Description
For years, Muddy Waters was one of Minneapolis's best-loved coffee shops, anchored to the corner of 24th and Lyndale by its iconic neon sign, or a coffee cup buoyantly floating, handle up, amidst a choppy java sea. Now it’s moved down the street, expanded into larger digs, and turned into a full-service restaurant and bar. The new space has a rustic, open feel. The front glass garage doors let the outdoors in, as do several skylights, and there's a narrow alley patio on the building's south side (that's where the neon sign ended up). It has the all-day hours of a true neighborhood hang-out, opening as a coffee shop and closing as a bar. The food, mostly gussied up bar far with a few international flourishes, is respectable, especially considering the previous version of Muddy’s did all of its cooking with a microwave and a toaster. While there are several surprisingly good salads, the restaurant will likely become best known for its hand-held American eats. Pizzas have thin but pliable crusts that pop with brown bubbles and carry a slight yeasty tang. Hot dogs come two to an order for about five bucks, and they get all the details right, from the classic snap of the casing to the sauerkraut spiked with fennel seeds, just to give it a little edge. The most hedonistic of the offerings is the fried mortadella sandwich, which the staff sometimes describes as "bourgeois bologna." It's a delicious, open-face heap of lettuce, Gruyere cheese, fried egg, and griddled meat—also available with vegetarian mock bologna.
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