On a trip to the Twin Cities a few weeks ago, I had breakfast with Ken, the G.M. for the Needle Doctor. He knows my penchant for interesting restaurants and has turned me on to a number of them over the past few years. This time he suggested a farm-to-fork restaurant that has become one of his favorite places - Wise Acre Eatery. I met him there when they opened at 9 a.m. one morning.
Dean Englemann had worked in the greenhouse nursery industry for a number of years before he forged a partnership with good friend Scott Endres to open Tangletown Gardens, a popular garden center in the south central Minneapolis neighborhood of Tangletown. Englemann had property southwest of Minneapolis where he would grow annual, perennials and other home-grown plants that allowed he and Endres to control the quality of the plants they sold. Because of this, many upscale landscape companies around the Twin Cities use Tangletown Gardens on an exclusive basis.
Englemann's 100 acre farm also allowed the partners to grow sustainable foods that could be sold not only at the nursery, but at farmer's markets and a handful of restaurants. They began to grow free-range livestock at the farm, as well. Eventually, they began supplying sustainable foods to a 300-member CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) group. In the back of their minds, Englemann and Endres wanted to open a farm-to-fork restaurant using all the sustainable food that they grew on the farm.
In the winter of 2010, the Liberty Custard stand directly across the street from Tangletown Gardens closed up. The two opened Wise Acre Eatery in the late spring of 2011 using many types of food grown from their farm. Produce that is picked at 10 a.m. on any given day is usually consumed in the restaurant that evening.
Nicollet Avenue is known to many locals as Eat Street. But Wise Acre Eatery sits on Nicollet well south of the bulk of the restaurants in the Eat Street Area. It's located in between Diamond Lake Road and Minnehaha Parkway on Nicollet Ave. (see map) I pulled into the parking lot in the front just as they were opening their doors for the day. Ken met me soon thereafter.
The internal space of Wise Acre Eatery is open and has sort of a contemporary industrial look to the place. Large windows allow for a lot of natural light to enter the space, even on a cloudy and rainy day such as that particular day.
The open kitchen is just as you come in the door. Chef Beth Fisher is in charge of the kitchen at Wise Acre Eatery and works with Englemann and Endres to devise a way to use the produce and meat grown on their farm, delivered in the afternoon and to be served in the restaurant that evening. On any given day up to 95% of the food on the menu comes from the Tangletown Gardens farm in Plato, MN.
We were seated and given menus for the weekday brunch that is served from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. (There is also a weekend brunch menu and a nightly "rural supper/urban dinner" menu which plays on the juxtaposition of the Midwest terms that farm people have used to distinguish between dinner - which is lunch on many farms - and supper - which is dinner to many in the city.)
There is also a special board on the wall in the dining area that highlights other items not on the regular menu. Specials change daily depending upon what is delivered fresh to the restaurant.
One of the interesting touches on the table top was this metal milk carton for coffee or, possibly, cereal. Even though it had an urban feel to the place, there was also some rustic qualities to Wise Acre Eatery.
The breakfast part of the menu for brunch is pretty sparse - they had some muffins and pastries along with a yogurt/fruit/granola selection. There were only three things on the menu that were geared toward breakfast - not including the omelette special they had that day - the CSA Hash which featured fresh farm grown vegetables, an egg and herb scramble with smoked ham, aioli and toast; a French toast item that featured granola, yogurt and a maple/berry syrup; and the egg and herb scramble with a choice of ham, sausage or bacon. Both Ken and I went with the CSA Hash. And we both got a glass of Wise Acre Eatery's fresh squeezed orange juice.
The one thing that we didn't have to worry about was service at Wise Acre Eatery. Although the dining area was filling up fast, we had multiple people filling water, coffee mugs, checking on us and finally bringing us our food. The service at Wise Acre Eatery was very good and almost TOO attentive.
The CSA Hash was - well - interesting. I really didn't know what to expect. There was the egg scramble - more of a flat omelette - with fresh herbs mixed in sitting on top of a bowl full of veggies. A couple small slabs of rather crispy ham were on the side along with a half slice of a thick homemade bread. Potatoes, beans, carrots and other veggies swarmed in the bowl. They were all very fresh to the taste, but it would have been something that I would have liked more as a side with dinner. After the small egg and herb scramble and the ham were gone, there was still a ton of veggies to eat. And there was no way I was going to be eating all that were served to me.
Wise Acre Eatery is one of those places that even if you're not into the farm fresh craze, you should visit at least one time. I would have to say the breakfast was very "earthy". The dinner menu looked like it would be more appealing and I may go back at some point to try one of their burgers along with one of the eclectic beers from regional microbreweries that they serve. But the service was over the top, the decor and setting was comfortable, and the food was - well, it couldn't be any fresher unless they moved the restaurant to the farm. While it may not be what I'm looking for in a restaurant, Wise Acre Eatery was truly an interesting experience.
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