Dining in Minneapolis . . .

I'm baaaack!

I had a seminar/training I had to attend for work up in Minneapolis (4 hour drive from home) Tuesday and Wednesday. We decided to make a mini-vacation out of it. Our first family vacation!! So I packed up Wes & Lincoln to go with me and we headed up Sunday morning...bright and early!

I'll get into more detail [including pictures] later. First...I feel the need to share this story. It is hilarious. I cried for half an hour straight after it happened...

Not tears of sadness. Not even tears of embarrassment. Tears out of "OMG. That just happened. This is priceless!"

Alright, so after 5 hours of walking around the Mall of America Monday, we took the Metro to downtown Minneapolis to walk around, explore, and have supper. After walking around a bit, the Marriott doorman asked if there was anything he could help us with. We asked what restaurants he recommended. He gave a couple of suggestions, but said Lyon's Pub was kid friendly and good. We headed that way, but as we approached, we could hear the music blaring out of it from across the street. We thought...maybe we should try something else. [Always listen to the local doorman.]

Next to Lyon's Pub was Murray's. I had never heard of it. On the 2nd story of the building was a large picture of a steak with a caption of "Home of the Butter Knife Steak" [or something to that effect]. Steak so tender you only needed a butter knife. Mmmmm! There was a guy standing outside of the building, at a podium. The restaurant has a doorman? It's own doorman? Eeeks, maybe not. 

Then again....the "A" in the neon Murray's sign was burnt out. How high class of a place could it be with a burnt out letter in it's sign?

Hard to spot the burnt out "A". It's on the  sign that is directly facing the road.

We decided to cross the street and check it out. As we got closer we saw the menu was posted outside. There were some very pricey things on the menu, but they also had sandwich meals for about $10. Do-able. By now it was getting near Lincoln's bedtime, we still needed to eat and make it back to the hotel [which was going to take a 10 minute Metro ride and the hotel shuttle picking us up]. Let's try it. 

We walk in, because the "doorman" didn't even acknowledge us, and see a bar area. There were people drinking and watching the baseball game on big screen TV's. Right up our alley!

Wes started looking at the wall of fame, so to say. A wall of people who had eaten there, I guess.

Here's a picture of Derek Jeter [with the owner, I'm assuming...?].

Context clues, people. Context clues. Red flags everywhere that we just didn't pick up on.

Anyway, while Wes is looking at these pictures, a nice man in a suit asks me how many. I say "two and a high chair," pointing at Lincoln in his stroller. Then I notice a wall of bottles of wine. Like a wine cellar. Full.

Oh God.

Let me build another picture for you. I'm in flip flops, gaucho capris, and an Aero shirt. Wes is in jeans, button up shirt, and backwards baseball cap. Lincoln is chilling [best dressed out of us all] in his Eddie Bauer stroller. We're classy, alright.

So they seat us...in a dim lit room with Frank Sinatra music lightly playing. Multiple glasses [wine, water, who knows what else for], intricately folded cloth napkins...the works.

Oh God.

They come and light a candle for us, bring us warm [delicious] croutons, and give us our menus. The waiter then asks what the occasion was. [Red flags, people!] At this point I head to the restroom, because Lincoln needed changed. There was no changing table. Luckily, instead of paper towels or a hand dryer, they had cloth towels to dry your hands with. Resourceful as I am, I laid those down to put Lincoln on to change. Not what they had in mind, I'm sure!

So they take our drink order and ask Wes' permission to pour his beer for him. Yikes. Red flags all over the place, I tell ya!

So then we look at the menu.

Forget for a moment that I've never seen a menu that didn't have cents in the price...there weren't even dollar signs. I look at Wes and said "Sooo...are those numbers after the item the price...?"

Those prices...were just for the steak. You have to purchase your side/potato, salad, etc. separately. Glance at the top...for a 24oz steak to share, it's $110. Yeah.

We looked at the waiter and kindly said "I think we'll just have the drinks and then be on our way. Thanks!"

So we chug the drinks. Actually, I didn't even finish mine. I started strapping Lincoln in and stood up and gestured "Let's go!" The waiter was MIA, so I figured I'd just pay at the podium where the people who seated us were standing. I got my wallet out and Wes was pushing the stroller. I got to the podium and one of the suited guys smiled while saying "Thank you. Have a great evening."

So I started walking out. I turned around to look at Wes and he looked at me confused. I just nicely said "Let's go, babe."

When we got outside he said "Did we just..."

"Yes, dear. We drank and dashed."

Then we promptly high-tailed it into Lyon's Pub next door to eat.

This is more like it for us...a table with a paper napkin, mugs, straws, and Heinz on the table.

I couldn't help but stare at the door the whole time we were there. I was just sure the people of Murray's were going to find us. As if they can't spare a beer and pop. They probably took pity on us.

Live and learn, I guess! hahahaha

I hope you enjoyed this through my poor story-telling skills. Maybe half as much as we enjoyed it? I seriously sat at that table pictured above and cried from laughter. I was in such shock. Yikes!

Moral[s] of the story:

*Just because a letter is burnt out in the neon sign, doesn't mean you can afford the menu.

*Always listen to the locals.