New Location Faceoff: Salty Tart vs. The Naughty Greek

The Salty Tart vs. The Naughty Greek, each with a new location, face-off...

The Salty Tart, with its' first location in Midtown Global Market  has expanded to the Market House Collaborative in St. Paul's Lowertown.  The Naughty Greek, starting at Selby & Snelling, has added a second location at Raymond and University.   

So let's check 'em both out.

The Spaces:

The Salty Tart has taken over the beautiful southeast corner of what was Lenny Russo's Heartland space.  High ceilings, gorgeous windows, soft throw pillows in an airy, open space.  

The Naughty Greek faces University Avenue with tallglass front windows, internal structures to soften their large space, basket 'lampshades' and a playful mural adorning a wall in a Pepto Bismol pink women's bathroom.

Naughty GreekBathroom Art

How it works:

At each: order at the counter, take your number, and food is delivered to your table.

Salty Tart an efficient young woman took my order for lunch and beverage for dine-in plus 3 bakery items to go .  Almost flawless, except when I asked for a cold brew...it took a United Nations size staff meeting to determine if there was any.  When the votes were tallyed the cold brew was ready in the wink of an eye.

The Naughty Greek visit started with an efficient young woman at the register.   She asked questions, we had a fun conversation, and she flawlessly took our order. 

The Reality The Salty Tart 

• Dara M-G's anticipatory review described over-the-top menu options ('over-the-top' from many food critics/writers can be meaningless). 
• Lunch was selected from a menu much smaller than Dara's review forecast. We took our number and beverages and waited.
• Peeking in the kitchen 'window' was easy and it wasn't good.  One of the cooks, in his natty black 'cook outfit' was rubbing his hair, scratching under his shirt and wiping a little drool from his mouth...and without hand washing or gloves made the sandwich (The food code is designed protect public health.  Not following the food code is a lack of training or arrogance). 
• My lunch looked okay. The salad was fresh enough, if slightly overdressed, and the veggie sandwich contained lots of
  
  artichokes, but probably contained dry skin flakes, drool, and various hair 'droppings' from the cool, gloveless chef (Yum!). 
• No one checked to see if I was okay with my meal.  
• The staff, without direction, huddled around the counter, drinking from stemmed wine glasses talking only to each other.  
• The cooks were bored; lots of body scratching going on.  
• Lack of staff training. Employees here are apparently just employees, adding minimally to the experience.
• John and I tried their specialty baked goods a few
  hours later. The brioche with pastry cream was the best of the 3, nicely coated with sugar, slightly dense but not too off-putting, but with pastry
  
  cream in only 1/3 of the pastry cream 'hole'.  The chocolate croissant had only 1 bar of chocolate on one side of a large ball of dough, with a slightly rancid flavor, the dough to chocolate proportion embarrassingly out of proportion.   Finally, a cute little spinach quiche tart---we've had so much wonderful quiche at May Day and Coffeeshop NE that it would be difficult for this adorably cute little quiche tart to compare.  It was fine.

The Reality  The Naughty Greek 

• From the cashier experience on was all positive
• The chicken gyro and some heart-stopping Naughty Fries-with goat cheese, oregano, and spicy dipping sauce arrived promptly.  
• The server was attentive, and a few minutes later, Angelo (the owner) was floating through the dining room checking on people's food and dining experience.      
• Our cheerful cashier came over to check on our meal and picked up the conversation we had at the counter.  We exchanged notes about her time living in London and my recent visit there.   Real human interaction (like the heartfelt days at Marianne's Kitchen). 
• The gyro was good.  I liked it better than John
  
  did, but we both agreed it didn't need the fries inside the sandwich.   My portion of chicken was plentiful and tasty--John said he didn't feel his 'half' was really half.   
• The fries have great cheese,  and have wonderful texture...neither of us was as fond of the dipping sauce
  
  (creamy, spicy). 
• When we looked in the kitchen, we saw staff wearing the required gloves, their drinks were in covered containers as required by the food code, and hand washing and glove changing going on.
• This, through staff training, is the difference between 'owning' a restaurant and 'running' a restaurant.  Naughty Greek employees contribute to the cool restaurant.

Conclusion - Location #2 Faceoff:  

• Salty Tart: Rating= 2 Stars. Disappointment.  Hype overshadowed reality.  Lack of staff training.  Automatic 2 Star deduction for chef drool in the panini.
• Naughty Greek: Rating= 4 Stars. Great, trained staff, personal interaction, food that was pretty good overall.

• The future looks bright for the Naughty Greek's new spot.  
• The Salty Tart needs to step up their game if they want return customers.