The Wake

Students studying mainly on the St. Paul campus are not, in many ways, typical college students. Many of them spend time in barns and with sewing machines, rather than books and computers. But they, like all students, need to eat.

Strangely enough, while leaving my comfort zone in Minneapolis and visiting the foreign land that is St. Paul, I had one of my most unusual dining experiences ever.

My lunch at Muffeletta Café was pleasant, but unremarkable. The Muffeletta sandwich ($7.95), where the restaurant takes its namesake, was phenomenal. A signature of New Orleans, the Muffeletta contains layers of genoa salami, capicolla ham and provolone, topped with a cold marinated olive salad on a focaccia bread. The Grilled Eggplant Sandwich ($7.25) had many tasty ingredients - fontina cheese-stuffed eggplant slices, red peppers and tomatoes – but was so slippery, it was impossible to eat as a sandwich. Maybe it would have worked better as a salad.

Before my second visit, I called and asked for Muffeletta’s Sunday hours. Good thing, too, because the voice on the other line told me the restaurant closed at 8:00 p.m.

It didn’t tell me, however, that on Sunday nights, the only meal option is a three-course one, with a price tag of $20. But I’d made the trek to St. Paul, so I stayed for dinner.

The beginning of our meal started with my companion and I being virtually ignored. The server was busy doing other things. He asked if we were in a hurry, and when we said ‘no,’ we didn’t see him for 10 minutes.

We finally ordered the Mixed Greens salad – a crisp bed of assorted lettuces sprinkled with a very fresh blue cheese and dressed in a tangy, yet complementing vinaigrette. My guest ordered the salmon from the menu, and I asked to try the beef tenderloin.

Now, I don’t know how he did it, but our server must have gathered from my menu hoarding that I could be a food critic, because suddenly he was incessant on giving us topnotch, or, should I say, over-the-top, service.

Our food was fantastic: the beef tenderloin, a small but incredibly succulent piece of beef served with a teriyaki sauce on a bed of flavorful seasoned mashed potatoes. The kitchen was out of the salmon, but my guest was offered the option of a light, lean marlin, which was grilled on skewers and placed atop a creamy risotto.

Our final course included an apple-y, cinnamon-y crostata with ice cream and a “mille feuille,” or 1000 layers, a flaky almond pastry. Both delicious, both satisfying.

The server over-enthusiastically assured us we could stay as long as we liked.

The food was incredible, if all meals were averaged throughout the whole night, and the service was as expected. Yet, my guest and I were more than ready to leave. Maybe it was my constant awareness that, after years spent in the Twin Cities, I go to the St. Paul side maybe twice a year. My experience at Muffeletta Café was a microcosm of my alien view of St. Paul in general.

No, they’re not bad. They’re just…different.