One of the train games that I never play in real life 🤷
Chicken strip melt (sub cheddar) @ the Golden Valley location. First eligible senior menu visit 😔
I originally was critical (no pun intended) of the new Star Tribune food critic, Jon Cheng. Then he went on Niver’s podcast (above) and wrote a lot more (both formal reviews and other things like Q and A columns and first looks) and now I’m a fan. Since the Strib’s online search and staff bio pages are not the greatest, I decided to go find all of his reviews and put them in one spot. Here are all the ones I’ve found, sorted by rating and date published:
Three and a Half Stars *** ½
- Owamni, December 2, 2021 review
- Mara, September 22, 2022 review
- Oro by Nixta, July 20, 2023 review
- Bûcheron, March 29, 2024 review
Three Stars ***
- Myriel, November 18, 2021 review
- Khâluna, March 3, 2022 review
- Petite León, May 19, 2022 review
- Churchill Street, August 18, 2022 review
- Blondette, May 18, 2023 review
- Maison Margaux, August 17, 2023 review
- Crasqui, November 2, 2023 review
- Porzana, November 24, 2023 review
Two and a Half Stars ** ½
- Vann (closed October 2023), February 18, 2022 review
- Mr. Paul’s Supper Club, March 17, 2022 review
- All Saints, June 2, 2022 review
- Sooki & Mimi (now Kim’s), July 7, 2022 review
- The Kenwood, February 16, 2023 review
- Chelas, April 27, 2023 review
- Gai Noi, September 7, 2023 review
- Herbst, September 28, 2023 review
- Kim’s, February 15, 2024 review
- Dario, April 24, 2024 review
Two Stars**
- Cardamom, November 5, 2021 review (Jon’s first with Star Tribune)
- Creekside Supper Club, May 5, 2022 review
- Guacaya Bistreaux, October 20, 2022 review
One Star *
- Macanda, November 17, 2022 review
- Butcher & the Boar, June 22, 2023 review
Notes:
- His star scale has always been listed as 1 star = satisfactory, 2 stars = recommended, 3 stars = highly recommended and 4 stars = exceptional. Some reviews list the stars, then have words, others just the stars.
- No four star reviews (so far). His story about why Minnesota should have a Michelin Guide is a must read, though (as are all the full reviews now).
- Jealous that he’s been to Demi ten times over the past two years, while I have not yet gone once.
- Seems weird that Cheng is hardly ever a part of the weekly “5 Best Things” stories, no?
- Favorite shared trait: we both love large clown fries, hot and fresh with no ketchup. 🍟
Read that this storm doubled our snowfall for the season. Still waiting for our first bird buddy…
Also halfway through S2 – can’t believe the Nashville episode had the same hotel we stayed at last year
Just finished listening to the new album – excited for SK to see her this weekend (HBD!)
He was the kind of old-school tech lawyer who didn’t need a LinkedIn profile and was also the kind of clean operator who you couldn’t find on a police blotter or a mug shot site…
— Martin Hench, Red Team Blues
I think I caught a cold during the Disney On Ice run – it was chilly in the building and well, thousands of trolls everywhere. Still love this old Simpsons graphic from back in the day. Ready for this to be over so I can get back into the regular swing of things…
Haven’t posted there since November 25, 2023 (and I don’t read the feed as much as Mastodon), but with the service opening up to everyone now, decided to switch my Bluesky handle to my domain. Logged into my Route 53 DNS panel, added one new TXT record with an _atproto string and voilà! You can find my Bluesky profile here – hoping the Tapbots people will integrate it with Ivory eventually…
We need to keep sharing all this North Shore history – the Madeira display at the old trading post was a frequent stop when I was growing up. I think the anchor is now at the lighthouse?
Started a project this weekend to move all of my posted concert videos from YouTube here (and close the YouTube channel). Decided to use the 720p versions, which seem to upscale nicely on most screens. Also installed a new plugin called HTML5 Video Player that is supposed to be responsive and customizable.
Server is now at 90.7% of 77.48GB – might have to bump that up soon, as I’d like to add more old videos from my local storage…