Our Town Talk Diner

With brushed steel tables and napkins cinched with metal fittings thingies (Hey, I'm a foodie not a welder!), Town Talk Diner on E. Lake Street is steaming as much with industrial chic as it is with the scent of good food.

Although the menu features such tempting State Fair items as "frickles" (deep-fried pickles. Wait, let me say that again, DEEP-FRIED PICKLES!) and Carr Valley Cheddar Curds (CHEESE CURDS!) slathered with a caper-scallion batter and served with house ketchup, the three of us opted to share the Forest Mushroom Tart and a special smoked salmon roll.

The Forest Mushroom Tart is built on a thin flat of semi-puff pastry coated with melted leeks and has velvety cubes of summer squash orangeing up the pile of juicy mushrooms. Not that I've ever had the option, but I could eat a boatload of those tarts.

A hip and homey Scandinavian influence is felt up and down the entire menu. For instance, the smoked salmon roll, served with a dill yogurt dipping sauce and sliced-within-an-inch-of-transparency pickled cucumbers, is rolled in lefse. More of that famed Scandinavian potato bread could be tasted on my main course of "Grains and Greens" salad. The salad itself was composed of tea-smoked wild rice (studded with cherries and roasted mushrooms), and there on the side of the bed of dressed greens were mini rolls of lefse. Inside? Spread with butter and cinnamon-sugar. God, the hyper days of my sonic youth just came sugar rushing back.

But aside from the entrancing menu was the poundable wine list. People, people, people! When was the last time you could get a glass of wine for $3.65? Okay, when was the last time you could get a glass of good wine for $3.65? Am I right? You know I'm right. Speaking of libations, Town Talk also has these awesome "Adult Malts/Floats" like the Dreamsicle (vanilla ice cream, orange juice, Triple Sec, and Grey Goose Vodka) and totally retro cocktails such as the Diamond Fizz (sparkling wine, lemon, and whipped egg white) and the Stinger.

Yeah, I think Thornton Wilder would be inspired to write a few acts about this place.

Town Talk Diner
2707 E. Lake Street
Minneapolis, MN 55406

612.722.1312