Mosaic Cafe

Mosaic Cafe is a relative newcomer to the Twin Cities restaurant scene, taking over the former Glaciers Cafe spot in an oddly-shaped lot near Minnehaha Ave and Lake Street in the Longfellow neighborhood of South Minneapolis. They have a pretty standard cafe menu, with coffee drinks, sandwiches, frozen desserts, beer and wine, and, of course, burgers to please any dietary needs in beef, turkey, and vegan varieties.

They advertise their burgers as using the well-regarded 1000 Hills Cattle Company's local, grass-fed beef. Their standard burgers use a 1/3-lb patty, with 1/2 lb available at a nominal extra charge, and a multigrain bun served with a side of kettle chips. I decided to get their 1/3-lb Farmhouse burger ($9.50), served with lettuce, tomato, red onion, and aioli, to which I added a slice of cheddar cheese ($0.50) and a side of their oven-baked rosemary garlic fries in place of the chips ($3.00) for a total of $12.00. As usual, I requested it cooked medium.

It arrived looking like a solid burger construction -- the meat was well and properly seared and the cheese fully melted. The tomato was sliced generously, and a decent amount of green leaf lettuce and red onions finished out the toppings. The aioli was generously slathered on the bottom bun and both buns were lightly toasted. Upon slicing through, the meat was shown to be cooked to a perfect medium, though it was a bit asymmetric as if it had been left to cook too long on one side.

As for flavor -- it was solid. The meat was, as expected, of good quality, and properly seasoned. The aioli flavor was mild but still contributed a nice pungence to the burger. And the bun -- I'll tell you, I'm always a little leery of multigrain buns on cheeseburgers -- with all the seeds and whole grain flours, the texture tends to be a bit distracting from the burger itself. But this bun was probably the best multigrain burger bun I've ever had, with a subtle earthy flavor and no distracting bits. It was, however, a little on the dry side.

All in all, a good performance from a neighborhood newcomer. I'd definitely get another burger from here if I was looking for a good quality burger within walking distance from my house!

Mosaic Cafe 
3019 Minnehaha Avenue

Minneapolis, MN 55406

(612) 746-1504

NB: The oven baked fries are advertised as cooked "in a special oven so they get that crispy goodness we all love without unhealthy frying." But the fries were as greasy or greasier than any deep-fried fries I've ever had. Ah, marketing!

Common Roots

The cheeseburger of the week is from Common Roots Cafe at Lyndale and 26th. Common Roots opened a few years ago and has become very popular for both the quality of and their commitment to using as much environmentally-friendly and/or locally-produced food as possible.

On paper, this is a quality burger; the specs listed on the menu are Thousand Hills grass-fed beef, cheddar cheese, and a sourdough bun. When I ordered, they asked me how I wanted it cooked -- always a good sign that a place has confidence in their meat. I ordered mine medium and sat down at a table to read The New Yorker while I waited.











(Apologies for the low-quality pictures...it was fairly dark and I had to turn the ISO setting on my camera up to avoid having to use the flash.)

When it arrived, the first thing I was struck by was the smell -- it was this glorious, rich, beefy smell that other burgers just don't have -- I'm assuming this is a result of the grass-fed beef. I actually spent a while just appreciating the aroma. It looked to be about 1/3-lb, which to me is the perfect size for a burger. The burger was served with a slice of tomato, some mixed greens, and what I at first thought was mayo but turned out to be a powerful garlic aioli. And, hallelujah, no pickle!

Cutting it in half revealed that it was indeed cooked to medium as requested. A few areas were done a little more than others, but that's ok by me. It was plenty juicy without having the plate pooled with delicious beef nectar. Then I took a bite and was assaulted by a nearly overpowering amount of salt in the meat. Now, don't get me wrong. I love salt. I am a salt fiend. And this burger was overseasoned to my taste -- I actually had to force myself to finish it. It's so sad because everything else about this burger was so promising. The real standout here, besides the intoxicating smell, was the bun. It had a distinct-but-not-overpowering sourdough taste and a pleasant amount of chewiness without being so tough as to make eating the burger difficult (imagine trying to eat a burger on a baguette or the like -- it just isn't a good idea). The garlic aioli was a nice surprise as, besides loving salt, I love garlic too. The tomato was low on flavor, but it is the dead of winter in Minnesota so accommodations can be made.

In the end, I wanted to love this cheeseburger. It had all the elements for success but was brought down by the overseasoned meat. Sad.

Common Roots Cafe
2558 South Lyndale Avenue
Minneapolis, MN 55405
(612) 871-2360

Until the next post...happy cheeseburgers.