Tag Archives: st. paul

March 11, 2012 · 10:19 am

A Storm’s A Brewing

For those of us who are big fans of St. Paul there is real reason to be worried, we just might be enjoying the last week of sanity in our lovely Capital City.

March is Tournament Month here in Minnesota. The winter sports have their championships, the big one here in the Northland is the Boys Hockey tournament. Last night the period was dotted bittersweet sports story of the year, as the Benilde-St. Margaret Red Knights  defeated the Hill-Murray Pioneers 5-0 to win the Class AA boys hockey championship. For those you not from around here this years season at Benilde will be remembered for a long time, not just because championship, but because of the injury suffered December 30, 2011 by Jack Jablonski a sophomore skater who was checked from behind into the boards resulting in a severed spinal cord at the neck and two fractured vertebrae.

This season was dedicated to Jack, who watched the game with his family from a box at the Excel. Bittersweet to say the least.

But that’s not what I’m worried about for St. Paul next weekend.

This weekend the Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) will be having their Final Five Conference Tournament at the Excel Energy Center in St. Paul. 6 teams from the conference will be here, along with their fans enjoying 5 hockey games in 3 days. I used to have season tickets to this event, this year I let them lapse. Dumb move on my part because this year oldest kids school Michigan Tech will be here in St. Paul playing in the tournament.

On a sad note this is the last year that this tournament is going to matter or frankly be worth attending. The big teams in the conference are all bailing and college hockey will never be the same, or in my opinion, as good. Seriously, why you screw up natural rivalries and break up college hockey’s premier conference is beyond me.

The Minnesota Golden Gophers are the Notre Dame of college hockey. Outstanding program with a long history of success, hated by everyone outside the Twin Cities. Their arch-rivals are the University of North Dakota Fighting [name to be determined but not printed here]. Minnesota Duluth a recent powerhouse is there, Wisconsin, Colorado College, Denver.. all great programs that are leaving. Minnesota and Wisconsin are leaving for a  new Big 10 Hockey conference where only 6 schools actually have hockey. And.. no one cares. North Dakota will join Duluth, the Colorado schools, Nebraska-Omaha in a new mid-west conference that only folks from Fargo and Grand Forks will care about.

This Big 10 thing screws up the CCHA as well as natural rivals Michigan, State, Northern and Western Michigan won’t play each other anymore.

I digress here.

So in St. Paul we have the championship game, which I’m thinking the Gophers will be in.. and when the Goph’s are playing on championship Saturday night the Excel is a 18,000 seat home rink that rocks down to it’s foundation. Their home rink on Campus only seats about 10,000 fans and has been sold out for years.

So that’s Saturday night.

Saturday afternoon at 1:00, in the same venue the NHL Minnesota Wild will be taking on the Carolina Hurricanes. So we’ll have a pile of college and pro hockey fans downtown at the same time. Looking at the calendar I see that all of this sports orgy goodness falls on Saturday, March 17. St. Patrick’s Day. No town in Minnesota does St. Patty’s like St. Paul. Former governor Jessie Ventura once was quoted as saying St. Paul streets were laid out by drunken Irishmen. Leaving aside the stereotype of drunks, St. Paul was a very Irish city back in the day.

So there you have it, three unrelated events coming together at the same time, in the same place; the Excel Energy Center in St. Paul.

I’m thinking smoldering ruins.

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January 23, 2012 · 10:52 pm

The Old Guy goes the Lexington on Grand and finds it’s not so old

Every town has a place like St. Paul’s Lexington Restaurant.

In my hometown it was the Hoosier Inn, or maybe Otto’s, well established older restaurants where your folks would make you clip on a tie to go too. According to their website the Lex dates back to 1935 when to celebrate the end of Prohibition, a local couple plopped down a couple large and bought themselves a pub. Over the years it’s been transformed into a great local eatery, special occasion kind of place where the guy could meet a colleague or client after a day in the office for a couple of high-balls, get on the payphone and call the girls (wives) and have them take a cab down to the Lex and join the boys for great meal.

Now a days the Lexington has a reputation of being a bit dated. Ok a lot dated. My impression was more of their customer base was in the ground than in the dining room, and I’m not alone. It’s one of those places that I’ve passed three times a week over the years and every time remarked to my wife, “we should eat there sometime” and she always agreed and off we’d go to some new trendy place and sort never managed to make into the place over the last 17 years or so.

