Last month, I participated in a GuacOff courtesy of Metro Magazine and with the combined culinary stylings of some great fellow Twin Cities bloggers (Kaeti, Doug, Emily, and Conner), we took home Most Authentic.

This post isn’t about that. Conner did a great recap, so I’ll point you over there for that.

What this post IS about is the gift card that I snagged as part of the prize stuff from Crave Restaurant. I’m not too far from the restaurant, located in Edina’s Galleria Mall so when Rachel was here a couple of weeks ago, we decided to check it out.  I kept hearing delicious things about it, and we decided to move in for their HUGELY PROPORTIONED brunch.

We rounded up my roommate and her manfriend and made it there pretty much as the doors opened (11AM on Sundays).

The deal (snatched right from their website, emphasis mine):

Fabulous Family Brunch $15.95

Generous helping of scrambled eggs with Tillamook smoked cheddar, house made baked hash browns, off-the-bone ham, applewood smoked bacon, savory sausage links, whole wheat toast and jam, fresh fruit, and sticky buns all served on large platters for your table to share and replenished as you desire!

Also Includes: French Toast Bar with gourmet toppings and Our Chef ’s “Create-your-own” Omelet Bar and A glass of Mimosa, Champagne, or Orange Juice

Yeah, you had me at French Toast Bar and Champagne for sure. And I’m always a fan of hash browns or breakfast potatoes or whatever you want to call them, but these? UNFREAKINGREAL.  Here’s a [close-up!] shot of those with the yummy eggs:

Can’t you just smell the cheese melting all over that?  SO good.  But seriously, those hashbrowns were greasy, cheesy, potato-y perfection.

Because that wasn’t enough food, I had the chef make me my own omelet; isn’t it pretty?

Tomatoes, mushrooms, peppers, and cheese – YUM!

Our table basically looked like this: we each had coffee and a mimosa.  The plates in the center of the table included: the cheesy-orgy plate of eggs and hash browns, the meat-lover’s plate of sausage, bacon, and ham, plus some toast because why not throw more carbs in the mix, a plate full of sticky-buns, and then whatever plates we’d collected at the French Toast or Create-Your-Own Omelet station.

I’m not a meat-eater, but check this out:

Make no mistake, I know how to make y’all drool.

I’ll have to get back to try their other meals, but this was definitely a winner for a giant Sunday brunch with some of my faves.

Photo credits: Me! I took the pictures, but with Rachel‘s camera and she did the editing.
Camera: Canon Rebel XT; 50mm F/ 1.8 II lens

I hadn’t been to Zeno Wine Cafe since a date a few years ago.

Or was it a date?  I never really knew with that guy until the fourth “date” or so and I finally attacked his face kissed him in his car at the end of the night.  We made out all high school style for a few minutes, I went home, and that was essentially it.

But this post isn’t about him, it’s about food and wine and my girlfriend Melissa.

Melissa and I met in college, through mutual friends, and bonded instantly and closely.  We were both lovers of psychology (different realms, but still), house parties, jam band music, and sharing dating stories because we always had the good amusing ones.

Anyway, she and I have the beautiful kind of friendship that continues to grow and flourish into adulthood after college despite different directions and lives and jobs and whatnot.  We catch up every couple of months, giggle like schoolgirls, polish off a decent amount of wine, and typically find some of the Twin Cities’ most interesting places to eat.

Our last two catch-ups?  Town Talk Diner, and then before that the French Meadow Bakery.

We have good, quirky, local hipster taste, I know.

Last night, we hopped into Zeno Cafe at Lake & Hennepin in Uptown.  They advertise all kinds of happy hour deals that GO UNTIL SEVEN PM (which sometimes is unheard of, or at least hard to find, and those of us that can’t leave work at 3PM on a MONDAY really appreciate that extra hour or two!).

What we chose?

wine: $10 bottomless glass of [house] wine (I chose the white (a Pinot Grigio/Chardonnay blend) and Melissa had the Cab Sauv).

food: Apps are BOGO, so we split the Cheese Plate and the Mediterranean Plate.

According to their menu, these are the food deets:

Mediterranean Plate

Goat cheese, black olive tapenade, hummus, and Italian sun-dried tomato relish with fresh baked rosemary focaccia.

Cheese Plate

A selection of artisan cheeses served with fresh fruit, turkish figs and almonds.

To be honest?

I wasn’t all that impressed with the cheese plate.  Then again, I’ve been spoiled this year in that my cheese plate devirginization happened at Mario Batali’s Enoteca San Marco in Las Vegas.  Then I found Cafe Maude’s cheese plate.  Twice.  Two weeks ago, I sampled the cheese stylings at Bar Baresco in NYC’s Chelsea neighborhood.

So, I’m not a cheese plate SNOB, by any means (let’s be honest, I can’t ID anything really besides bleu, gouda, brie, and parmesan), but I do know what’s impressive and what’s notsomuch.

So Zeno’s was decent, just not… amazing.  There was a gouda that was nice and creamy and smooth, but I bought a chunk of gouda at Lund’s last week that was as good if not better.  There were no turkish figs as advertised, but there were grapes and apples.  The almonds were nice.  I should’ve taken a picture.  Wow, foodie blogger FAIL.

The Med plate though was GREAT.  I love goat cheese and tapenade and hummus and sun-dried tomato ANYTHING.  And the focaccia was tasty.

But for $20 each that got us all kinds of wine and the right kind of noshing in between telling stories of going back to school, boys, travels, and just all-around catching up in general?  Total win.  I’d go back and do it again and probably sample more of their apps menu, but keep in mind you get what you pay for.  If I want a cheese plate to blow me away, I’ll go back to Cafe Maude and pay the extra $ (though really, it’s not that much extra).

What will bring me back?

This deal.  I’m intrigued by this.  $30 date night includes wine, apps, dessert and a movie at the Landmark theater next door:

Recap:

Wine: $10 bottomless glass of a decent house wine.  We like bottomless.  No.  WE LOVE bottomless.
Food: Cheese plate: mediocre; Med plate: Good
Price: Since wine was cheap and apps were BOGO, total bill was less than $40 (after taxes, before tip)
Do it again?  Sure, why not.