If this is your first “Two weeks in the Skyway” post, you might like to start here.
The Burger Place: Acting on yet another tip from Doug, yesterday I had lunch at The Burger Place in the Soo Line building, conveniently located next door to Sorrento Cucina if you just have to have a burger and your companion wants a slice of lasagna the size of a cinder block. Though the burger menu sprawls with options and specials that might have given a normal person pause, I’m stuck in a Rainman-like mushroom Swiss burger phase right now, which I got with lettuce, onion and tomato. A pile of fries is included. It was thick and delicious beyond expectation. It’s no Capital Grille Signature Cheeseburger, but it’s also half the price, so there’s really no comparing the two. The line was quick, service was great and the bright dinning area is a nice bonus. Wins all around.
Skyway Garden: On a tip from an interviewee, I stepped into the 510 Marquette Building for the first time in my life and, as promised, found a Skyway level garden with benches for relaxing. Now if only the area had natural sunlight…
McCormick & Schmick’s happy hour: I’ve heard (and read) a lot of people give M&S the business, and one has to respect that much consistent negative buzz, but I have been repeatedly and uniformly pleased with their happy hour. The menu changes constantly, the food is almost always good, particularly for those HH prices (ranging from $1.95 to $4.95), and the wine, while no bargain, is just fine. I had, for the jillionth time, the pork tostada (delicious and large for $1.95) and the smallish, but satisfying chicken quesadilla ($3.95). Service, an area where they allegedly struggle, was middling, but the place was hopping and I have a hard time criticizing service under those conditions unless it’s painfully bad.
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Two weeks in the Skyway | 27.01.2011 9:56 | 3 Comments
If this is your first “Two weeks in the Skyway” post, you might like to start here.
The Brothers Deli: At the urging of both Katie and Doug, yesterday I had lunch at The Brothers Deli, the lone remaining location of an empire that was at one time 16 locations strong and dates back to 1935. It’s located on the Skyway level in the Dorsey building. What makes these sandwiches stand out are the carefully sourced meats and breads, though their soups, including a tomato basil and a homemade chicken noodle, are popular as well. The sandwich menu is a bit dazzling and after much indecision I settled on the rather simple Broadway Danny Rose, with “lotsa corned beef plus lotsa pastrami on rye.” Though it was extremely good, I regretted going for the safe option, so once again I’ll have to return to this place as many times as it takes to get a good sense of the total package.
La Belle Crêpe: I didn’t eat here, because I had just put away that giant sandwich, but I had to find out if the rumors were true. A Skyway-connected creperia? No bloody way. Yet there it was, the tiny La Belle Crêpe, located on the ground floor of the Medical Arts building, selling a short, seasonal menu of sweet and savory crêpes, plus a breakfast menu, including dill and lox. I’ll be back.
And I learned this today: There are back door, Skyway-connected entrances to both Thom Pham’s Wondrous Azian Kitchen and Newsroom.
The first ant in my pants: Day 9 of my two week Skyway confinement test matched my previous record, set last winter during a particularly busy work time and similarly god-awful weather. Coincidentally or not, I was a little antsy yesterday. There was no real explanation for it, though the current two week run of mild insomnia that I’m enjoying is probably playing a part. I haven’t missed anything substantial and I’m not anxious to go anywhere in particular, I was just antsy. Kind of like the sensation experienced by people who work for months and months on cruise ships.
The upshot is that my social opportunities have remained plentiful. Friends are generously making the trek downtown to visit me, mostly, I suspect, so they can check the pallor of my skin and note any new facial tics for future party stories.
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Two weeks in the Skyway | 26.01.2011 10:27 | 3 Comments
If this is your first “Two weeks in the Skyway” post, you might like to start here.
Lunch at Sorrento Cucina: Before my weekly run to Target for groceries, I’d gotten myself all amped up for another lunch at Sushi Do, but then I stumbled on a year old Heavy Table piece by Katie Cannon, “Five Spots to Eat at in the Minneapolis Skyway.” Despite the muffled cries of “spicy tuna!” emanating from my stomach, journalistic responsibility demanded that I sample the goods.
