Giliberto's in Blaine ... A Game-Changer

Giliberto's in Blaine is a 'taco search' Game-Changer!!

Thanks to a friend of Marianne's Kitchen...John G...who clued us in about Giliberto's in Blaine (near the soccer fields).

Giliberto's Take-Aways

• Fantastic
• Huge portions (sorry John...we slipped up didn't follow your advice...ordering 2 items we had enough food for 4 people!  )
• Friendly staff
• Many, many choices
• Lots of interesting condiments and sauces
• Great Food!

Giliberto's ... Details from a late-night visit

Once we heard about Giliberto's, we just had to get there.   We're always eating at odd hours...always.  If we're going out, we say...'gee, what's still open'.  Usually a fast food drive-thru.

Not anymore!  Giliberto's is open 24x7, you can dine in AND they have a drive-thru window.

Giliberto's opened about 4 months ago in Blaine.  This is their seventh location.....but the others are in places like SoDak or Wilmar.  Blaine is a lot more convenient!

Giliberto's Menu

The menu is extensive...with many meat choices, breakfast options (yes, even huevos rancheros), burritos, tacos, quesadillas.....many, many menu choices.

We started with the '2 smaller burrito' platter (so, with rice and beans).   Ha, we knew we were in trouble when that showed up.  Yes, a small burrito is not as big as the 'baby thigh' size at Chipotle, but it's a good sized burrito--certainly one is enough for a meal.  We should have followed John G's advice and just shared this one menu choice.   We ordered a green chile pork burrito and a carnitas burrito.  We never even got to the carnitas burrito (we think one of our grandchildren has already eaten it...we dropped off some of the 'extras' at their house on the way home).    The

green chile pork burrito was excellent....spicy, meaty, wrapped in a fabulous tortilla.   The rice and beans on the platter were also excellent---and in such a huge portion that half of that went in the to-go box, too.  A whole large meal as a 'leftover' after 2 of us tried to tackle the other 'half'.

We also chose a marinated chicken quesadilla. 

This was messy----and nobody cared!   This was the most delicious marinated chicken I can remember at any Mexican restaurant anywhere.   And the tortilla

was beautifully thin, and grilled to a crispy edge with those delightful brown marks - as you'd expect on a well-grilled quesadilla.  It was joined on the overflowing plate with HUGE sides of guac, sour cream, and nicely chopped ripe tomatoes.   There were so many goodies, that the condiment bar seemed almost unnecessary.....but that didn't stop us.

The condiment bar could be a meal.  I love, love, loved the pickled carrots...just the right texture.   The cabbage was salty and delicious.  The pico (heavy on the onion) was fresh and addicting.  Four sauces...I'll call them 'hot red', 'hot orange with bits', 'green', and 'creamy green'....a range of flavors and textures.  My favorite was the hot orange with bits....a little bit thin, with tiny veggie pieces, and great 'warmth', followed by the 'green'.  John's favorite was the 'creamy green', followed by the 'green'.  

Everything was so flavorful that you hardly needed any sauces.  I reserved them for accompanying the crispy edges of the tortilla from the quesadilla, and for that first bite of burrito where there's a lot of tortilla in proportion to ingredients.   Those also serve as a good neutral backdrop so you get the complete flavor of the sauce.

Giliberto's also has a variety of bottled sauces if the selection on the condiment bar isn't big enough for your appetite!

John G was absolutely right.  This place is fantastic and the portions are enough to feed your whole family with just a couple of selections.  It will take you many visits to work your way through the whole menu.   But based on how many people were eating in and taking out after 8 p.m. on a Friday night, we'd suggest you start your journey soon.  We think the place will be packed once everyone finds out about it.     So get there now before the lines start to form!

Details:
Website:  https://www.gilibertos7.com/#/ 
Location:  Google Maps

Up Coffee ... A Weekday Favorite Delivers!!

Up Coffee: Our Lunch Reward

We've been working really hard lately.  John has worked on the barn, dug sumps as the climate crisis dumps more and more rain per rain event, and generally tried to get things ready for the first snowfall.   I've had canning, baking, catering, and packaging (endless, endless packaging), products for all the various retail outlets that want goodies every week or so.

So after today's 'early' deliveries...we finished by 1:30 or so...it was time to stop, breathe, have some lunch.

