Carlson grows, Via undergoes Tavern transformation, burgers keep up with the Joneses

CHEERS AT CAFE CARLSON…Looks like they’re building new audiences and a local business customer base over at the busy Carlson Towers off highways 494 and 394 in Minnetonka. For over a dozen years they have had a “corporate cafeteria” for the Carlson Company employees and Tower tenants. In fact, I recall they even showed their employee badges for entrance in the old days. Today this site is called Café Carlson and opens at 7 a.m. for breakfast, lunch at 11 a.m. and service through 2:30 p.m. each weekday to all comers. It’s a lovely space, too, complete with inviting neon-decked food stations and large dining room inside that seats more than 200. For the summer season, outside tables are available facing the pond, and they are busy serving about 500 people a day. The Towers has also been long known for their storybook setting with its huge marble rotunda, curved staircase, fountain and dynamic view for romantic wedding parties. This is also one of the busiest times of the year for them, with their wedding season bookings (June through October) sold out.

Open more than 20 years, it was good to find Bon Appetit still heading up the operation (since 1993) and fun to see some familiar faces when I stopped by for lunch with a friend. The Café’s General Manager Richard Lensing and I crossed paths many years ago when he was executive chef at Jax Café. His team includes Executive Chef Mark Hidding and Catered Events Director Dawn Crawford Dacut. Another friendly face on the scene was David Ramlow, Bon Appetit regional manager, who also supervises many other corporate dining rooms from Target to Best Buy as well as the café at the Minnesota History Center, and the dining rooms at St. Olaf and Macalester College.

Known for their Farm to Fork program, the Bon Appetit menu shows they change fresh choices weekly and feature daily specials, with six stations featured each day, from the soup tureen to the wrap choices to an American grill, the carvery, and entrée and sauté stations. The dessert display was every bit the gourmet fare with elegant cakes on small silver pedestals. A column along the left side of the menu showed the daily breakfast specials, all priced at just $3.85, making a breakfast meeting at Café Carlson a nice alternative site for business neighbors on the west side of town.


VIA TRANSFORMS INTO TAVERN ON FRANCE…What’s in a name? It’s out with the old, in with the new—not just doing business as usual, that’s for sure. In this case, a change of a word from an abstract “Via” to an old fashion comfort word “Tavern” looks good for business—and, dare I say, courageous. When the team at Hemisphere Restaurant Partners (Mission, Atlas Grill, Kabobi and Flame) headed up by Anoush Ansari and Hadi Anbar, opened Via in Edina in the fall of 2007, the name was said to refer to describing how to get there (“via” this highway or “via” that exit). Now, the Via sign came down and the Tavern on France went up because not enough people were getting there after all.

Ansari explained the customer perception was upscale, expensive and somewhat intimidating to the masses, even though they had cookies and milk on the menu. The economic downturn this year didn’t help any fine dining operations, either. So, they addressed the problem and stopped the bleeding. Daring and risky to some, simply a necessity to others. When I stopped by in May, the place was packed!

So far, so good. Like the rise of the Phoenix, Tavern On France is settling into its new-found identity and pleasing its customers with a new, under $20 menu too. The setting, with its open kitchen, walk-around granite bar, dining room and patio floor plans, has remained the same, but the colors are now more neutral. There are more warm browns and a more casual mood, complete with playful, historic black and white photos on the walls too. But it was the fun notepad holders on the bar that caught my eye—and appetite. Three pads of brown paper are stacked before you, which invite you to “Build-A-Salad”…pizza or burger, all priced at $8 to $8.50. You check off your choices from six categories and hand it to the server like a kitchen order.

For $8.50, I built my own burger, which gave me a choice of patty—beef, chicken, veggie or a grilled portabella. Next, bread (a variety, from ciabatta to herb focaccia to French loaf or a honey wheat tortilla) to choice of cheese, toppings, sauce and some $1 extras like bacon, avocado or onions strings. It was served in a specialty basket with a piece of Tavern newspaper and holders, one each for the sauces I selected, plus a side of potatoes (mashed, fries or chips). If you choose a “chef built” burger, they run from $9.50 to $12. The menu keeps everything under $20 and ranges from salads to sandwiches ($7.50 to $11.50), and pastas and entrees ($12 to $19).

For an unusual dessert, try the nachos—yes, dessert nachos. $7.50 will get you a big pile, enough for two or more, with crispy cinnamon sugar wontons topped with vanilla ice cream, strawberry sauce and pineapple. It’s finished with a big scoop of thick, freshly whipped cream and drizzled with hot fudge, caramel and candied pecans. Yummy—we’ll go back for more.


KEEPING UP WITH THE JONESES…Burger Jones, to be exact, and sure to be the next “Name Game.” It was not open at the time of this writing, but I did get a peek into this new Parasole project during their spring transformation of the old Applebee’s over at Calhoun Village. It really is a complete change from the floor up, as I could see after a walk-through with Donna Fahs, the Parasole VP who nurses and nurtures these new projects to life. Fresh from her work at the W with Manny’s (and before that, Salut in St. Paul and Pittsburgh Blue), she and her team are now on site this spring making things happen at Burger Jones. And the name, you ask? Donna explained they’re here for the folks who need a “burger fix” and they recalled the line from the old Curtis Mayfield song “Pusherman,” from the 1972 movie “Superfly.” The lyrics: “Who’s your momma? Who’s your daddy? Who’s your pusher with the patty?” Although, Parasole claims their burger man is a cooker, not a pusher. Hummm, they say Burger Jones will keep pushing the burgers to keep your cravings satisfied.

Phil Roberts always has a wicked sense of humor and a finely-oiled team of experts under his umbrella that leaves no stone unturned, from their name to the planning and menu concepts with his Corporate team with Chef Todd Bolton and Michael Larson (a team player since his early Pronto days) to his graphic designers and interior designers. In fact, I learned his son Steve is now giving us these grooving new interiors from barn board and farm cow shots to a huge, 10 foot photo of a man stuffing a burger in his mouth.

The new space now boasts a floor-to-ceiling wall of windows on the lakeside of the room, with the big bar moved to the far wall, which gives the dining room seating the main focus—145 people, with four-top tables and cozy black leather booths. Outside, the patio has been enlarged to seat 68 for summer dining and a hazy view of Lake Calhoun. The new GM will be John Emerson (he was with Buca and Figilo in the past) and Andrew Suthers, who was most recently down at Manny’s, has also joined the team as the executive chef.

Suthers also pointed out their new signature patty will be a custom grind of chuck, brisket and shank, and the basic burger served on a butter toasted bun (they bake their own), with lettuce and tomato and priced at $6.99. Add cheese from The Cheese Board listing, from free government cheese (whatever that is) to $1 for Velveeta, $2 for three “fine cheeses,” to $3 for three choices like Amablu—that would add up to tops of $9.99 per burger. Seven “specialty burgers” are offered at $9.99 (one is called “White Trash” with chicken, fried cheese curds and Velveeta) and eight more items called “Sorta Burgers,” with meatballs, turkey, bison and salmon, and “Dog Burgers” (Kosher, all-beef hotdogs) round out their unique styles with prices $6.99 to $9.99. Check out their adult cocktail shakes, too.