Bar Abilene

Bar Abilene
1300 Lagoon Ave
Minneapolis, MN

Date: Sunday, March 18

Last Sunday, I met my brothers and one of the girlfriend's for brunch at Bar Abilene. My oldest brother Drew first "discovered" brunch there a few years ago and since then, whenever he is involved in a brunch decision, he chooses Bar Abilene. Bar Abilene is "Cowboy Cuisine", so it's a mix of the tex mex flavors and traditional American breakfast. It is easy, reasonably priced, not too busy, and you can eat lots of food. Enough to be filled up for an entire day!

I have never actually looked to see if they have a menu for brunch. They have a menu for other times of the day, but the brunch is an all-you-can eat buffet for $10.95 (and kids are free! Rowan was not with me at this meal, as she was with her dad and out protesting the war or something in lieu of eating. A radical at age 4! But, that is beside the point, which is breakfast/brunch, which she could have gotten for free had she been with me.). The brunch buffet has not once changed since I have been there. Your options are:

• Chicken/Tofu fajitas with choices of sour cream, salsas, cheese, etc. for toppings
  
• fresh fruit
  
• mini regular waffles; mini chocolate waffles (these topped with whipped cream are pretty much the best thing ever!)
  
• french toast (just okay)
  
• biscuits and southwest gravy (never tried it; not my thing)
  
• sausage links
  
• bacon
  
• scrambled eggs
  
• the best potatoes ever

Plus, a build your own omelette station (which are pretty good, but can take a while), a meat station (I did not pay attention to that, but usually they serve prime rib and/or ham), and a table full of desserts.

It never changes, and for me and my love of stability, this is a good thing.

We arrived a little bit before 10:00am, and had to wait outside for a bit for the place to open. My brothers are a little naughty and were entertaining Karla and I with stories of "Jayzerz" the blue jay and amphibious hummers. Not entirely related to the food, but fun anyhow.



My other brother joined us in a bit and the doors opened and we were seated and served right away (we were the first people there, after all). It should be noted that they have excellent coffee and are fairly prompt with the refills. We all managed to stuff ourselves silly and have a good time. No complaints here, and the food, as always, was good. Especially the potatoes.


Fajita and potatoes: weird, but delicious, breakfast combination.


Brothers.

I would definitely recommend Bar Abilene for people who want to eat a lot (seriously: enough for the whole day!) and who like traditional breakfast foods with a slight twist on them. Also, if you value bang for your buck, then Bar Abilene delivers. For $11, you do get a good variety and can eat exactly as much as your heart desires. And, it doesn't have that icky feeling that many buffets have, since the Sunday brunch is a once a week deal and not their regular fare.

Al's by myself...

Al's Breakfast
413 14th Ave SE
Minneapolis, MN 55414

It has become a bit of a tradition of mine to go to Al's during spring break week. Al's breakfast is somewhat of a legend in the Twin Cities, as it is known for one of the best breakfasts in town along with being known for it's amazingly narrow interior. Seriously There are fourteen stools in the entire place and people who are waiting wait directly behind the diners, pressed against the wall. It is an experience well worth it for the delicious food that is served. But, we'll get to the food.

The spring break tradition began with my friend Sarah when we were both staff at the University, and after she moved away, I try to keep the tradition in place. In theory, as Al's is located in the Dinkytown area of Minneapolis, right by the University of Minnesota, it makes a lot of sense to go when there are less students around. Less students should equal less waiting. For, you see, Al's is almost always pretty packed.

On Wednesday, I decided to go to Al's for lunch, since it was Spring Break week and, well, I had been walking by it every single day for months and really needed to go. Plus, now I have a blog and I could blog about it. I think that that was the true kicker there, but we won't talk about that right now.

