Goin' to Minneapolis on Wednesday

[smasty]

I have to drive up to Mpls on Wednesday and spend the night. It sounds like we've got several Minnesotans on the board (emphasize the "o" for the Minnesota accent!). There's a raw restaurant up there right? Ecopolitan?? Something like that?? Is it good? Where is it? I don't know my way around town at all, this will be my first time there in a long long time. I think I'll be staying downtown. Any Whole Foods or Wild Oats in town to stock up on things? I'm out of raw tahini!

[cnjd36]

I recieve emails from ecopolitan and people posting in their guestbook say that it is great! My husband and I are heading that way on Saturday to check it out, I have as of yet not went raw looking to start on Wed. so I can have a fridge full of food. Let me know how it is, it's sounds like it supposed to be nice (around 50 degrees). Have a good time. :p

[vegbaby]

I have to drive up to Mpls on Wednesday and spend the night. It sounds like we've got several Minnesotans on the board (emphasize the "o" for the Minnesota accent!). There's a raw restaurant up there right? Ecopolitan?? Something like that?? Is it good? Where is it? I don't know my way around town at all, this will be my first time there in a long long time. I think I'll be staying downtown. Any Whole Foods or Wild Oats in town to stock up on things? I'm out of raw tahini!
They have a website here: http://www.ecopolitan.com/ and it'll tell you how to get there. I was there this summer and I had -

Young Coconut Shake: the juice & flesh blended. $4.00

Green Burrito: curried garbanzo pâté, seasonal vegetables, marinated mushrooms, sprouts & sunflower seeds, wrapped in a collard leaf, with salsa guacamole. $10.00

The coconut shake was GREAT, but you can't mess up a coconut pretty much. :) The Green Burrito I found a little bland, but the guac was fantastic!

[Analeah]

Wow cool I would love to check this raw restaurant out! Does anyone know if it is anywhere near the airport? I am actually in Minneapolis right now at the airport and I have another 11 hours or so here before my next flight.

[rawjojo]

Analeah,

Are you on your way home??? Welcome back to the states! Have a safe trip!
I hope taht all is well with you, I haven't chatted with you in a while!
rawjojo

[Analeah]

Awe thanks! I flew out from Paris last week but had a hard time getting out (the shuttle on the way to the airport got lost making me 2 minutes late for check-in) so they decided to refuse to let me on the plane that would be there for another hour. It was the only flight out that day so I had to stay there the rest of the day at the airport and then I met this really nice airport information lady who offered a place for me to stay at her place when she got off work. I am so lucky I was able to stay with her because otherwise I am sure sleeping overnight in the airport with all of my luggage would have been a bad thing (I have my laptop with me). Plus I hate the airport in Paris lol it is so dirty and run down....I even got stuck in the elevator that same day. I only had like one day in nyc because I came a day later than I had planned on but it was still a lot of fun and I got to go to this really nice raw restaurant so I was stoked. Then I flew to LA to meet with Storm and Jinjee and then to SFO to spend a few days with family where I used to live. So now I am in Minneapolis just waiting for my connecting flight to London (never been there before but I have heard it is nice). I should be back in Switzerland on Thursday or Friday and though I love travelling I will be so happy to be back in one place lol.

[rawjojo]

Oh I get it, you were just home for a week on vacation. So glad you go to do some fun stuff! Have a safe trip and take a long nap on your flight!
rawjojo

[qetta]

Greengirl and I are meeting at Ecopolitan tonight! Analeah - What time is your flight out of here?

Smasty - "(emphasize the "o" for the Minnesota accent!)" Ha ha! :D So cool you're coming to Minneapolis! What are your plans - we should have a meetup! We don't have Wild Oats here, but we have a Whole Foods in the uptown neighborhood. Here's their website if you want directions: http://www.wholefoods.com/stores/minneapolis/. There's also the Wedge Co-op in uptown, which is just a few blocks up from Ecopolitan, actually. Their website is: http://www.wedge.coop/. It's a great co-op. I used to live just around the corner from it and miss it so much! I haven't been there in awhile, though, so I'm not sure about their raw products. I'm betting they'd have everything you'd need though.

[Wrecked Spark]

huh. I'm envious I think. ;)

Any Canadians on here?! LOL!!!


