Description
How can you turn Twin Cities-area farm products into the food that the food cognoscenti really, really want--namely well spiced, healthy, various, filling, affordable, and local? Chef Alex Roberts, the James Beard-nominated chef who also owns fine-dining standard-bearer Restaurant Alma, answered that question with his brilliant new fast-casual spot Brasa. It's a sort of Minnesota-farm-driven hybrid of two other restaurant traditions, namely the South American way of making rotisserie meats, and the classic Southern meat-and-three soul-food set-up. When you visit the modern, corrugated metal-accented table-service restaurant with the good but simple wine and beer list, you get to choose various combinations of slow-roasted, succulent, crispy, crackling, and creamy Berkshire roast pork; amply spiced, lemony roast chicken; and a dozen vegetable or grain dishes, some vegetarian, some not. (The combo plates run, roughly, $11 to $14.) Most everything is great, though this critic is partial to the deeply flavored rice and pigeon peas with local ham, and the cabbage salad, an ephemeral, minty elevation of traditional cole slaw. Everything is available for take-out, and holds and reheats well, making it the ideal gift for new parents, mourners, or other folks in need of food that's good for you, good for local farmers, and you know, just plain old good.
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