Travail Kitchen & Amusements: EverydayAdventure
It’s no secret that I
enjoy a good meal. I lucked out in finding Charles because he likes food, and
he doesn’t mind going out with me somewhere nice. This past weekend, on a trip
to Minneapolis, he surprised me with a visit to Travail Kitchen and Amusements.
With Travail, you buy
tickets to the show up front, and pay for the dinner, taxes and tip online. The
night of, you’re only responsible for paying for drinks. We had tickets for the
8:15 seating (there’s another at 5), and we arrived 15 minutes early. Our table
wasn’t ready, so we were directed to the bar, deemed The Rookery. This was the
only real failure of the evening for me. Charles and I both ordered cocktails
and waited. And waited. And waited. We were then seated, still waiting for
drinks. Finally. Finally. Mine came.
And his didn’t. After some more waiting, his finally arrived. 20 minutes after
ordering. I wasn’t a huge fan of that.
Round 1 for Me |
Round 1 for Charles |
So about the food. The
website says that each seating will enjoy between 15 and 20 courses. We had 18,
if you count the first and last. For our “Tasting Experience”, we had:
1. A strawberry bomb
(made by dipping berry puree into calcium carbonate), with prosecco, topped
with sage oil.
2. Branzino fish in
Vietnamese sour broth with green apple and Carolina gold rice.
3. Charcuterie platter
with head cheese, winter sausage, chicken liver mousse, salami, crackers,
baguette, house pickles, smoked olive, garlic confit, cashew butter, and orange
black pepper honey.
4. Gorgonzola tater tot
with truffle ketchup.
5. Maple mustard glazed
pork cheek, crispy pork belly, asparagus ramp ragout, ramps, asparagus tips,
morel, and mustard.
6. Pork rillette beignet
with Mexican crema, spicy cinnamon sugar and parsley powder.
7. Bloody Mary Ants on a
Log, made of Fresno pepper, pickled cucumber, chorizo, tomato, white cheddar,
and capers.
8. Fried chicken with
roasted beech mushroom, black garlic, mustard greens, black truffle, and
orange.
9. Pea and ricotta
ravioli with pork guanchale, king crab, pea cream, preserved lemon, dried egg
yolk and parmesan.
10. Green garlic and
potato soup shooter.
11. Seared scallop with crème
fraiche, chorizo, lime, red pepper, and fava beans.
12. Papallote salmon with
thyme, lemon, tarragon, dill, sea beans, hazelnut, dill emulsion, carrot
pearls, and a salmon skin chip.
13. BBQ demi of beef,
braised lettuce, buttermilk ranch, fiddlehead ferns, grilled lemon and radish.
14. Guava and orange ice.
15. Fun Dip Rhubarb with
lemon fizz and fennel sugar.
16. Green almond with
apple mousse and amaretto.
17. Frozen yogurt parfait
with your choice of topping (options were cake, granola, chocolate ganache, and
caramel).
18. Mexican oatmeal
chocolate chip cookies (to take home!)
We also had two
cocktails each, all of which we loved. It’s worth noting that the second round
did arrive much faster than the first, and they arrived together.
Round 2 |
The different courses
arrived on a number of different kinds of plates, bowls, cups, glasses, tiles…you
name it. It came as a combination of individual servings and plates for us to
share. It’s a lot of food. A whole lot.
This was, by far, the
best dinner that I had ever been to. It was all of the delicious things you
would see at a fine dining establishment, but with none of the pretention.
Great people, making great food. It’s maybe not somewhere that I would bring
the parents to impress them, but it’s a fun, but special date night. Come with
a sense of humor, and an open mind to try anything on the plate. You won’t
regret it.
If you'd like to try out Travail Kitchen and Amusements, you can visit their website here!
...aaaaand if you'd like to see some more of my Minneapolis adventures, I've been vloging every day this month, starting with our trip to Travail! Watch it here: