Speaking of food, Lisa and I had an excellent meal last Friday at the Town Talk Diner here in Minneapolis.  This may sound a bit strange, but in a way it was almost a relief to find such a good place to eat.  While it definitely has a high-class edge to it, at root it’s nothing more than a damn good diner.  It’s the kind of place someone in Chicago or many parts of Wisconsin could take for granted, but up to this point has been completely lacking in the Twin Cities.  (Sure, the New Uptown Diner, Mickey’s, and others have their place, but the operative words in those cases are “food” and “bland.”)

And, holy crap, it has good hamburgers!  Good hamburgers in the Twin Cities!  (Just as I was about to give up hope, this place comes along to counter the scourge of “oh, the Convention Grill has great hamburgers!”  And don’t even get me started on those abortions at Matt’s Bar.  Best burgers in Minnesota my ass.)  Good beef, appropriately charred, a sesame-seed bun, properly toasted, and paired with extremely delicious garlic parsley french fries.  I’m a burger snob, so I could quibble (I prefer semmel or potato rolls), but, really, I’d eat Town Talk’s burger regardless of what state I was standing in.

Lisa liked the Town Talk, too.  Especially those mini hot-dog appetizers.

The good-Wisconsin-diner analogy isn’t perfect, as the Town Talk definitely isn’t your typical Wisconsinish diner in many ways–it’s stylish, a bit expensive, and serves Guinness floats–but no matter.  Just the very fact that the place exists fills me with hope for the future of food here.  There’s always the risk we’ll return and the food will suck, but for the moment I’m just going to let myself bask in the warm, fuzzy feeling I get about good, non-pretentious food available just a couple miles down Lake Street.  Whoo hoo!