French toast was second choice, but still first-rate
TOM WILKOWSKE, NEWS TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

The closer her food is to the earth in which it grew, the better it suits Marian Syrjamaki-Kuchta.

The avid gardener lives in the neighborhood near Chester Creek Cafe/At Sara's Table. When she goes out to eat, which isn't often, it's usually there, with her friend, Sharon McMurrow, for a piece of blueberry pie and coffee.

Here's what Syrjamaki-Kuchta wrote: "The crust is sweet, tender, delicious, topped with coarse sugar crystals. The crust melts in your mouth. The blueberries are plump and the pie is full of berries. The pie is moist but not running all over the plate, never gummy or too thin."

Alas, the restaurant was out of blueberry pie when we arrived at noon Sunday. The restaurant was nearly full and was starting a waiting list.

Even though the pie is what she has most often, Syrjamaki-Kuchta was game to try something else: the breakfast special of cranberry-wild rice French toast.

We placed our orders and talked food, which for Syrjamaki-Kuchta mostly means cooking at home with produce she's raised herself. A recent favorite is potato-leek soup (she actually took a break from planting potatoes to have lunch with me).

Syrjamaki-Kuchta appreciates the restaurant's emphasis on using organic and sustainably grown food from the region. She also likes that the restaurant was built with recycled wood and other materials. "This is a pretty Earth-friendly place," she said.

Our orders arrived and Syrjamaki-Kuchta took a few bites, musing on the likely sources of the cranberries and wild rice. "It always tastes best when it was grown close to home," she said.

TOM'S TAKE

Our French toast was prepared and presented simply: inch-thick slices of hearty bread, dipped in custard, grilled and sprinkled with powdered sugar, with a fruit garnish on the side. I took a couple of bites without syrup to better taste the bread itself. It had a complex, yeasty flavor and a medium-coarse texture; the cranberries and wild rice were sparse but flavorful.

The organic maple syrup was a treat for me because I'm used to the supermarket-brand, high-fructose corn syrup-based fake stuff.

My only regret about our trip was that I'd hoped to return to Chester Creek Cafe to review a dinner entree instead of another dessert (I reviewed the pecan pie there previously). I've eaten there fairly regularly and always had superb dinners, although not the same thing twice.

ABOUT THE DISH, RESTAURANT

Carla Blumberg, who co-owns Chester Creek Cafe/At Sara's Table with Barbara Neubert, said the bread for the cranberry-wild rice French toast is made on site by one of two bakers.

"The slices are cut thick, soaked in eggs, cream and spices and cooked on the grill," she said.

Blumberg said the dinner menu changes frequently but the breakfast and lunch menus are mostly fixed, with the exception of some weekend specials.

"We try to do locally or regionally produced food, free-range meats, sustainably harvested stuff, and everything's handmade," she said.

Blumberg and Neubert bought the former Taran's Market building, a longtime neighborhood grocery store, with the intent of refurbishing the building for their restaurant. Part way into the process, they realized it made more sense to tear it down and start over. But the facade of their new building, dubbed Taran's Marketplace, retains some of the look of the original site. Much of the interior wood as well as the pressed tin ceilings were recycled from the former building.

Besides being a restaurant, the building serves as a meeting space for the neighborhood and wider UMD community. It has been host to various fundraisers and a foreign film series. And Blumberg ticked off a list of groups that meet there: "Writers' groups, the architects' group, the poets' group, the Green Party, the Young Socialists, you name it."

TOM WILKOWSKE is food reviewer and copy editor for the Wave. Reach him at 723-5396 or by e-mail at twilkows@duluthnews.com

NEXT WEEK: RICK BIRNSTIHL HAS A PRIME RIB SANDWICH AT CARMEN'S DRY DOCK

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