UP Coffee is one of John's favorite places...so we headed from Annona Gourmet over the hill and down to UP.

This was an excellent plan.

What a wonderful lunch....including a really creative sandwich and two excellent salads.

Up Coffee:  Our Food

I went for the Fall Sammie....roasted squash, greens, tomatoes, creamy sauce (sorry, I was so busy enjoying it that I forgot to read the description) on nicely toasted bread.   I opted for the 'side' of salad...oh my, my...that could have been a whole meal.  Beautiful greens with the fruit and nut mix (cranberries, golden raisins, currants, walnuts....just so yummy) with red onion and

delicately sliced tomatoes...with just the right amount of balsamic.   I made my way through 1/2 of

the sandwich (with John's help) and 1/2 of the salad before filling a to-go box with another meal the same size.

John had the fantastic, Spicy Thai Peanut Salad.   Fresh greens, cabbage, orzo, crispy noodles dressed with spicy dressing...it was so big we both thought it would overflow the bowl.  I had a few bites to 'help' him clean his plate.

Of course John saved room for a cookie (I frankly had a little trouble looking at one more cookie today....and the rest of the holiday season looms in front of me).  He selected the Reese's peanut butter chip cookie.  I took a little piece 'just to taste'    It was thick, with a nice soft middle and crispy edge...that cookie could have been a meal, too.

We had an UP and down history with UP.  Our first visit...years ago...was disappointing.   But we always try to make multiple visits because everyone has a bad day now and then.   Today was the best day ever, but we've had delicious quiche, sage pesto sandwiches, things with onion jam, great baked goods with interesting streusels or loaded with fruit or moist and satisfying with a cup of their great coffee. 

But my sandwich and our salads hit a new peak.   A veggie sandwich outside the box--enthusiastically welcomed by my taste buds.   Two salads that each had their own character, but were also equally interesting, fresh, and delish.

We like UP because they don't have extensive equipment (like Marianne's) so are doing a lot more than you'd think possible with the available equipment.  That's why we like the CoffeeShop NE, too.....using their bare bones equipment to make really tasty items....that are creative and stretch the possibilities of what you can make without a grease hood and deep fryer.  That was always our goal at Marianne's.....use our measly

equipment to go way outside the bounds of what a franchised place would do with the same equipment.

UP Coffee excelled today at creating a lunch that was outstanding.   Kudos!

Details:

Website:    https://www.upcafe.com/
Twitter:     @UPCoffeeRoaster

Location:   Google Maps

Hope Breakfast Bar

We finally made it to Hope Breakfast Bar

After several tries, we finally made it!   Hope Breakfast Bar on a late Sunday afternoon.  No crowd, able to park (well, on the 3rd try) right in front.  Time to give it a try.

The Hope Breakfast Bar's mission: 

Bringing people together for the most important meal, no matter what time of day...starting your day with optimism

Ambiance of Hope Breakfast Bar

Great atmosphere, with tall firehouse ceilings, painted black.   Gold vases on each table, adorned with fern fronds...gold tableware, too.  Egg-shaped salt and pepper shakers seem appropriate for a breakfast place, standing in a tidy holder.

Attentive service right away...but disappointment within minutes.   John wanted a Pink Raspberry Passion Lemonade , but they were totally out of lemonade, so he settled for water.

The lack of lemonade was only a slight letdown but John was whiny and made it into a really big disappointment.  Whatever.  Everything else was excellent.

Our choices at Hope Breakfast Bar

We ordered the Cheesy Grits as a starter.   They were delish...creamy, not grainy, with plenty of cheese.   My drip coffee was also delish...so my side of the table was a winner....wonderful grits accompanied by full-bodied, flavorful coffee, without a hint of bitterness. 

It was served in a deep cup with an interesting decorative edge....a very enjoyable coffee, including refills.

Many intriguing choices on the menu, so we just needed to pick our starting place today.     A salad and an egg dish were our first test of the food.   How did they do?