Embarrassingly, I’d never even heard of Sorrento Cucina, serving the Skyway for what must now be 19 whopping years. It’s hidden away in the Soo Line building, in one of those corners of the Skyway on the way to nowhere important (for me). Well, like any place serving non-lethal food in the Skyway it was fantastically busy, but the line moved quickly and in about three minutes I was heaving the largest slice of lasagna al forno I’d ever seen, along with a bread stick and an iceberg lettuce side salad, to one of the copious red and white checked tables. Like Katie before me, I chose the lasagna amongst the many options, including several nods to health-conscience diners, because lasagna preparation has the kind of latitude that makes it a telling indicator of the general effort and skill being put forth in the kitchen. Despite the distraction of the unspoken competitive eating challenge leveled against me, I was quite impressed. However, unless you can eat more than me, and you probably can’t, best to get a half order. Lesson learned. Also, the ravioli was going fast, so I’ll be returning soon to see what has inspired that level of popularity.
Happy hour at Restaurant Max: I met local writer, soon to be published author, Douglas Mack at Restaurant Max at the stroke of 4:08pm for our 4pm appointment (I keep my watch set to Writer Standard Time). I’d been to Max for happy hour once before entirely by accident and for some reason I had it in my head that the deals were pretty decent. Well, the truffle fries and variously topped flatbreads on the menu were pretty good, as was the house chardonnay, and the service was attentive, but the frugal Norwegian gut instinct in me feels like $5 glasses of wine during happy hour, even in 2011, is a little presumptuous. Still, it’s not a bad spot for a bit of swank and the banking nerd in me loves the original vault door by the bathrooms.
My Skyway world is expanding: Feedback from other Skyway users/obsessives has been incredibly enlightening. Every day I learn about a new place/service/quirk that had entirely escaped me during my three years of wandering. I’m still enthusiastically collecting these nuggets, the best of which will appear in the article that I’m researching, so if you have any winners, please give them a bump in the comments section.
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Two weeks in the Skyway | 25.01.2011 10:21 | No Comments
If this is your first “Two weeks in the Skyway” post, you might like to start here.
Weekend logistics: Weekends can be tricky in the Skyway. Generally, the Skyway system keeps uniform opening hours: 6:30am to 10pm on weekdays, 9:30am to 8pm Saturdays and noon to 6pm on Sundays. But there’s a bunch of sections that deviate from this schedule, sometimes in critical places like the quickest way between my building and the liquor store. (I’m talking about you Medical Arts Building) And even that somewhat generous 10pm closing on weekdays can burn you if you lose track of time, say, at Bradstreet and it suddenly dawns on you that you have 12 minutes to pay the bill and jog through eight buildings after five cocktails, so you’re not stranded in nothing but a t-shirt several block from home in February. This may or may not have happened to me.
Breakfast fail: Saturdays aren’t usually a problem, but for the most part I don’t plan ambitious outings in the Skyway on Sundays. Unfortunately, I temporarily blanked on this sage wisdom yesterday as I ravenously charged out for a hard-earned plate of huevos rancheros at Hell’s Kitchen. Except I neglected to note that it was only 10:30, so I was more than a little peeved at myself and various anonymous decision-makers when the very first door I came upon was, of course, locked. I am always exquisitely prepared to make my own, world famous omelets at home, so I didn’t go hungry, but consarnit, I wanted effing huevos rancheros.
America’s Got Talent auditions: Ultimately, my only significant outing over the weekend was to the Minneapolis Convention Center to absorb the extraordinary sociological spectacle that was the America’s Got Talent auditions. When I arrived at noon on Saturday, almost 500 acts had already checked in and the wait time, from arrival to audition, was five to six hours. I wasn’t allowed to observe the auditions themselves, but I wandered freely amongst all the staging and holding areas, including the airplane hanger-sized Exhibition Hall B and a number of conference rooms. The sheer wait time, the interminable herding from room to room, filling out a variety of forms the entire way, seemed prohibitively defeating. How any of those poor performers, bored, tired, with their blood-sugar levels bottoming out, had the strength to flip on the energy when they finally made it in front of the producers, I’ll never know.
