Email Author James Norton

2008 Stories by James Norton

• The Twin Cites' best cheap eats and drinks of 2008

  published December 31, 2008

  This year was a lousy one for the economy but—perhaps not coincidentally—a great one for cheap eats. Here are 10 of the... More >>

• Far East Feast

  published December 24, 2008

  Is the local appetite for tastes of the tropics merely gargantuan or is it actually insatiable? Many of 2008's most enjoyable restaurant... More >>

• Mort's Deli—it ain't chopped liver

  published December 17, 2008

  Mort's Meat Platter ($14.99) deserves to be a modern legend, a fairy tale that will send carnivorous children to bed with visions of red meat... More >>

• Tanpopo chases the chill

  published December 10, 2008

  Hell has come to connote "hot." Countless generations of pop-culture references depict eternal damnation as one endless, torturous... More >>

• La Vina dishes up twice the spice

  published December 3, 2008

  What Minneapolis really needed was an inviting, dependable, Mexican/Ecuadorian restaurant. This transcendental truth didn't become obvious... More >>

• Curran's still satisfies

  published November 26, 2008

  All hail the unreconstructed, non-reimagined meatloaf, the Neanderthal meatloaf, the meatloaf untouched by 50 years of culinary progress. There... More >>

• Lift Bridge Is Rising

  published November 19, 2008

  If you would like to drink the future—the smooth, pale golden, lightly spicy, caramel-kissed future—suck down a pint of Lift Bridge... More >>

• At Black Sheep, the Pizza Crust Can't Be Topped

  published November 12, 2008

  The most perfect pizza crust in the metro area is available for a reasonable price at the newly opened Black Sheep Coal Fired Pizza in the... More >>

• For heaven's sake, visit Moto-i

  published November 5, 2008

  Moto-i is dangerous. There isn't a better word for it. "Seductive" and "addictive" both begin to describe the experience, "entertaining" is an... More >>

• Grill Crazy

  published October 29, 2008

  This may be the great unspoken rule of American barbecue: The meat should be able to stand on its own merits—no sauce required. If the... More >>

• Sen Yai Sen Lek's Thai menu is bold yet inviting

  published October 22, 2008

  Sen Yai Sen Lek (Big Noodle, Little Noodle) is a new Thai restaurant located squarely at the happy intersection of "authentic" and... More >>

• Blue Door shuts on beans, opens for pub food

  published October 15, 2008

  If you walk into the Blue Door Pub in St. Paul, you may need a moment to get acclimated. The space is no longer Puerta Azul; although the name... More >>

• Battle of the Burgers

  published October 8, 2008

  The cheese-stuffed Ju(i)cy Lucy hamburger is a south Minneapolis icon, a native-born food with murky 20th-century origins and a penchant for... More >>

• Roll Playing

  published October 1, 2008

  A little elegance goes a long way. That being the case, the elegant sushi eatery Bagu should be taken seriously on looks alone: The chic and... More >>

• Currying Favor

  published September 24, 2008

  Food is elemental. An onion, ground cinnamon, a bell pepper, a flank steak—food grounds us, reassuring us that we're somewhere familiar... More >>

• Very Vietnam

  published September 17, 2008

  Knowingly or not, restaurants aspire to one of two ideal forms: One is a gateway to the exotic, offering the strange, the rare, the novel, and... More >>

• Herkimer Pub: Achtung, Beer Drinkers!

  published September 10, 2008

  These are interesting times at Uptown's Herkimer brewpub. Its owner, Blake Richardson, is preparing to open a Japanese street food restaurant... More >>

• Asian Oasis

  published September 3, 2008

  Depending on your perspective, the dining landscape in Lakeville is either a rich cornucopia or a barren wasteland. Cruise down Cedar Avenue... More >>

• Pie-Eating Contest

  published August 27, 2008

  This is a tale of two pizzerias, set in the northwestern suburb of Plymouth. One is the newly opened branch of Solos Pizza Cafe. The other,... More >>

• One Shrimp Gumbo, Hold the Abuse

  published August 20, 2008

  There's a whole bunch of marketing nonsense surrounding the Original SoupMan, a chain of casual soup-and-sandwich restaurants originating in... More >>

• Too Much of a Good Thing

  published August 13, 2008

  "The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing." Isaiah Berlin cataloged a pantheon of writers and thinkers using... More >>

• Comfort Zone

  published August 6, 2008

  One bite of the pizza at Fat Lorenzo's and you know you've found something remarkable. The single slices ($3-$3.73) sprawl across the plate... More >>

• East Meets Midwest

  published July 30, 2008

  After putting down your chopsticks at the end of a meal at Azuki, you may be tempted to ask: Did this restaurant get lost? Doesn't it belong in... More >>

• Five tips for enjoying 98 Pounds' Chinese/sushi buffet

  published July 23, 2008

  The newly opened 98 Pounds buffet in Bloomington has sparked a surprising amount of positive online buzz for what is—in essence—a... More >>

• Where every bloke knows your name

  published July 16, 2008

  If libraries are where esoteric knowledge goes to quietly retire, Merlin's Rest is just the opposite: It's where obscure trivia grabs a black... More >>