5 best things our food writers ate in the Twin Cities area this week Taste editor Nicole Hvidsten and restaurant critic Rick Nelson highlight the favorites of their weekly dining experiences. May 21, 2021 10:36am Text size Copy shortlink:
BLT Sandwich at Sandcastle
Can we all agree that the bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich has no equal? Especially when it s from this lakeside stand, which is back in business for the summer.
Because this classic formula has few components, each one has to be spot-on or the whole thing falls apart. Sandcastle nails it.
Owners Doug Flicker, Amy Greeley and Chele Payer seem to have a covert pipeline for sourcing out-of-season tomatoes that actually have flavor, juice (kosher salt surely helps) and color.
There s a place for Cinnabon, but I felt like we could do something different, he said.
And how. His version ($3.50) is both restrained thanks to a disciplined approach to sweetness and over the top, because they enlist the same laminated dough used to make the bakery s excellent croissants. Mooney s reasoning is simple. Rather than killing ourselves making a bunch of doughs, we re building a great line of products with our laminated dough, he said.
Smart. That butter-laden dough, sprinkled with brown sugar and cinnamon, is wound into fist-sized, seashell-like spirals, and then the oven s transformative powers get to work, fashioning crinkly, delicately crispy exteriors, and soft, honeycomb interiors. The finishing flourish is a judiciously applied vanilla glaze.