It was busier than I anticipated, and I had to wait about twenty minutes for my seat. There was a slight moment of panic when a young woman walked in after me and tried to get a seat with her friend who was already seated and all kinds of Al's rules were being broken. You wait for your party! You stand in line and the person who was waiting longest gets seated! You may have to move down a stool to accommodate parties of more than one! You follow the rules, you do not make up your own!!! Needless to say, girl walked out before she could have possibly budged in front of me. THANK GOODNESS. Finally, I sat down and did not even have to look at my menu to know what I wanted: the Jose. Poached eggs with amazing salsa and melted cheese served over the greasiest, best hash browns that you could ever want. Al's offers many other great diner options: pancakes (buttermilk, blueberry, walnut, blackberry, and maybe some other varieties), french toast, scrambled eggs, a few poached egg meals similar to the Jose but inferior in my opinion. They also have seasonal "specials" that seem to be posted each and every time I go there, which is about once a year at this point....that kind of negates the "special" in my mind, but patrons seem to enjoy them. The scruffy nice guy next to me ordered the "spring special" (if I recall correctly: scrambled eggs with asparagus and scallions served with hollandaise sauce and toast) and seemed to enjoy it. The specials are dead cheap and do look pretty amazing (I, personally, would go for the seasonal special with fresh tomatoes, mozzarella and basil, if I were not so hung up on the Jose).

Al's servers are great about coffee and water refills - I suppose that it helps that all their customers are right in front of their faces, but, still. It's nice. Most of the food is made on a big griddle at the front of the restaurant, so one's food kind of ends up smelling like a diner after eating there. It is advisable to have some Febreeze on hand when you go to Al's, unless you do not mind smelling like diner for an entire day.

My food this time around was good, but not as oh my god as I had hoped that it would be. It could be that I set my expectations way too high and was hoping that Al's could erase some of the bitterness that I still have for Butter. But, once I was seated and ordered, it came out pretty quickly and it was a great experience. A lot of Al's has to do with the "experience".

I've lifted some pictures from a recent (yikes!) health code article about the restaurant. The pictures do not show the true grittiness of the place, but it's gritty in a good way (like I would ever mean that as a bad thing. Pfft.).







Overall, I would say that Al's gives me everything I want in a breakfast: ambience, lots of coffee, and greasy food. I would consider Al's a must for those interested in breakfast in the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro.

Butter

Butter Bakery and Cafe
3544 Grand Ave S
Minneapolis, MN 55408

I decided on Saturday that I would start a new tradition with my 4.75 year old daughter, and that tradition would be a regular breakfast venture in the twin cities area. I have been reading other breakfast blogs, some for the TC, some for other areas (I'm looking at you, pdxbreakfastblog) and do not know if I can live up to the wit and actual reviewing that these bloggers accomplish in their blogs, but I will do what I can.

Our first breakfast was at Butter. I had been wanting to try this place for breakfast for almost six months, since I went there for coffee with my brother and started salivating over every other patron's plates full of food while I sat there nursing my americano. So, on Sunday, breakfast (or as I always say: brekkie) was there.

We got there at about 11am and there was a line at the counter to order (no wait staff - all ordering is done at the counter) and not very many available seats. I took this as a good sign. People like it here! When it was our turn, I ordered the migas with potatoes and a coffee, while Rowan wanted oatmeal. Diners do not get numbers, but pictures to bring to their tables. We got a hammerhead shark, which was pretty awesome, and staked out a place at the countertop on barstools. We did come prepared with a backpack with a coloring book and crayons, but Butter has games and toys for kids, which is a definite plus.

What was not a definite plus was the actual food. While I did eat my whole meal, I was expecting the meal to be what it claimed to be on the menu: scrambled eggs w/ corn tortilla strips, onion, jalapeno, red pepper, cheddar cheese & salsa. It was more of a round circle of eggs with onion, jalapeno, and chedder cheese at the bottom of the egg mixture -- almost like an omelette without the bottom half. No tortilla strips, no red pepper. It was.....okay. The potatoes were fried potatoes and were cold and kind of soggy. Not the best 'taters I've ever eaten, that is for sure.

Rowan seemed to enjoy her oatmeal, though was disappointed that it was not a kid's oatmeal, as promised, with m&ms, but came instead with cream (that she kept drinking out of the pitcher), brown sugar, and granola/raisins (not a big hit). She ate almost all of the adult portion, so it must have been fine.

Overall, the prices are cheap, the coffee is good (free refills, if you can catch someone's attention) and the atmosphere is good. The food, however, is not something to write home about. I would maybe give this place another chance, but only if I ran out of options in Minneapolis, St. Paul and probably the inner ring of suburbs. (Yikes!) That said, I would totally meet someone for coffee there. COFFEE, not weird rubbery circle eggs and sad soggy potatoes.