Last week that all changed. And change, is a good thing for the Lexington. I had been invited to a bourbon dinner at the place, hosted by the fine folks who bring us Jim Beam. Me and Jim, we have been pretty good friends over the years, especially in the summer when lemonade can taste pretty good with a splash of that ole Kentucky Juice.. This event however was meant to be a small batch bourbon tasting, really excellent whiskeys, accompanied with some outstanding food. Or so the brochure said.

DISCLAIMER: The only reason I was invited to the affair, the Lex was recently purchased by two couples, one that happens to be the sister of one of my closest friends on the planet. So I had some prior knowledge before I went.

Ironically the morning of the big event the front page of the food section in the Minneapolis Star Tribune had five columns about the changes that have been going on at the Lex. The new owners have realized that something had to change, I wasn’t the only one hearing snide comments about the place, and “Don’t you have to be 90 to eat there”.. although frankly at my age I LOVE a place where I can feel “young”, there aren’t too many of those places left.

According to the article the Lex a few weeks into a new Head Chef. Recognizing that the menu needs updating , the new owners have hired new blood in the kitchen and a blood in the front of the house. A new general manager was hired and he who was there to narrate our way through the dinner.

The meal itself was four courses, accompanied by tasting from four different bourbons and two bourbon cocktails. The night started with a round of Old Fashions. I can’t think of a better place to sip on Don Draper’s favorite drink than the Lexington. Mad Men is a hot show, the 60’s are making a comeback and, done correctly I think the Lex can take serious advantage of the trend and bring some younger folks into the place.

First course was a duck comfit salad with beets and  pecans, served with a one of my favorite bourbon, Basil Hayden’s 8 year. The salad was awesome. I hate beets, seriously hate them, but in this salad they were, pretty good. I’m thinking they were roasted which takes some of the edge off, but they played nicely with the duck and the whole thing rocked.

Next up, shredded roast turkey leg and a tomato kind of sauce with Parmesan cheese shavings. This was served with a taste of Bakers 7 year. The turkey…  well, I’ll never eat a roast leg again. This is the way to do it. The tomato and the cheese were great against the dark meat. I wasn’t as big of a fan of the Bakers.. it’s a 107 proof and I’m not a big fan of the higher proofs.. you can’t really taste them very well as all that alcohol numbs the taste buds a bit.

The “main” course was roast pork medallions over corn pudding with a whipped Mascarpone cheese infused with honey and a side of slightly blanched green beans. No kidding, this is the best thing I’ve eaten in 2012. It was simple awesome. The manager came by and explained how all the flavors were working together and encouraged us to do the Thanksgiving Perfect Bite thing where you get a bit of everything in one fork full. It was seriously outstanding. This was served with Knob Creek 9 year. Knob Creek runs to the sweet side of the bourbons and it matched up against the pork and Mascarpone most excellently. I’d go back just for that dish.

In between there was a bourbon whiskey sour, a great way to enjoy the water of life.

Finally desert. Flourless torte with bourbon whipped cream and chocolate and caramel sauce. It was great, the bourbon cream was better than the torte. This came with the last bourbon of the evening, Bookers 8 year. Bookers is some intense stuff. First of all, its straight from the barrel, unfiltered. Which means it’s cloudy. Second it runs 120 to 127 proof. That’s high. It’s kind of smoky and sweet with some vanilla. You can’t really “drink” it per se, you have to take a sip and let it soak into your tongue. At that proof it doesn’t take long. This one of those whiskey’s where you kind of wince, wonder of if it’s good and then ask for more.

Finally I have to comment on the atmosphere at the Lex. It’s fantastic, vintage but classy. No windows that I saw, buy very cool with lots of neat rooms and two separate bars.

I wish the new owners every success in the place, I think it has a great shot to come back strong with a new menu, and from my limited offerings, outstanding food. I hear they’re having a Mad Men night coming up and a beer tasting event. If you get on their mailing list you can be notified when the events are on.

After 17 years of passing the place, I’m glad I finally made it in, and listening to the comments from others, maybe I didn’t miss anything, but I’m going to suggest that you are missing out now, give it a try.

The Lexington

Corner of Lexington Parkway and Grand Ave.
St. Paul

Lunch:     Mon.-Sat. 11:00am – 4:00pm

Dinner:    Mon.-Thurs. 4:00pm – 10:00pm

Fri.-Sat. 4:00pm – 11:00pm

Sun. 4:00pm – 9:00pm

Sunday Brunch: 10:00am – 2:00pm

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June 14, 2011 · 9:45 pm

Eat’n With The Fat Man, with a side of Idiot

 Here’s why I keep up this blog thing in the face of declining readership, angry family, bad writing and poor reviews.

