Calhoun’s Urban Eatery: A Review

Last night, I had the pleasure of attending a mock opening at Urban Eatery, a new restaurant located across from Lake Calhoun where The View used to be.  Urban Eatery is run by the same people as Crave, so my expectations were high before I even walked into the restaurant.  We were there to help the staff work out the kinks and help the kitchen practice the dishes they would soon be serving to the public.  Those expectations were thoroughly exceeded…  If this was a dress-rehearsal, I can’t wait for what the future holds for this restaurant!

Urban Eatery is a gastropub, serving American-style dishes with creative and inspired touches that reflect the Eli, the chef’s, passion for fresh, local and seasonal ingredients.  It has interesting takes on comfort food like chicken pot pie, sausage pizza and baked mostaccioli–all executed deliciously.  They make their own creamy mozzarella in-house and source their succulent pork from Fischer Farms.  They also had a number creative dishes like a “pork and beans” that was seared pork belly in a maple soy glaze with fennel seed and fresh edamame.  One thing I won’t soon forget was the monte cristo sandwich.  A monte cristo is made with white bread, layered with turkey and smoke gouda, then dipped in french toast batter, deep-fried and served piping hot with lingonberry jam and a touch of powdered sugar.  This “sandwich” blew all of our minds.  I have no doubt this dish alone will create buzz and notoriety for this restaurant.  It’s not something you want to eat every day, or even every year, health-wise, but it’s definitely worth a try.  I suggest getting it and sharing it with the table as a super-appetizer.  Another thing I was surprised and impressed by was the salmon caesar salad.  I hate fish and, from what I hear, salmon is not the fish to try if you are not into fish.  Urban Eatery’s salmon was amazingly moist with barely any fishy flavor.  It was cooked perfectly, cured in smoked sea salt and brown sugar over night and grilled to perfection.  The flavor much more resembles that of smoked red meat.  Everyone at the table agreed, it was fantastic.

The ambiance of this establishment is also noteworthy.  The walls are lined with reclaimed wood from an old barn and the lamps are made of super large wine jugs.  The restaurant is cozy and inviting and resembles a downtown loft-like atmosphere.  There are TVs at the bar for watching sports and large round booths for conversation with friends.

It’s my opinion that this restaurant is set to be a new hot spot.

Urban Eatery is scheduled to open to the public February 11.  Call 612-920-5000 for reservations.

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