Excrement encounter: I experienced a Skyway first on Saturday: dog shit. Not having to worry about stepping in animal waste is one of the countless perks of Skyway life. But the world is full of inconsiderate asshats and thwarting their incessant efforts to screw things up for everyone else can only go so far. As such, at some stage Saturday morning, one of the metro area’s F*ckwit All Stars took their dog on a walk in the Skyway and the dog, having absorbed its owner’s lack of basic civility, took a dump in the Orchestra Hall Ramp section of the Skyway and both continued on their merry way without considering that maybe, just maybe, leaving a pile of dog shit in the Skyway might inconvenience others. By the time I passed the scene at least one person had already stepped in it and used the next three feet of carpet to skid-clean their shoe. Bravo, f*ckwit.
Halfway point reached: Last night marked the half way point of the two week Skyway confinement test. I’d love to ramp up the suspense here and say how difficult it’s been and I don’t know how much longer I can last, but quite frankly, what with last week’s weather, the first week was not only a breeze, but it was an absolute joy. Communication with people on the outside has largely confirmed that my Skyway confinement is more a privilege than hardship. Apart from a few missed social opportunities and my huevos rancheros, I have nothing to complain about.
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Two weeks in the Skyway | 24.01.2011 10:18 | 6 Comments
If this is your first “Two weeks in the Skyway” post, you might like to start here.
Key’s Café: I’m fairly certain that the recipe for the Everything Omelet served at Key’s Café in the Foshay Tower (Skyway entrance through the W Hotel lobby) was devised by a 120 year old shaman. There’s no other way to explain the mystical, restorative properties of this meal. I have staged many hangover recoveries while hunch over this omelet, doused in unholy amounts of Tabasco, naturally. It’s a monster, occasionally too big even for my unusually elastic stomach to accommodate. In fact, for about a year I was convinced that Key’s was playing one very long, clever practical joke on me, because every time I was served an Everything Omelet it was just a little bit larger than the last time. I imagined the kitchen staff cracking open the door and peering through, five sets of eyes vertically lined up, watching while I ate, anxious to see if the attractive wino would be able to finish off their latest effort. Then, defeated, making careful notes for a fractionally larger omelet the next time.
Well, the practical joke seems to have lost steam, because the omelet I was served on Friday was only ridiculous in size, rather than inhumane. Perhaps it was simply getting too expensive to keep serving me a $11.50 omelet that was costing them $54 in ingredients and labor.
How to transport massive quantities of cider through the Skyway: Soon after I moved into my Skyway-connected condo, I learned that buying Strongbow from Haskell’s by the case was rewarded with a slight discount. When you have the same kind of pathological love for a drink as I do, even a slight discount ends up being significant money at the end of the year. However, there was the not insignificant problem of transporting this quantity of Strongbow back to my condo. It takes exceptional effort to draw special attention to oneself amongst the low-level cabaret of weirdness that’s typically transpiring in the Skyway, but hauling six 4-packs of Strongbow tall cans, still in the case, through eight buildings during business hours does the trick quite handily.
Not only was this tactic awkward and exhausting, but the longing stares from people with office jobs, watching an euphoric, self-employed, Strongbow-laden guy who had clearly rewarded himself with a half-day, were a little much. Being a slow learner, I put myself through this indignity two or three times before I finally realized that I could cut the case open while still in Haskell’s and distribute the 4-packs into my backpack and a canvas bag. This was far easier to carry and (comparatively) less conspicuous.
Being that Haskell’s was fresh out of tall cans of Strongbow when I visited on Monday, I returned yesterday, fortifying my Foursquare mayorship, to raid the stock from their Thursday delivery (yes, I know their delivery schedule). Now there’ll be no risk of me doing without my sweet, sweet, life-giving nectar for the remainder of my Skyway confinement. And, for you shoppers at the downtown Haskell’s who find yourselves staring at an empty shelf where the tall cans of Strongbow should be over the next week, I apologize.
