7 Minute Miles

Dinner at Smack Shack


Colleen and I stopped in last night at one of the newer additions to the North Loop: food truck-turned-restaurant Smack Shack, located at 603 Washington Avenue North in Minneapolis.

The space is very nice and is located close to other area hot spots (Borough, Bar La Grassa, The Bachelor Farmer). Parking is starting to become a bigger issue over there, but I found a meter one block down and a block over that only needed 40 cents to last until 5 a.m.

We started things off by ordering from the reasonably long drink menu – Colleen with an on-tap Strongbow and a flower martini for me. The neon lobster on the sign and all of the lobster cages in the decor should tip you off that this is a place primary focussed on seafood, but I found several “turf” menu items to try, as I’m not big on the surf side of things.

We ordered an appetizer of Smack Wings, which were your typical chicken wings (although the housemade bacon-blue cheese dressing was to die for). I then had a classic Caesar salad, which was very good once I got past the heavy pepper on top.

Pepper also carried over to my main dish, southern fried chicken with sausage gravy. The spices in the breading were almost too much, but the flavor in the gravy made for a tasty pairing. Very nice comfort food for a seafood joint.

Colleen went with a more traditional lobster roll (like they serve on the truck): Connecticut-style with warm lobster, butter, lemon and chives on a split top bun. That came with Smack fries, which I thought were OK.

My favorite part of the meal came last. The manager stopped by our table to chat and was really talking up their pastry chef. We ended up splitting an order of the Mississippi Mud triple fudge brownie with vanilla and chocolate ice cream. It might be my second favorite dessert ever (after Roy’s molten chocolate cake). Sublime.

Prices were reasonable (especially on all of my non-seafood items) and our server was very friendly and knowledgeable. Colleen said she preferred the truck experience, but I’d go back again…

Originally published by DK on April 8, 2013 at 6:13 pm in Food, Longform


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