Rick Nelson of the Star Tribune said the best ribs in the Twin Cities are at the 128 Cafe (128 Cleveland Avenue N, St. Paul, 651-645-4128). When I worked in St. Paul, I must have driven by that place across from the University of St. Thomas campus a million times, but never ate there. After emailing them a request for a Sunday night reservation, Colleen and I finally visited this past weekend.

I started with the ginger-soy sirloin skewers with purple cabbage slaw and spicy cashew sauce ($9), while Colleen tried the soup special (tomato basil, $4). We shared a really good Caesar salad ($7) before the main course, which I totally agree with Mr. Nelson – these were the best BBQ baby back ribs I’ve ever had (full rack with mashed potatoes, sautéed vegetables and sweet spicy bbq sauce, $30).

The meat literally fell off the bone and the sauce had just the right amount of kick. Our waiter recommended a red wine to go with the ribs (Zinfandel, Kazmet Valley, Graziano, CA 2009, $11), which to my novice wine nose was almost reminiscent of Scotch. Colleen had her favorite sparkling water (San Pellegrino) and we shared a bowl of Izzy’s vanilla ice cream with hand-made chocolate sauce ($7) for dessert.

The room was much smaller than I expected and the ambient noise level was very low (despite a full house). The service was very slow – it took almost 15 minutes before someone took our order – and we were there for nearly two hours. Maybe we caught them on a short-staffed evening, but the quality of the food more than made up for it. If you like ribs, call and make reservations now…