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Two weeks in the Skyway | 22.01.2011 11:18 | 2 Comments
If this is your first “Two weeks in the Skyway” post, you might like to start here.
Buns of steel: I happen to have them. During my frequent daydreams about being interviewed by Oprah while on my 57-city, global book tour for the best selling memoir in recorded history “Lamborghinis and Orgasms – Why I Got into Travel Writing,” I sometimes imagine that, after openly musing about why I don’t weigh 250 lbs considering how much time I spend sitting on an average day, she inquires about how much exercise I get. And when I absentmindedly answer “Eh, not much. God gave me Jesus’ metabolism, so…” the audience turns on me: boos cascade down, 250 dieting women rush the stage and they cut to commercial just as one of them is tightening her purse strap around my trachea.
Well, I had my 12th annual 28th birthday last year and my biblical metabolism has begun to slow down. Burning 500 calories isn’t as simple as taking a 15 minute nap anymore. I have to actually move around in a determined fashion several times a week. Fortunately, my condo group has a barely passable fitness center, which I made lavish use of yesterday. But if it didn’t (and here’s my point, finally), there are a ton of Skyway-connected fitness centers. There are two within two blocks of my building and several more scattered around downtown according to Skyway My Way, a super cool, interactive Skyway resource map that allows you to search for all manner of eating, drinking, shopping, hotels, banks and whatever else you might need. I’ve been playing with the site for three days. Check it out.
Post office: Many of my clients, usually my best paying clients, so I won’t trash talk them (in public), insist that I send them the signed, original contracts via snail mail, instead of a PDF scan. (I keep forgetting, how much is the postage to send something to 1998?) Since my building’s mail guy picks up the mail each morning long before I’m ready to be seen in public, I often have to hoof it to the post office to drop these important documents in the mail before 5pm. For those not in the know, there are three Skyway-connected post offices, including the friendly Baker Center Loop Station (off of 8th Street and Marquette, if you’re not in a Skyway).
Bank: Speaking of tediously slow, snail mail solutions for me to get paid, many of my clients still choose to send me paper checks. This is obvious to anyone who’s ever stepped foot in a Skyway, but for the record, I thought I’d mention that many, many banks are Skyway-connected, including my dinky, obscure, but unspeakably awesome bank. It’s incredibly convenient.
Lunch at the Capital Grille: The bestest cheeseburger in the Skyway, probably in the entire city, is served at the Capital Grille, which is where I dined for lunch yesterday. Oh, and if the best cheeseburger in the city isn’t appealing enough, I should mention that it comes with a side of truffle fries, covered in gran padano cheese. This is the kind of meal where you keep smelling your fingers for hours after it’s over to relive the experience. It’ll cost you about $16 before drinks, tax and tip, so don’t go and get addicted to them like I was for a while, but everyone deserves an occasional splurge, including travel writers making eight cents per word.
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Two weeks in the Skyway | 21.01.2011 13:36 | No Comments
If this is your first “Two weeks in the Skyway” post, you might like to start here.
A nice walk: Day 2 of my Skyway confinement was largely spent holed up in my condo, cranking out some looming work and reacquainting myself with the stationary bike that’s been occasionally getting my heart-rate above 80 this winter. I took a stroll after 7pm though, when the Skyway goes into its eerie Twilight Zone-esque emptiness and silence. I actually love this part of the day, because all the dithering idjits that are fixtures during business hours, blocking high traffic intersections of the Skyway while talking to friends or struggling to make their phones do something pointless, have all gone home and I can walk at an even pace, in a straight line without a care in the world.
I took this opportunity to get thoroughly lost in the North Star and One Financial buildings, sections of Skyway I’ve never explored. I tell ya, there’s food courts in some really unexpected places.
