3 million
8. Tom Colicchio—$2 million
9. Bobby Flay—$1.5 million
10. Anthony Bourdain—$1.5 million

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Speaking of Tyler Florence and things I am not a fan of, Restaurant Miami is closed. It lasted a year longer than it should have. Giorgio’s closed while I was away on my last trip. Anything else I should be aware of?

On the list of things you should be aware of is the impending Brasa opening on Grand Avenue. The PiPress reported it, Alex Roberts won’t confirm it, and rightly so, regardless of whether or not he is opening there. But a highly placed source of mine has said flat out that according to the real estate folks who own the property, Brasa is going in . . . with Salut and the Apple Store and Punch. I think the worm is turning on Grand. Now all we need is for J. P. Samuelson to open a chef-driven family eatery on the Avenue and for Steven Brown to open a lovely spot up near Mac College with a garden patio behind the building. Then I would be happy. One of Tim McKee’s BBQ joints would make me happy as well; it would save me the drive from Stillwater.

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All the root beer chat two weeks ago got me thinking about Manhattan Special, a killer espresso soda made with real espresso and pure cane sugar. Put two over ice, and you can feel your teeth grow, and your hair falls from your head. Mix it with coffee ice cream and a splash of chocolate sauce, and you are rocking. Well, good news for Minnesotans: It is finally available online. 

The Pioneer Press indicated that Alex Roberts is opening another Brasa, this time on Grand Avenue in St. Paul. No one would be happier than I would be, and I think it should go into the old Italian Pie Shoppe location next to the new Punch Pizza. But of course, I heard from Alex that although he could not confirm whether or not he was in fact looking for another location, he had also not confirmed that with the PP people.

So, basically what you have is a restaurant—a hugely successful one—with a modest price point, a killer almost-quick serve concept, and a rumor that they are looking to expand. I got $100 that says it happens . . . and I am praying that the next Brasa comes to St. Paul, but price points on the Avenue are high relative to other comparable square footage in other neighborhoods. For me, I would go into Grand Avenue anyway because of the densely packed residential area combined with the collegiate proximity. Perhaps Brasa belongs higher up on Grand near Macalester? Ahhh, nothing like the hot stove league of the restaurant off-season.

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I get a lot of info from readers of this blog and our magazine. This one from Steve really piques my interest because it is all about one of my top-five foods, and I don’t have to head to the Pacific Northwest to enjoy it. Steve says:

“I first learned about geoduck thanks to Dirty Jobs. I figured I would have to go to the coast to try it out. Turns out that Pagoda—the relatively new Chinese place in Dinkytown—serves a $100 2-course-for-2-people special geoduck meal. I haven't tried it out yet, but thought you might be curious to hear about it. They prepare it braised, in a soup, and sashimi-style. Sounds neat, and as far as I know it's the only place in the region you can eat geoduck.”

Well, I have to add Pagoda to the list, but guess what? There are several places to eat geoduck, including my two standout performers, Mandarin Kitchen and Jun Bo. Both serve the neck sliced thin and served raw; then they serve the belly fried with chiles and scallions. The price is always reflective of the season and is priced per pound. It’s expensive but worth it, and it’s always cheaper than $100. We always order it for four to six people as a course so we can all stuff ourselves on other treats as well.

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Check out the latest edit job on Wikipedia re the Jucy Lucy. Frankly, I have to agree. I think the JL is the most over-rated food item in the Twin Cities. Every time I eat one, it’s a letdown . . . overcooked meat being my biggest complaint. Shall we share what else is wildly over rated in this town? Anything at Kincaid’s for starters. Ouch, but it’s true. It’s not their fault; the food there is decent, it just gets lauded at a level that’s inappropriate to the quality of what’s on the plate. Ditto the St. Paul Grill, which is in desperate need of a food makeover. The room is amazing, and the food is just terrible these days. Any other ideas? And remember, I want to know about a restaurant that is overrated, so a list of places that serve bad food and everyone knows it simply does not count. I want to know about places that undeservedly have a reputation for serving good chow.

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Gordon Ramsay has been criticized for eating the raw heart of a dead puffin on his Channel 4 program in the UK. According to my buddy Lawrence Keogh, the chef at Roast in London, viewers of The F Word saw the chef go to Iceland for the first day of the official puffin-hunting season. On the program, which aired last week in Britain, Ramsay caught a few puffin, ate a puffin heart, and cooked some up. British media regulators received several complaints while the animal welfare group Viva! accused the chef of being ‘desperate for publicity.’

What a crock. IT’S THE TV BUSINESS! It’s all about sizzle and marketing. We all want publicity. But Ramsay is eating a food that is in plentiful supply, is fully licensed to harvest them, and is doing it in season to boot. The animal rights activists should be glad that some of us are exposing viewers to alternative proteins since the popularity of those new food sources will ease the pressure on fisheries, farms, and factories that could use the reprieve. More importantly, Ramsay almost died by falling off a 250-foot cliff and into the almost-freezing water, being submerged for almost a minute. He was finally pulled to safety by his crew.

I can relate. Hunting for puffin in the Westman Isles was the most hair-raising adventure of my TV career, and I FREAKED OUT, jumping from a teeny raft onto a bare rock face to climb up to the puffin nests. I just can’t believe I stayed on the cliff and Ramsay, a much better athlete to be sure, fell in.