A Birthday Dinner at Nick and Eddie

Nick and Eddie has been on my list for a long time. So I was very excited when we decided to celebrate a friend's birthday there recently. It's another member of a stellar line-up in Loring Park, and I've only ever read good things.

The atmosphere is cool. Dark and chic with lots of black - a skull painting on the wall, black circles in a vertical line, etc. - and the main entrance heads straight toward the bar, serving as the main centerpiece. When we were there, the bartender was eclectic, much like the clientele. He seemed to carry on great conversation with everyone.

Our server was friendly and helpful. She was attentive and teased us like an old friend. We all ordered glasses of house wine and started with two appetizers to share:

First, the pizza. It's made with olive tapenade, tomato, smoked mozzarella and parmigian. It's fantastic! It's the first time I've ever had tapenade on a pizza, and I was delighted by the interesting twist. It also scores major points for presentation. I loved the sprouts, too.

Second were the ham and cheese croquettes with bacon emulsion and garlic confit. AWESOME. Melt-in-your-mouth goodness.

For my entree, I went with the fish and chips with a gribiche sauce (mayonnaise-based, cold egg sauce). This was also delicious. The French-inspired sauce was a new take on the old standard tarter sauce, which I really enjoyed. The fries were tasty and the fish flaky.

Since it was a birthday dinner, we also splurged on dessert :) We tried/shared two:

The butterscotch pudding (yes, it's as good as they say), and

Some kind of flourless, nutty chocolate cake of sorts. It's probably no secret which was my favorite. I actually hate flourless desserts and am not much for nuts either.

But I swooned over that butterscotch pudding. Rich and creamy and amazingly cool - every bite was better than the last.

It's pretty easy for me to say that I loved N&E. I was impressed by everything we ate and appreciated the interesting take on a few of the more traditional items. To top it all off, it's ridiculously well-priced. For a glass of wine, shared appetizers, dinner and shared dessert, plus part of my friend's birthday dinner, I still spent less than $50. That's hard to beat any way you look at it.

Bonus: apparently Nick and Eddie frequently has dance parties.