The Bachelor Farmer

I don’t get to travel much these days, but recently I was part of a business contingent that visited Minneapolis and one of our major clients. It is a yearly ritual that I got to be part of as Design Director for the first timer.

The client contacts – two whip-smart women in the HR department – and four guys (my company) were taken out to The Bachelor Farmer, a place they had not yet been to but for whom they had heard very good things. Whoever recommended them knew what they were talking about. I wish I snapped a few photos, but I was so wrapped up in the evening that it seemed almost silly to take a few and boast, “I’m going to blog about this.”

The atmosphere is casual and understated, with a bit of an IKEA flair to it (blonde wood, cottage-y patterns and colors, a little bit of industry in the lighting and table legs). The food is deceivingly simple and follows the current trend of being local, sustainable and reflective of the season and place.

The website says that they honor Minnesota’s Nordic heritage, but to me they were simply preparing comfort food, some of which had a Nordic flair. There was no strange fish dish that smelled of lye here, so don’t even get that in your head.

We were a raucous bunch of six when we shared a few plates of appetizers. A local farm had lost its entire season of crops to a series of unfortunate weather events, so the sugar snap pea appetizer was ordered – proceeds from the dish went straight to the farm’s recovery efforts. It was a salad of julienne sugar snap peas tossed with housemaid cheese, walnuts, cider vinaigrette and herbs from the restaurant’s own rooftop garden. Deliciously fresh, we could have easily sent another plate of this salad around the table instead of just the one. The vinaigrette was light and the overall taste effect was “green” and summery.

The Farmer offers a set of toasts to share as well. Four slices of local bread are toasted for each order, and enough topping to pass around. We ordered the duck liver pâté with orange confit, prune marmalade and pickled rhubarb. The overall effect to my not-so-refined palette conjured up a rich, gourmet hamburger flavor for some reason. There was a lot going on in that pâté and everyone at the table loved it.

The group also turned out to be fairly adventurous and ordered the beef tartare. While some of them hemmed and hawed about it, we all tried it and found it surprisingly light, fresh tasting and full of interesting texture and flavor. The tartare is raw beef, finely ground and served with a small egg atop (quail?), capers, cracked pepper, sea salt and other seasonings which I can’t remember – six in all. Our more experienced client prepared the dish for us by piling all of the seasoning on top of the egg and then pushing it all down into the beef. After mixing it all and passing the plate, even the squeamish tried it and were pleasantly surprised. The effect is hard to describe, as you aren’t supposed to eat raw beef on a regular basis, and maybe that is part of the appeal.

It should be noted that the drinks we had for the first round were great as well. I can’t recount what everyone had, but my bourbon with high-end vermouth and Campari was excellent. I also had a Swedish porter with my entree that paired very well and had a great looking label.

For an entree I ordered the grilled pork sausage with fingerling potato salad, roasted cauliflower and bacon-cider jus. The sausage was juicy and lighter than I expected, which was a good thing, as the au jus was very rich. Though it mentioned bacon, the flavor was not overwhelming or over-salty, which I enjoyed. The cold potato salad was a nice oily complement and the roasted cauliflower was great. They seemed to use baby florets or at least cut them into smaller chunks, so there was a more charred-surface-area to vegetable flesh ratio.

Overall, the meal was excellent, the staff very nice and helpful, and the decor and general atmosphere comfortable. There are some elements of fun as well, like the wine board – when a table orders a half bottle of wine, the rest of the wine goes up on the board as available by the glass. You never know what or when something will pop up, but they seem to go fast as the competition of getting a glass of something that could be truly wonderful eggs people on.

Thumbs up, Bachelor Farmer. I don’t travel to Minneapolis often, but I will come back if given the chance.

As a side note, the area around the hotel we were staying at (town of Edina) was nothing but strip malls and chain eateries. The sameness was intense and a little threatening. The Bachelor Farmer is located in downtown where things are a lot more authentic, so don’t worry. It is a real place that feels real, and that was another great thing about it, as the sameness of the day’s journey – from the indoor-mall quality of airports to the rental car place to finding the hotel amongst Starbucks and Super Targets – started to wear down our spirits.