• Dinner at The Bachelor Farmer
• Pizza Ranch fried chicken
• Eat at Tilia in Linden Hills
• Lindey’s Prime Steak House
• Order the Depot’s Diamond Dog
• Breakfast at SAP’s Colossal Cafe
• Give Pizzeria Lola a second chance?
• Fries (no onion) from the Amsterdam Bar and Hall
• Happy Hour at La Belle Vie
• Golf Virginia, Eveleth and Wolfridge
• Tour the Root Beer Lady Museum
• Ride the Lake Vermilion Mailboat
• Gamble at White Oak, Palace and Northern Lights
• PR at least one race (any distance)
• Take Beaudry to Black Bear, Lutsen and Brainerd

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…

Colleen and I went to the Walker Art Center’s Cinema series on Friday to catch the last film they were showing in a Lawrence Kasdan retrospective, The Accidental Tourist. Turned out this was also the last show in that theater before they close it down for two months to install new seats and an updated sound system (they already installed a new digital projector).

Even though I’d seen the movie before (and used to own it), I didn’t remember all of it. I guess that’s one benefit of getting older – everything old is new again…

Right before the movie started, we were told that it’s getting harder and harder for them to locate original film copies of older movies. This one was released in 1988, but the Walker couldn’t locate a print and were planning to show a Blu-ray version. Apparently Mr. Kasdan was here earlier in the week and offered to ship a personal 35mm copy from his vault in Los Angeles. So cool!

Here’s a list of some of the other films he wrote and/or directed:

• The Empire Strikes Back
• Return of the Jedi
• Raiders of the Lost Ark
• Body Heat
• The Big Chill
• Silverado
• Grand Canyon
• The Bodyguard

Not a bad résumé, eh?