Skyway sushi: On Wednesday I was far more active. Now one wouldn’t instinctively get excited about sushi when one lives in Minneapolis, approximately 157,846 miles (or 427,484,836 kilometers) from the nearest tuna spawning grounds. And one would be well advised to question any form of food that’s served in the many lackluster Skyway fast food joints, which, for the most part, are barely edible versions of the stuff you’d send back to the kitchen if it was served to you in a restaurant. So when the words ‘Skyway’ and ‘sushi’ appear side-by-side, one would not be blamed for throwing up a bit in their mouth.
Well, I’m happy to say Sushi Do in the Baker Building, where I had lunch yesterday, is perfectly passable and their dishes are fairly priced. The spicy tuna/California roll combo ($7.75) was very satisfying and the cabaret-caliber people watching from their precious few stools is priceless. I’ll be going back.
Smartphone shopping: As I mentioned previously, my search for the perfect smartphone has limped on for something like three months. Seriously. With the quality of life of my ancient Blackberry Curve bottoming out, I finally pulled the trigger yesterday, walking purposefully into the T-Mobile shop in the IDS, pointing at the Google G2 Android phone and confidently saying “That one? I think? What do you think?”
Twenty hours later, I’m still not sure I bought the right phone. While the G2 does things that would have caused the 2001 me to wet myself lavishly, there’s a bunch of what I consider to be minor, requisite tweaks and personalized settings that the G2 seemingly doesn’t have. Or I’m too dumb to figure out how to access the 17th sub-menu that allows me to change them. I’m still in the trial and error period. If I don’t answer your call or email in the next few weeks it’s because G2 and I decided to have a trial separation period and go live with our parents.
And while the IDS T-Mobile shop employs several very helpful, charming people, the overwhelming majority of the staff either doesn’t give two shits about the best interests of the customers or, in a few cases, are simply full-on asshats. I saw not one, not two, but THREE altercations between staff and customers yesterday that actually make me, Captain Cantankerous, look like a compassionate, sparkling, customer service wizard.
Skyway tour app: In the afternoon, I met with Ed Smelser, the designer of the Twin Cities Skyway Tour app. The Minneapolis app is already done and for sale (iPhone and Android phones only), with St Paul and Duluth Skyway apps coming soon. Ed demonstrated the app’s Skyway map for me, which currently has 21 tour stops where users can punch up informational/historical videos. The videos are very well researched, enlightening and intermittently witty. In the near future, added functionality will include “plain English” directions, like a proper GPS device in your car, audibly directing users to their destination through the Skyway with nary a wrong turn. For the time being, the GPS function does not work on Android phones.
Crap weather: I privately decided not to gloat about all the crap weather I’m dodging during my two week Skyway confinement, but holy hell, have you seen the forecast? The wind-chill in the Twin Cities is supposed to get near -30 tonight and into tomorrow. Who’s the goofball now, huh?
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Two weeks in the Skyway | 20.01.2011 11:11 | 2 Comments
If this is your first “Two weeks in the Skyway” post, you might like to start here.
Minnesota’s Got Talent: So, here’s a combination event I’m attending and public service announcement to anyone with a TV-worthy, tight, amazing 90 seconds of talent: America’s Got Talent auditions are taking place this Saturday and Sunday in the Skyway-connected Minneapolis Convention Center, from 8am to 7pm. They welcoming all comers. Seriously. I’ve been on the phone with them repeatedly and they keep stressing this. So, if you can dance, sing, be funny, juggle, walk on a rope, throw knives, escape from chains while hanging upside down or vividly mime any of the former, get your act together and get down there. They’re even doing “no-wait” auditions: basically a scheduled audition, so you don’t have to cool your heels out in the hallway waiting your turn. Contact me if you’d like one of these no-wait auditions, or just show up with a book and a whole lot of energy. Here’s more info.
AGT is also scouting talent in Minneapolis/St Paul this week. If you know of any variety shows, cabaret, arts, dance, open mics, karaoke or whatever, invite the scouts by contacting Sara at saraagtcasting@gmail.com or 661-619-7444.