Monday night I had the distinct pleasure of meeting yet another blog personality; Mark, the writer and creative department over at The Idiot Speaketh. The Idiot Speaketh is a hilarious piece of work that was recommended to me by yet another blogger friend, Eric over at Eric Has Issues. Alas E.H.I. is no longer active, but his online introduction to Mark, aka the Idiot was a great one, we have some very similar tastes in humor and women. Mark and son are currently on their annual summer baseball tour which this year included the Twin Cities. Mark (I can’t call a guy an idiot who is anything but) reached out a few weeks ago and let me know he was going to be coming and asked about a ball game and dinner.

I was stoked to think that I’d get another Face to Face meet. Just so you know, at the Bat Mitzvah there was an entire table of people I met through this blog, or rather through lazylightning.org, details.

Figuring that Mark and kiddo had had a decent tour of swanky Minneapolis and probably Grand Ave in St. Paul I figured what could be better than a trip to the culinary capital of the Twin Cities Hamburger scene, The Nook.

Bill over at Lazylightning, by coincidence or maybe by reading my blog notes while bored at the daughters Bat Mitzvah a few weeks ago just scooped me on a Nook review, and since he writes a helluva lot better than I do, you can go read the review there.

When we got to the Nook we were seated in the bowling ally below the restaurant, the old Ran-Ham lanes, one of the Twin Cities low-brow gems. And you KNOW how much I love me some low-brow. Ran-Ham is 5 lanes of OOOOOLD School bowling pleasure. The décor and equipment haven’t changed in 60+ years. No computerized scoring down there, just a few lanes, some cup holders, and one of the coolest beer bars in town.

Turns out the bowling alley is now owned by the Nook, which is directly upstairs. A pairing this good hasn’t been made since back in 1985 when I met my first wife, the current Mrs. Sankary at the alter in Saratoga California. Rumor is they’re still finding the occasional pieces of tuxedo and ripped up parking tickets in the redwood forest 26 years later.

Mark and son met us in the bowling ally for dinner. You sort of never know exactly how these first meetings with people you only know online are going to go, but I’m very happy to say we all seemed to hit it off right after “hello”. Turns out he was just as nervous about meeting a serial killer as I was.

Dinner was up to the usual high Nook standards. Juicy Lucy for my kids and the visitors. Rave reviews. I had the hamburgesa, and will reiterate that the “new” Nook (they had a big fire there a few months ago and just re-opened) are just as good as I remember. Fries and onion rings, worth the future angioplasty.

We had a great conversation with or new friends about their trip, the twin cities, my connection to Ft. Worth Texas, where they live, hot weather, long drives and the Dallas Mavericks. It was a most pleasant evening.

After dinner we headed over to Midway stadium for one of my other favorite low-brow entertainment options, The St. Paul Saints. Old Sank is a big Saints fan despite being able to rarely name one of the lads, and since this was the first game of the season, I was blanked. I was a little sad to see that Saints attendance seems to have dropped off a bit over the years, but then again a Monday night is a tough sell. Pitching in the independent minor leagues is uh.. well lets just say that while the boys can bring it, sometimes into the 90’s, what separates these guys from Major League pitching- CONTROL.

But lack of control can mean more hitting and we got to see a very exciting 4 run 2 out rally in the 3rd inning, with lots of errors, forced by aggressive base running. It was quite fun. Highlight of the game, when Eric one a burrito supreme by texting something before a opposing player struck out. Love minors.

The game and the company were a blast UNITL-

Daughter.

Claimed to have a stomach ache. I’ve seen this before, play the sick card when she doesn’t want to be somewhere. I was ignoring her, and here three trips to the bathroom when Mrs S intervened on her behalf. “Do you think you could get a ride with Mark to the hotel and I’ll pick you up there.”  I negotiated one more inning so we could catch another Saints at bat and watch the karaoke by a “real Japanese guy” thing they do there. Saints went down in order, but the Japanese guy sang a very interesting version of a Back Street Boys song.

By then it was 9:30ish. Down side is after a two and half hours the game was only in the 5th inning. This was going to be a late night. This time of year I get a little thrown off in my time estimates because it’s still light out at 9:30. So, we made our goodbyes and headed home after a great evening. The Daughter was later found eating a Good Humor Bar in her room, which put me about as over edge and explained the concept of selfish, faking and bullshit to her in one line. Which, of course brought on the waterworks and yet another intervention from Mrs S.

This morning I read in the paper that the Saints carried their lead into the 9th inning where their relievers gave up like 7 runs and the wound up losing 7-9 or something. Maybe I was glad I missed that.

