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Heavy Table

@heavytable.com

An in-depth weekly culinary newsletter covering the Upper Midwest since 2009. Back us on Substack (https://heavytable.substack.com) to start getting the Tap, Churn, Hearth, and Tulip and Schooner.

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Dan Yocum. Ugh.@yocum137.bsky.social · 3w ago

Just to punctuate the point, the discussions about The Honey Brisket Battered Potatoes from Australian Battered Potatoes featured strongly during the tour of the new drinks at the state fair today. Nothing good was said. To read the reviews, subscribe to @heavytable.com.

Bill Childs@billchilds.bsky.social · 3w ago

A Children’s Treasury Of Hate For The Honey Brisket Battered Potatoes From Australian Battered Potatoes: From @jrnorton.bsky.social: “Weirdly starchy, almost completely lacking in flavor, dotted with bits of saccharine sweet blobs of brown meat, almost unidentifiable as food.“ (con’t)

Heavy Table@heavytable.com · 3w ago

Well, we survived DAY ONE of hardcore State Fair food eating and the results will be yours to savor first thing tomorrow morning. Our view was fixed relentlessly on value, and we found some gems, a lot of eye-watering high prices, and some amusing "not exactly as depicted" foods (see below.)

A scrunky, goofy-looking brandy old fashioned cookie dough treat is pictured next to a sleek, uptown-styled version of itself as depicted in its official advertisement. Sarah McGee / Heavy Table
Heavy Table@heavytable.com · 3w ago

We've gathered a thick stack of twenties, a pile of tickets, a sheaf of maps and checklists, and we're ready to rock the Fair tomorrow so that we can bring you a fearlessly critical Friday morning roundup of cheers and jeers. See you at the Fair!

The founder of Greater Tater gestures as he serves customers at the 2025 Minnesota State Fair. Joshua Feist / Heavy Table / FileThe Heavy Table team of about a dozen writers and photographers and illustrators, assembled at the 2025 Minnesota State Fair under a big blue State Fair arch. Nathan Wold / Heavy Table / FileSome horrific jalapeño-studded doughnut thing from the 2025 Minnesota State Fair. Becca Dilley / Heavy Table / File
Heavy Table@heavytable.com · last mo.

Tomorrow's edition: We check out Bill's Bait Shop, the place where northwoods supper club meets influencer culture meets Pirates of the Caribbean-level subtlety. Featuring: One of the most poorly constructed burgers we've eaten in years!

The interior of Bill's Bait Shop, a restaurant in Minneapolis. Diners enter a sitting area, framed by a wall mural of a trout with the restaurant's name spelled out in neon letters. James Norton / Heavy Table
Heavy Table@heavytable.com · last mo.

Tomorrow in the Tulip and Schooner newsletter! Cocktail columnist John Garland goes deep on the Chi Chi's marg and a gallon of colonoscopy prep. It's a broad mandate!

A seductively limey-looking Chi-Chi's margarita sitting on a bar with bottles behind it. John Garland / Heavy TableAn imposing white gallon bottle of GaviLyte colonoscopy prep liquid plus an industrial looking packet of lemon flavor powder. John Garland / Heavy Table
James Norton@jrnorton.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Just attempted a two-day, 70 bay leaf / 1/4 cup of whole allspice jerk chicken + banana ketchup + coconut beans + rice recipe that was so catastrophically successful that I might have to open a food truck.

A cutting board laden with about four pounds of bone-in, freshly smoked and grilled jerk chicken pieces. It looks obscenely good.
Heavy Table@heavytable.com · 4mo ago

Coming this Friday morning: Reviews of three remarkably(!) good restaurants in our closing edition of the Green Line Checklist. And an OK one. And a pretty bad one. All in all, a good way to wrap a great food tour.

The sprawling blonde-wood bakery case at Zao Bakery in Saint Paul is filled with an assortment of sweet and savory buns and dumplings. Becca Dilley / Heavy TableAn illustration of four people walking toward Kumar's Express in Stadium Village. WACSO / Heavy TableIn this illustration, a smiling waitress brings three extremely hot bowls of tofu stew to customers at Kimchi Tofu House in Minneapolis. A detail depicts mandu and banchan. WACSO / Heavy Table
solace@solace.music · 4mo ago

RIP Bauhaus Brew Labs Still doing their Liquid Zoo show at AAW this weekend and one last bash the last weekend of June.

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Max Hailperin@maxhailperin.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Their "newsletter tomorrow" is now their newsletter today, and I can report that the lead column does indeed have something to add about the seemingly straightforward topic. I've never regretted subscribing.

Heavy Table@heavytable.com · 5mo ago

Our newsletter tomorrow is headed by a column about the (often) false economy of firing servers or hiking menu prices. Cardamom was a case in point; now it's a case in point with an underline drawn beneath it.

Heavy Table@heavytable.com · 8mo ago

This Friday morning in the newsletter: Five new reviews from the Green Line in Saint Paul and Minneapolis. Thai! Chinese! African! Caribbean! University/Washington is one of the great immigrant cultural corridors and the restaurants there are fighting to survive.

A big, beefy bowl of boat noodles at Thai Boat 89 on University Avenue in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Becca Dilley / Heavy TableShockingly good BBQ jerk chicken at West Indies Soul on University Avenue in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Becca Dilley / Heavy TableAn illustration of Heavy Table's Checklist crew receiving tom yum and a plate of herbs at Thai Boat 89 on University Avenue, Saint Paul, Minnesota. WACSO / Heavy TableAn illustration of the sprawling and full bakery case at Cha Yes on University Avenue in Saint Paul, Minnesota. WACSO / Heavy Table