Smartphone shopping: Yesterday’s first Skyway outings were visits to both AT&T (Baker Building) and T-Mobile (IDS) to talk phones (Blackberry Torch and Android Something-Amazing respectively) and plans. The pros and cons for these phones/plans have become so convoluted, minute and evenly weighed that I’ve become paralyzed with indecision. Except my current phone is on its death rattle, so I must make a decision. Sarah at AT&T is way cuter than Kyle at T-Mobile, so it may just come down to that.
Groceries at Target: After that descent into hopeless confusion, I did my weekly grocery run to Target. Here’s the problem with Target: they have pretty much all the essentials and sometimes even a variety of the essentials, but they seem incapable of keeping the shelves stocked from week to week. For example, last week they didn’t have onions. Onions! How do you call yourself a grocery and run out of onions? They go with everything! Also, they like to change brands every three months, just to mess with me. The minute I find a brand that I like, they replace it, usually with something inferior. So, I’m frequently reacting and adjusting to Dale the Inventory Dude when he impulsively decides that the pennies cheaper Dribbly’s Tasteless Ham Product might sell better than the Super Awesome Delicious Smoked Ham that I’ve been happily buying for six months.
Strongbow scarcity: After a matinee showing of “The Green Hornet” at Block E, I made the snap decision that the salmon tart waiting for me back at home would be nicely paired with eight Strongbows, so I stopped in at Haskell’s (where I’m the mayor on Foursquare by the way, no big deal), which is when the first “Oh f*ck” moment of the Skyway test happened. Haskell’s, unthinkably, unbelievably, criminally, sadistically, was out of Strongbow in 17-ounce cans. They did, however, have two six-packs of Strongbow in 12-ounce bottles, which totally suck because that means I have to get up from the couch more frequently. I snapped them up anyway, because I didn’t want to have to eat salmon tart with water like some kind of idiot. Haskell’s won’t get more Strongbow till Thursday. Hold me.
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Two weeks in the Skyway | 18.01.2011 11:34 | 3 Comments
At 7:20pm yesterday I returned from a weekend in Madison, Wisconsin comprised mainly of drinking cheap wine to excess and occasionally picking up juggling props and throwing them around in creative ways. The otherwise unexceptional event of my return was enlivened by two things: the fire alarm in my building malfunctioning at an uncivil volume and the fact that it was the last time I would suffer Minnesota weather for two solid weeks without actually leaving Minnesota.
As part of a feature story that I’m writing, I have voluntarily confined myself to the downtown Minneapolis Skyway System as a combination goofball stunt and case study. Being that I have lived and worked in Skyway-connected bliss for nearly three years, I’ve had ample opportunity to engineer my life so that, if I really don’t feel like it, I don’t have to go outside – for anything.
For decades, the Skyway has been a convenience and curiosity, allowing shoppers and some lucky workers to pass their days while comfortably protected from our occasionally unenviable weather. But with the Skyway’s slow expansion and the addition of critical resources (namely a passable grocery inside Target), the Skyway has evolved in recent years into something approximating a proper neighborhood where, with the right timing and resourcefulness, all the usual errands can be accomplished and a reasonably rewarding life can be led. At least I think it has. And thus the confinement test.
Now it would be fairly easy, if somewhat tedious, to just hunker down for the entire two weeks, burning through my Netflix queue and ordering Luce twice a day, but that would completely miss the point. I have everyday stuff to accomplish. Errands to run, shopping to do, events to attend, social obligations to satisfy and, above all else, a practical life to lead. I’ll be using this blog to keep a (hopefully) short, daily journal, with accounts of what I did and, if it was unusually challenging, how I did it.
I would also like to take this opportunity to invite everyone who lives and/or works on the Skyway to leave comments with tips for their Skyway essentials, be it shopping, food, drink, entertainment, nail salon, whatever. And, for the feature article, I am in fact seeking out people who both live and work on the Skyway for short interviews. If you are, or know, one of these people, please get in touch.