The Brunch Salad was terrific.   One of our favorite meals a few years ago was at the Fig Cafe in California.  Everything there was California fresh and wonderfully composed.   This salad could have easily been presented to us there.   Mixed, greens, brown rice, lightly 'pickled' sweet peppers and red onion....chopped in thin and interesting

fashion...both colorful and delightful in texture, and, for once, adequate amounts of quinoa throughout.   Nothing is worse that ordering a salad that should have quinoa or wild rice or farro...only to have to search to find the 3 or 4 bits of grain that you're looking for.   Here, the balance was perfect, the slicing was beautiful, the flavor was light and not overdressed.....served in a beautiful deep white bowl that made it easy to fill your fork with your desired selection of ingredients for each bite.   Simply wonderful.

John chose the The Farm Grazer.    This hearty bowl of ingredients was overflowing with perfectly prepared heirloom fingerlings....all blue, red, some that looked like LaRatte...not sure...but absolutely perfectly prepared.   There was 'crisped' spinach....John didn't quite like the texture....it had been crisped but now was somewhat more 'wilty' in texture.  I thought it was a good texture contrast to the potatoes and egg.   John had

expected over-easy eggs, but they arrived a bit too browned and clearly over-medium.   John said he would have enjoyed a few more root veggies in proportion to the number of potatoes.   I'll have to agree that a few more veggies would have added color, texture, and flavor.   We found the root veggie part a bit overcooked.    But I thoroughly enjoyed the wonderfully prepared fingerlings...I made sure to have one of each color!!

Overall Impression of Hope Breakfast Bar

Overall, we would describe our meal as excellent.   The Cheesy Grits were on par with the grits at Breaking Bread in North Minneapolis (which unfortunately closed...at least temporarily in July----we'll watch to see when/if they re-open).  So if you

want excellent cheesy grits, Hope Breakfast Bar is your best best right now.  The Brunch Salad was fantastic...among the best salads I've ever eaten.   The Farm Grazer was excellent in concept...it fell just a bit short in execution.   A better root veggie/potato ratio would make it more desirable, matching the over-easy eggs to what is listed in the menu is necessary, and the root veggies should be cooked as appropriately as the potatoes...they were just a little beyond what was acceptable in texture.

But we'd say, give Hope Breakfast Bar a try.  John had the disappointments of the day, with no lemonade and an unbalanced dish....that needs a bit of tweaking.  I was the winner, with full-bodied delicious hot coffee, a truly wonderful salad that was easy on the eyes and wonderful on the taste buds, plus my share of the well-prepared cheesy grits.   My only challenge was parking the car (plus watching the 'parking enforcement' officer out the front window...trying to figure out if we were, for sure, in a legal parking zone).  Thankfully we were, because having to get out of that parking spot and squeeze into another spot would have been a definite downer to my dining experience).  Fortunately he checked some cars and moved along.

Our server was excellent and we shared a few stories at closing time that made the experience even more memorable.   An excellent meal all around.

Details:

Website:  https://www.hopebreakfast.com/ 

Location:  Google Maps 

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/hopebreakfastbar/ 

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/hopebreakfastmn

All Taco on Central ... Great Lunch

All Taco on Central in Columbia Heights

While shopping at Annona Gourmet in St. Anthony Village, Jean the owner asked "Where are you going for lunch?"  John's standard response is "Somewhere with good tacos."  Jean recommended the All Taco truck on Central in Columbia Heights in the AutoZone parking lot.  

The little yellow All Taco truck lunch was great.

Our Lunch at All Taco

Our lunch was available in less than five minutes and reasonably priced at $9 for the burrito and $2.50 each for the tacos.

Carnitas Burrito

The carnitas burrito was the highlight.  Often large burritos end up with ingredients localized within the tortilla.  The carnitas, corn, lettuce, beans and sour cream were well proportioned throughout the flavorful tortilla.  Two salsas accompanied the burrito along with one roasted pepper that was delicious, combing wonderful roasted pepper flavor with a memorable level of heat.  We considered the burrito a value at $9, and even when shared was filling.

 Two Tacos:  Marinated Pork & Chicken

The marinated pork taco and the chicken taco were well constructed and flavorful, with the pork taco being our favorite.  The tacos were accompanied with radishes, lime and a rich and flavorful red salsa.   The roasted pepper made the chicken taco come alive.

 If you are in the neighborhood do give All Taco a try...they also have quesadillas and bowls.

Details:  
Website:   www.alltacollc.com 
Location:  Google Maps - AutoZone Parking Lot