Zelo

Occasion: Dinner with my sister
Location: Zelo on Nicollet Mall in Minneapolis (zelomn.com) - blog goes on the road!
Edibles: fried calamari app to share; my sister had a salad with shrimp, goat cheese and pine nuts; I had linguine with local ham and baby peas in a cream sauce

Musings: With family members flying in from LAX, EWR and YVR, logistical difficulties were bound to arise. My flight and my sister's landed mostly on schedule, but the folks and my brother got seriously delayed out of Vancouver. So much for a family dinner on Friday. Still, after a lunch / snack consisting of airplane pretzels and a little container of bland pasta salad smuggled on board from my office cafeteria, I was determined to have a nice dinner. And a big glass of wine. (Traveling on a long weekend BLOWS.)

The lady at our hotel's front desk recommended this place. Certainly not my first choice for local info, but Zelo turned out to be pretty decent.

[Incidentally, I have yet to find a good shorthand way to describe exactly what it is I'm looking for. Namely, a place that's nice but not too fancy or expensive, where the menu is small and seasonal and the chef is creative, but not weird, and cares deeply about what comes out of his kitchen. What I'd like to say - but can't because it would make me sound like a tool - is, "I live in New York City. I know from good food."]

The Italian was solid. The serving of calamari was huge and came with a nice garlicky aioli for dipping. The half portion of my pasta was plenty, as is almost always the case with cream-based sauces. My sister's salad was a little puny, but the shrimp were good.

Here's the unexpected part. We looked over the menu to see what we could get for takeout for my parents. "Anything Asian?" asked my sister. "I doubt it - this is an Italian restaurant," I replied. But lo and behold, there was a Thai shrimp noodle dish and an Asian sesame salad with chicken. My mom quite liked both. Not a bad start to our trip.