Here are my self-imposed confinement rules:
• I can, for whatever screwball reason, open a window or stand next to an open door, but I cannot break the threshold.
• Though I was sorely tempted to do so, I did not race out before the test began and stockpile all the things I’m pretty sure that I can’t get on the Skyway. I generally get by on the relatively meager food selection available at Target on Nicollet Mall (and the farmers market in summer), but I supplement this once a month or so with a run to Rainbow for a little variety. However, in the interest of not contaminating the test environment, I’ve omitted this step.
• I can take advantage of everyday resources outside of the Skyway (the mail, pizza delivery), though without overt abuse – eg having Lunds deliver $200 of groceries.
• If a Skyway that I’m occupying spontaneously bursts into flame, I can go outside in order to save my life, but I must hold my breath and hop on one foot the entire time.
I have, in the past, gone somewhat disturbing amounts of time without stepping a toe outdoors during our less-than-balmy months, but this two week test will shatter my current record of nine days. It’s fair to say that I have an unusual affinity for the Skyway (check out my previous Skyway-love posts here, here and here), so it would be a stretch to claim that this test will be a personal hardship, though being that I’ve never stayed confined to the Skyway for so long, who knows?
And away we go.
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Two weeks in the Skyway | 17.01.2011 11:49 | 8 Comments
I’m afraid that my participation in the arts and cultural activities has taken a rather profound dive in the past decade. Live theatre, music, museums… I just don’t seem to get out and do these things as often since the variety of on-demand and online entertainment readily available here in my home fiftupled (a word I invented that means “increased by a factor of fifty”). I’m not really ashamed by this turn of events, I’ve simply started expanding my mind in different ways, while in my ideal state – sitting in my underwear. Everyone wins.
However, I enthusiastically struggled into my jeans and put on a clean shirt when the Minnesota History Center invited me to tour their temporary exhibit, Chocolate. Honestly, there are few other exhibits that would get me into a museum faster these days. Perhaps a Natalie Portman retrospective, but that’s all I can think of.
Now if, like me, you took the time years ago to educate yourself about chocolate, then I’m afraid that this exhibit won’t add much to your knowledge base. It’s pretty high level, though in fairness any more depth would likely bore most visitors senseless. However, if the magical world of chocolate remains a mystery to you, or you have children, then it’s a worthwhile experience. The only way they could make it better, in fact, is if they gave away chocolate. It would have been really cool if they had little samples of chocolate to taste during various phases of production so people could appreciate the rather monumental task of producing chocolate. But I’m sure that chocolate, at some stages of refinement, is not particularly appetizing. Or safe to consume. So, we’ll let that missed opportunity slide.
One unlikely realization gleaned during our visit is that maybe, just maybe, chocolate can singlehandedly stop the decimation of rainforests. The cacao trees (pronounced kah-KAW! – the exclamation point and, ideally, a karate chop are required) need the protection of a forest canopy in order to thrive. No canopy, no chocolate – and, in my case, no more Mr. Nice Guy. Write your congressperson, because I am no fun at all when I’m crabby.
Another thing I learned is that wealthy Europeans used have a small sip of chocolate first thing in the morning in place of coffee, which was meant for the working class. According to the informative display, women often performed this daily ritual with at least one boob exposed. Ah, Europe.
The tragic absence of free samples is somewhat alleviated by the excellent chocolate for sale in the History Center’s basement gift shop. A variety of B.T. McElrath chocolate is on hand, but I strongly recommend you walk past that and approach the incredibly lucky person manning the fresh chocolate display case and make your purchases there.
Chocolate runs through January 2nd, 2011.
The Minnesota History Center
Tickets (allowing access to both Chocolate and the permanent exhibits)
$10 adults
$8 seniors (65+)
$8 college students (valid ID)
$5 children ages 6-17
Hours:
10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday;
10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday;
12 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday;
Closed Monday (open Monday holidays year round)
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Events | 21.10.2010 11:22 | 3 Comments
