wise acre eatery

good food. good food, often i find the food is much better and more interesting than the menu descriptions would lead me to believe. the portions can be a tad small for the price (except the burger, and the what i think was the french toast- looked gigantic!). the salads are lovely- full of colorful veg and with inventive dressings. teeny parking lot. the ambiance is very loud, difficult to have a conversation, but it is a cute place.

to start my new series flashback friday foods, i want to write about one of my old favorite eateries, wild acre eatery. wild acre eatery is one of the farm to fork concept restaurants in twin cities and 99% of what you see in your plate comes from their own farm located 35 miles away from the restaurant. yes they have their own farm. i went to wild acre eatery on one of those lazy summer afternoons with two of my usual partners in crime. we got a seat in the patio, which we all loved; ananta and i loved it even more because we could watch airplanes taking off and landing very close. this also means that it is very close to the airport and if you are not an avgeek like us and/or are sensitive to noise, you might want to sit inside.

lousy service (my biggest pet peeve) - the host refused to seat our table of six due to 'too much effort to pull two tables outside together'. i digress. food was tasty - the black bean burger is delightful. the menu options are a little on the pricey side for lunch. all in all, good luck finding parking --- and make sure there's enough seating for the company you're with. appreciated the fact that this restaurant is eco-friendly.

the menu is adorable and informative; it includes detailed information about all the local ingredients. i’ll just let them explain: “the wise acre eatery connects guests to the source of their food, most of which comes from tangletown gardens’ 100 acre farm in rural plato, mn. here, our scottish highland cattle, berkshire and large black hogs, and free range chickens, ducks and turkeys live stress-free, hormone-free lives with plenty of room to roam. fresh produce is grown year-round in our greenhouses and fields ensuring a steady stream of farm fresh goodness delivered to our kitchen all the time.

while it may not be what i'm looking for in a restaurant on a regular basis, wise acre eatery was truly an interesting experience.

nowhere near as special or impressive as it finds itself. i scanned the reviews to see if i came on a bad day or if i just didn't "get" the place, but several reviews mention 1) that the place is pretentious, 2) that the food is overpriced, and 3) that the "hostess" is, simply, rude.
we had traveled to south minneapolis to visit our favorite tangletown gardens, and thought we'd have lunch at the burger/ice cream store across the street. but the friendly and neighborly ice cream shop had become wise acre eatery, apparently owned by the tangletown folks. ok, these guys have style. what could be bad?
well, a lot. there were a few people waiting. we found the hostess and asked for a table. she abruptly said "well, i don't have a table. you'll have to wait for me to clear one." umm, isn't that usually the case? were we asking you to do something special? were you doing us a favor to allow us to spend money at your place?
who needs attitude as a greeting? hint to hostess from several reviews: not everyone is cut out for food service work.
when we asked for a coke, we got a mini lecture on high fructose corn sweetener vs. sucrose.
so we bought a $6.00 (!) milk shake. one 10oz glass of chocolate milk with grainy icy stuff in it. good chocolate, but next time we'll go back to the malt shop, a mile away.
we got a mini lecture on grass-fed, locally-sourced beef when we ordered the hamburger. the burger itself was a bit dry (grass fed means less fatty means less juicy), nice tasting, with a very interesting tasting lettuce and nicely aromatic melted brie. the fries were hand cut from fresh potatoes, quite nice, like you can get at most decent restaurants. oh, and $14.00. for a burger.
so a $25.00 lunch, with attitude.

great desserts!. our anniversary night out ended up here for dessert. we were impressed and look forward to returning for dinner. it was a cold winter night but we found parking in the lot twenty steps away from the door. host was very freindly and helpful. the place was full but he found us a table even when i mentioned we just wanted dessert. he took time to explain the custards and the waitress was wonderful we shared a chocolate custard topped with bacon-peanut brittle (must get these on your custard) and the daily special that was made moments before we arrived. both were great. when we paid, the chef was near the front and she invited us back for dinner. wise acre eatery is friendly and has a wonderful look for an old service station turned restaurant. i would suggest reservations.

i’m a sucker for their royal brie and bacon burger ($16) made from the scottish highland cows they have on their farm. it’s tender and juicy, and topped off just right with brie, bacon, and the optional (but necessary) onions and micro greens. the fluffy, toasted bun holds it together to perfection. so of course that’s what i ordered on a night of decadence! derek opted for the pekin duck 2 ways ($35) as it’s a more seasonal dish and he wanted to give it a whirl before the menu changed. he was pleased with his choice — the duck was tender and juicy and played nicely with the root vegetable mash. those two dishes alone would have been plenty to fill us up, (especially after the fritters) but we had to give the cider braised ham and potato gratin ($5) a try. and believe me when i say that this stuff stole the show.

best food in the midwest. do yourself a favor and stop in here. food is delish - gourmet food served in generous portions at reasonable prices! i have eaten my way through the midwest at farm to table restaurants and this is my favorite!

nearly everything on the menu (75-95%) comes from their farm, which is less than an hour away from the restaurant. how amazing is that?

the good was delicious-however service was mediocre. we came as a group on a wednesday. service was ok- however at one point we were scolded for laughing too much. we were there on a wednesday, not too busy. but we were told the our laughing was disruptive. i have never been told to have less fun at a restaurant. it was a totally off putting experience and something i have never experienced before. very disappointing considering the food was great.

i can't believe i wanted to eat here. dining here was almost hilariously disappointing. we came on a monday night around 7:00. the hostess was so unfriendly, and the service was slow. at 7:00 pm the special had already run out, as had the beer my husband ordered. the menu was limited. i might have tried the quinoa, but on principle, i could not order something called "karrots and keenwa" on the menu. so i went with the burger. silly, at a place like this. it was so unevenly cooked and, well, raw in places. how do you screw up a burger? i'll tell you how. you put a weird little dish of rhubarb on the side and pretend it's ketchup. even our salad, fresh and lovely in appearance, was so bitter it was hard to eat, (although it's bitterness was a nice change of pace from the rest of the food, which was salt, salt and more salt). it's great to make pretty food, but if it tastes like dirt, why would i pay these jacked up prices to eat it? clearly my expectations were too high, but my husband will eat anything and he didn't like the food either. when you add to it the ambiance of sitting outside amid plane noise and fire engines (from the station immediately across the street), i would give this a negative # of stars if i could. start over, wise acre, and lose the attitude!!!

i need your table..... i would like to call out the extremely rude host/manager at brunch yesterday who told us she needed our table (aka she needed us to leave). we had only been sitting at the table for an hour and 15 minutes and it took about 45 minutes after we ordered to get our food. we had only been sitting for about 5 minutes after they cleared our plates before she told us to leave. by the way - there were two other completely open tables near us and no one waiting in the lobby when she came over and said she needed our table.

we had a party of four and one is a full-time waitress for a prominent south minneapolis restaurant (in the same neighborhood), the other friend of mine owns a restaurant and we were appalled by her rudeness. thank you for ruining what would have been a lovely experience catching up with old friends and enjoying great local food.

i do wonder if she would have done that to four middle-aged women instead of us (20 somethings). will not be returning.

the two items we ordered, the wise acre: a salad with smoked sausage and a deli sandwich served with wild rice slaw and kwik pickles, sounded appealing on the menu but didn’t wow us as we ate them. the ingredients were top notch, but we didn’t feel that they were used in creative and flavorful ways.

back to bed french toast to die for. try this. you'll see.