Roadfood_ Revised Edition - Jane Stern [162]
Tavern on Grand
656 Grand Ave.
651–228–9030
St. Paul, MN
LD | $$
Walleye sandwiches are a big deal in Minnesota, the best of them, no doubt, made at North Country campfires by walleye fishermen. For those who don’t catch and cook their own, the place to go is Tavern on Grand in St. Paul.
Billing itself as “Minnesota’s State Restaurant Serving Minnesota’s State Fish,” this friendly place will start you off with an appetizer of sautéed walleye cakes or a walleye basket of deep-fried bites. The sandwich is a fillet—grilled or fried—served on a length of French bread with tartar sauce that does a marvelous job of haloing the sweet meat of the lake fish. You can get a walleye plate for lunch (with steamed vegetables and red potatoes, known as a “shore lunch”) or a walleye supper of one or two fillets with the works. There is even a Lakeshore Special that is a single fillet accompanied by a half-pound sirloin steak. On the side of almost anything, turkey wild rice soup is essential. To accompany your meal, there are beers galore, domestic and imported, on tap and by the bottle.
Tavern on Grand feels like the right place to enjoy a true Minnesota meal. It is designed to resemble a log cabin lodge in the woods, and no matter where you sit in the bar, you have a good view of one of the many TVs positioned for everyone to watch whatever game is currently broadcast. You’ll know it by the big neon fish in the front window.
Missouri
Amighetti’s
5141 Wilson Ave.
314–776–2855
St. Louis, MO
LD | $
Amighetti’s is a serve-yourself sandwich shop that has become a beloved culinary institution on “The Hill,” St. Louis’s old Italian neighborhood. Eating here is casual and fun, especially on a pleasant summer day. Place your order at the window and wait for your name to be called. Find yourself a seat on the sunny patio, and feast on an Italian sandwich.
Amighetti’s bakes its own bread—a thick-crusted loaf with sturdy insides ready to be loaded with slices of ham, roast beef, Genoa salami, and cheese, garnished with shreds of lettuce and a special house dressing that is tangy-sweet. All kinds of sandwiches are available, including a garlicky Italian hero, roast beef, and a three-cheese veggie sandwich—all recommended primarily because of the bread on which they’re served.
Each sandwich is wrapped in butcher paper secured by a tape inscribed with Amighetti’s motto: “Often Imitated, Never Duplicated.”
Arthur Bryant’s
1727 Brooklyn Ave.
816–231–1123
Kansas City, MO
LD | $
Arthur Bryant used to shock reporters by calling his esteemed barbecue restaurant a “Grease House.” Although the master of Kansas City barbecue passed away in 1982, his business heirs, bless them, never tried too hard to shed that moniker. The original location of the “House of Good Eats” (another of Mr. Bryant’s appellations) remains a cafeteria-style lunchroom with all the decorative charm of a bus station. (There are branches at the Kansas City Speedway, Ameristar Casino, and airport.)
Because Arthur Bryant and his brother Charlie (who started the smokehouse) hailed from Texas, it makes sense that the smoked brisket—a Texas passion—is the best meat in the house. It drips flavor. It is sliced into fall-apart lengths that get heaped into white-bread sandwiches, or if you come as a large party, you can order a couple of pounds of beef and a loaf of bread and make your own at the table.
The pork ribs are wonderful, too, glazed with blackened burned edges and lodes of meat below their spicy crust. The skin-on French fries are bronze beauties and the barbecue beans are some of Kansas City’s best.
What makes Arthur Bryant’s unique is the sauce. It is beautiful—a gritty, red-orange blend of spice and sorcery that is not at all sweet like most barbecue sauces. It packs a hot paprika wallop and tastes like a strange soul-food curry, a unique complement to any