This morning Mrs S and the kids headed to the Lake for a few days R&R, so I will be enjoying a quiet house this week.

Mark, if you read this, come back and see us real soon and drive safe, it was a pleasure.

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December 5, 2010 · 10:55 pm

Weekend Update

Sort of a slow weekend at the Casa Del Sank-a-Ray.

The weekend started with a bang, a two hour bus ride home from work thanks to the big snow storm. Ok, I’m a winter guy, I like winter, I actually wouldn’t want to live somewhere where it doesn’t snow in the winter. I don’t mind the cold. That being said I’m a little worried about just where this winter is going, so to speak. We’ve had more snow this year that I can remember in a long time. We’ve also enjoyed some really cold weather, it’s more like late January than early December. Which makes me wonder what we’re in for. I don’t suppose an early spring is in the cards, we’ll see.

I got home about 6:45 on Friday night, put my stuff down and went right out and shoveled off the drive way. Passive aggressive behaviors are best served up fresh. The highscool kid had spent a tough day sitting around doing not much, school was out for one of the those mystery holidays that seem to pop up more often than I’d like. He was busy enough that once again he had no time to shovel off the driveway. Why? “He’s not checked out on the snow thrower”. Three weeks ago when we had our widow maker snow, the mashed potato consistency snowfall, then it was a legitimate excuse. However, this snowfall was a about as light as they come, as it was freezing cold this time around.

So, just to show how stupid he is, he and those who support him in his lameness, I went out and shoveled it myself, old school. With a shovel. Took about 20 minutes. Light or not, it was the most exercise that I’ve had in a while. Afterwards I went back in the house and made sure that he learned his lesson, “see how easy would have been for you to just shovel” Mrs S piped up; “naw, it was easier to just wait and watch you do it. Who’s the smart guy now?”

Not as confident I could answer that as well I thought.

Saturday Morning I had to be up in St. Paul at the crack. No problem except that we’d just got a foot of snow the night before. I debated clearing off the drive way at 5:00. One of those debates where the angel appears on one shoulder, the devil on the other. Only in this case, the one who was advocating for clearing off the drive was a mini-Mrs S. I’ll let you figure out which one she was. Needless to say, it was done.

Saturday night we ran back to St. Paul, this time to do Cecil’s Deli for the annual latke trip.  It befuddles me that good Jewish deli’s can’t make it in this town. I still miss the Lincoln Deli in Bloomington. Every Hanukkah we go up to Cecils for the spectacular latke’s. I can’t eat more than one, they’re pretty rich. So, instead I had the much lighter Just Like New York sandwich, pastrami and coleslaw. Oh, and the egg cream of course, I was fit to be rolled out of there after eating my sandwich and half the girls latkes. One word, Oy. good thing you can get a phosphate there.

By Sunday inertia had set in and very little of anything of substance was accomplished. Meeting, again up in St. Paul in the am for some Bat Mitzvah tutoring, then a trip to Trader Joe’s, Target, and that was about it. I didn’t even watch a second of football. I DID however bring more stuff up from the basement. This basement flooding thing has really worked out to my advantage. I have been able to help the other family members around here realize that, YES there is in fact a way to bring crap up out of the basement. We CAN get rid of stuff. And we have. Lots of it.

Aquariums, a router, a scroll saw… lets face it “handy” ain’t happen’n for me, toys, books, LOTS of books, more books, and I take blame for those, a table, a chair, a workbench, (see handy) more toys, boxes of stuff that we moved here from California and have yet to be opened, ie family time capsules going back to the heady days of the mid 90′s, and more crap. I told Mrs S, if you haven’t opened the box in 15 years, why start now? Opening it will make it harder to get rid off I assure you.

In a related matter, “if you haven’t looked at our wedding pictures in 15 years, why are you thinking about them now?” No I didn’t toss them. I did toss all my old yearbooks, family pictures and crap that I brought into the marriage. Mrs S went just a little hysterical on me, just a little though. Apparently all those old pictures do NOT belong to me, they belong to my descendants. “You can’t throw that stuff out, your kids or their kids will want it.” I certainly don’t want to keep my kids from some sort of connection to pictures of people they don’t know, they’ve meant alot to me you know. She fished all that stuff out of the refuse pile. We were making such progress until then. But it’s only a wee bit given the amount that came up.

And where did all this stuff go? I have to tell ya, Complete strangers came over and hauled it all away for me. Thank you Craigslist. Just put “collector” and  ”free” in the title and it’s gone before you can get the next posting up. I had 18 things on Craigslist at one point. It’s quite cathartic to someone else come and take your crap away. Let it all go sit in someone else’s basement for the next decade. I wasn’t as open to Mrs S- “You know some people do something called ‘selling’ on craigslist” Yeah and some people never get rid of their crap.

