Keith Harris and Andy Sturdevant have been meeting for brunch on Saturday mornings for over a decade. The tradition began when they pledged to work out at the Midtown YWCA every weekend, and decided they deserved a reward after that. Somehow, the workout portion of this arrangement fell by the wayside. But they kept eating, and have probably hit about 30 new restaurants a year since then. And yet, despite each man’s savvy business sense, they have never turned their friendship ritual into salable content. Until now. Welcome to Brunch Buds.
Keith: So, Andy, I did not realize when we ate at Bolé a few weekends back that the restaurant had a little bit of a tumultuous past. They were planning to expand their original site, in Midway, in 2020. And then the uprising damaged the restaurant.
Andy: I didn't realize that, either. I'd only been to Bolé once, very recently, and it made a big impression. It was an accident. My brother was in town, and wanted Ethiopian, so I took him to Fasika. Because I am so out of the loop, I didn't realize it had closed, so we did what you typically do in that situation, which is look on Google Maps for something nearby.
And that place was Bolé.
Keith: Yes, apparently they crowdfunded a bunch of cash, distributed some to other nearby businesses, then built the new Bolé in Como Park.
I'd never been to the old Bolé, but they did a great job with the new one. It's tucked away in that cute area just across Snelling from the fairgrounds, and it has a nice neighborhood feel.
Andy: It sure does. I was looking at what had been at that site previously, and it was a few other neighborhood-type places: a deli, an ice cream shop, a tavern. I think one of the best ways to find a good place to eat is to look for a restaurant you know you want to go, and instead of going there, then look for a similar place that's nearby in a residential area. I never go eat out in that part of town, aside from the places that are on the main Como strip.
You know, you're at the Warped Tour and instead of staying to see the headliner on the main stage, you go see a band on one of the side stages or tents, and you get your mind blown.
Keith: Now you are speaking the language of Racket's main demographic, my friend.
Andy: I was going to say “Lollapalooza,” but I re-temporized my reader pandering ahead five or 10 years.
Keith: Bolé has a fairly large patio, and (despite the wildfire smoke) Saturday was a good day for outside dining. But the indoors is also worth mentioning. A lot of Basquiat-like artwork on the walls.
Andy: Yeah, the whole place is done up really nicely. I like restaurants that have a few predecessors immediately before them, because unless there's a full tear down and remodel, they never really shake off all the infrastructure or the decor of the earlier places. There's kind of a multilayered effect. You can see the pizza place and the tavern underneath.
Keith: Totally. There's something to be said for adjusting to your surroundings rather than starting with a blank slate.
Now let's get to the food. I had the gomen be siga ($12.95), which is spicy collard greens with beef. The menu said the dish had a soul food feel, and they were right. Also, it had a very tasty broth that may have healed one of my more traumatizing childhood eating experiences.
Andy: Oh no, and there were so many of them in the 1970s!
Keith: Exactly! Because Americans were celebrating their triumph over nature with Astroturf and Tang and processed foods.
I'm not sure I had fresh spinach until I was in college. We always ate the canned stuff at home, which (sorry Popeye) is just soggy mush and made me gag. Worst of all, it was packed in a gross liquid that would soak into everything else on your plate.
So to eat well-cooked greens with a tasty broth somehow helped me overcome that trauma.
Andy: And broth is the key to the whole thing! Not only is the broth tasty, but you have these piles of injera to soak it all up. I love getting in there with injera. I had the yebeg alicha ($15), which is also broth-heavy: lamb chunks with onion, garlic, turmeric, and a lot of butter.
Did you read the Jon Cheng review in the Strib from last year? He quotes the co-owner and cook, Rekik Abineh, as saying they go really hard on the butter and garlic.
Keith: That's the way to do it.
And one thing I noticed with both our dishes is that they softened the sourness of the injera. They were very complimentary.
Andy: They were! And especially with the meaty dishes, it does have a nice sour-buttery balance. I don't want to go too over the top, but soaking up all that lamb broth with injera, with those little jalapeño guys floating around in it, is one of the most pleasurable sensory experiences I've had dining out in the Twin Cities in recent memory.
Keith: Put that on the site, Bolé: "One of the most pleasurable sensory experiences I've had dining out in the Twin Cities in recent memory"—Andy Sturdevant, Brunch Buds
Not to sidetrack here, but I just noticed that Cheng referred to "voracious amounts of butter," which is such a Chengism.
Andy: Man, I don't know how people even do food reviews. It's always so over-the-top when you enjoy something!
Keith: "I don't even know how people do food reviews"—Andy Sturdevant, Brunch Buds.
Andy: We used to have a reviewer back in Louisville who once wrote about the "buttery apogee" of some potato dish or other, and that phrase has haunted my family for a generation.
Keith: Yes, that sounds threatening. Why do food critics write about butter like it's a predator?
Andy: Well, because it is so overwhelming! Butter is an apex predator. You get slapped with a nice bowl of butter, and it can send you to bed for the rest of the afternoon.
Keith: And yet, it's worth it.
Let's talk about the staff. Our server, Sandy, was wonderful.
Andy: Redacto is still talking about her.
Keith: Yeah he was smitten! She was so sweet to him. What is he saying?
Andy: "My favorite server is SANDY! I brought Sandy a FLOWER!"
Keith: And he did! He plucked a dandelion for her and she put it behind her ear.
Andy: I love that she made him clear off my lap when it was time to eat, too.
"Time to eat, bud, time to go to your own seat."
Keith: She was so good with him. And his meal was pretty substantial too.
Andy: They have a nice kids menu. Some very substantial planks of fried fish and fries ($6.95).
Keith: Yep, it's also a great place to take kids—as long as you don't mind chasing after them when they try to escape the patio.
Andy: Man, that's any patio. It is a really excellent patio, though. I love the brick courtyard model.
Keith: Yes, and plenty of spaces between tables. I could've lounged there drinking fancy mocktails all day.
Andy: Yeah, patio season with the under-five set is always about balancing the enjoyment of being outside and trying not to bother the young professionals who are enjoying their brunches.
Next time I'd sit a little deeper in the patio so Redacto can't bolt as quickly. We were pretty close to the front gate.
Keith: It was pretty tempting. Right there.
Honestly though, kids are supposed to slightly bug the hip young brunchers. And then someday they'll bring their kids to annoy the next generation. It's the circle of life.