The basement contractors come next week to start the restoration. Mrs S. and I are at a bit of odds on what we’re doing down there. Translated, that means I made the mistake of offering up an opinion on the basement, one that was different with what she had already scoped out. She wants more shelving down there, more storage room. I’m thinking that more storage for us (her and them, but not I) is like giving a crack addict a better pipe. Enables the problem. Our problem, I would suggest and did, isn’t that we don’t have enough space, it’s that we don’t get rid of enough crap. Period. We have two houses loaded with crap.. well, not loaded in a hoarder way, but plenty full o’stuff.

I suggested this to the family and was respectfully told that I was disrespectful and would throw away my own kids given the opportunity.

Hmm. If they sit in one place long enough, I think I’d be justified.

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July 14, 2010 · 7:30 am

Shout out and shamless plug

As long as I’m plugging things here..

I have to make a blogger call out here folks. Occasionally I pass some nods to my fellow bloggers. If you have a chance check out the folks over on the right hand side of this page, there’s some really fine bloggers over there who are putting this space to shame frankly, and I would strongly encourage you to read them.

I do want to call out some amazing work in the blog world. A very good friend of mine, whose been a bit of a source of inspiration and encouragement over the years has put together an amazing blog in a very short period of time. Not happy to sit on her blogging success, she’s taken to the airwaves via BlogTalkRadio and now is launching her very own e-magazine with content from her site. Her latest project it so add a print function so folks can print their own copy of the mag.

La Juana Whitmore has created Black Twin Cities out of a brain storm, inspired by a search for “good soul food” in Minneapolis. In a very short period of time BTC has become a networking site for business, dating and networking for African Americans in the Twin Cities. I proud to say, “I knew her when”.

Way to go Girl.

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April 8, 2008 · 11:48 am

Light Rail Update

Big news yesterday in Minnesota, Governor Pawlenty has taken out the red pencil and effectively lined out many of the spending initiatives from a  $925M public works spending bill. The hottest topic on the table? Light Rail. By cutting $70M from light rail he has effectively killed the rail line between the downtowns, this money would have enabled the state to qualify for $450M in federal transportation dollars, which will now go else where. Personally I have to say, THANK YOU GOV.

The local Dems, by former gang BTW, are crowing this morning. I still can’t figure out the attraction of light rail, but if you have money to burn, it is fun. Fact is, in this environment, the State does NOT have money to burn. According the Dem’s this is “critical” to the Twin Cities. “This kills our ability to provide clean efficient transportation..” What this does is protect the tax payer from shelling out 1 B with a B ‘illion in funds to build the choo choo, and the subsequent millions of dollars spent on subsidies so someone can get from Minneapolis to St. Paul and back. Like there’s no bus? There is a bus and I’ve taken the thing myself. That argument BTW that it’s going to cost more to build it later.. unfazed, since we don’t need it to begin with.

The other argument I’m hearing here is this was a punitive measure in retaliation for his budget veto being overridden a couple weeks ago. Could be frankly. But, realistically, it’s not like the legislators didn’t give fair warning on this. He was pretty specific that he would not support more than $800M in debt this year. The state economy after all aint look’n so hot. The Spend Monkeys in the House and Senate, drunk over their gas tax increase sent up a bill with $925M in spending. Gov did what he said he would do.

Ironically he also asked for this light rail spending, so you could cry foul here, (or fowl as it’s a chicken s#$t way of forcing an issue on your terms) but his comments that the state needs to tighten up a bit are well founded. Our legislature seems to be unaware of the financial issues facing this state.

On the contrary, DFL folks should be praising the Gov for what he did NOT cut. Education, funding for the UofM’s new bioengineering facility and several environmental projects. The St. Paul contingent were particularly incensed at the bill. Mayor Chris Coleman commented that “just threatened the future of the city of St. Paul”. OK, all you folks living in the those neighborhoods, among the only ones in the state mind you, where home values haven’t declined, pack up and leave because … Actually the only folks in St. Paul who are put out of home are Casey and his family of gorillas. They didn’t get the funding they needed to upgrade their home, a needed project after Casey climbed out of the enclosure and took a walk in the around zoo looking for a hot dog a few years ago. He was only gone for an hour… more insulting however is that the polar bears across the zoo DID get funded for their new home.

Sorry Casey, maybe when the economy turns around we can all get better houses.

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