:D

[smasty]

Hey Quetta! I would have loved to meet up with you guys! Can you believe we could have almost got all 4 of us to meet up there? Just a little tweak in schedules and we could have taken over the place!

Annaleah: here's the address: 2409 Lyndale Ave S. They are open from 9:00 am to 10:00 pm every day...head on over! Beats sitting in an airport!

Here's the mapquest: http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?country=US&countryid=US&addtohistory=&searchtab=address&searchtype=address&address=2409+Lyndale+Ave+S&city=Minneapolis&state=mn&zipcode=&search=++Search++

It looks pretty close to downtown.

I'm in on business (speaking at a big Remax conference up north) and staying at the Embassy Suites downtown. Let me know what you guys order...their pizzas sound wonderful!

[qetta]

Hey smasty - If you have time when you're up and still want to meet, send me a private message. I'm actually off work the rest of the week and could probably use a break from the manual labor my husband is planning (tearing apart our bedroom walls)!

-Lisa

[Alissa]

I heard they are making my eggplant parm! Let me know if you guys go there!

[qetta]

I heard they are making my eggplant parm! Let me know if you guys go there!

It's not on their online menu yet, but I'll be sure to ask the server tonight if it's available!

--Lisa

[Analeah]

Mmmm, that sounds so good! I wish I could go. My flight leaves at 7PM if I make it on which means I have to be here by 6:30 at the latest. So I could go at like 5 or something but that is kinda early. Do you know how many minutes or how far of a drive the restaurant is from the airport? I don't know Minneapolis too well but I know usually airports are pretty far from everything else.

[qetta]

Hey Analeah! I think it's about 10 miles from the airport to the restaurant. I'm not sure how expensive that would be with a cab?

I so wish I didn't have interviews already scheduled for all day today. If I didn't, I could sneak out for an extended lunch break this afternoon and pick you up. I am done with work at 4:00 though and could pick you up then. I had plans to meet greengirl at 5:30 - maybe we could bump that time up a little bit? Let me know what you think and I'll email greengirl to see what her scheudle is like.

-Lisa

[Analeah]

Wow, that would be so awesome! I am just sitting here at the airport lol but I would love to go to the restaurant tonight. I would just need to be back here a little after six. That is great the restaurant is so close to the airport. If you could pick me up that would be really cool but if not I can try and see if I can find a phone book to see how much a cab would be. Yay I am so excited :D So let me know if you think it would work out, you can pm me or email me if you want so we can make arrangements!

[qetta]

Oh fun! I'll email you in a sec. I'm going to see if I can get in touch with greengirl first. -Lisa

[VeganWannaBe]

Oh to be in Minneapolis right now ... have fun!

[rawjojo]

Hey you gals that are meeting for dinner............let us know if you end up makingit or not. I think it is fabulous that you are all going to get to meet each other. Have a great and yummy time!
jojo
p.s. keep us posted!

[qetta]

Yep - I'm picking Analeah up in a few hours and I'm hoping that greengirl will still be able to make it as well. I'm very excited!

[Analeah]

Yay I am super excited to get to go to this restaurant with you! Thanks so much smasty for creating this thread because I had no idea anyone else from the boards were form Minnesota or Minneapolis etc and we probably wouldn't have met up! We will definately make a post on the board and say how all the food is!

[rawjojo]

Yeah, I am so excited that you get to meet up with teh girls! Have lots of fun! Enjoy!

[qetta]

Analeah and I had a great time yesterday at our early dinner (late lunch?) at Ecopolitan. Analeah is such a sweetie and it felt like we had been friends for ages, instead of just having met 15 minutes earlier! She's a very interesting person and I think we had some great conversation. (Thanks again for the pink sea salt, Analeah!!)

Ecopolitan is great. Great, great, great. It's in a remodeled house in Minneapolis' funky uptown neighborhood. There's not a lot of seating; it's quite cozy. And the food. I found the food to be wonderful and vibrant. I had the raw lasagna (layers of zucchini ribbons, cashew-tahini cream, herbed tomato sauce, spinach & mushrooms, with salad & Essene bread) and it was SO good. I can't believe I ate it all because I wasn't even hungry (but of course I did!). I wasn't a big fan of the Essene bread, which was acutally more of a cracker. But the lasagna was just the best.

Greengirl couldn't make it as early as Analeah and I met, but we're going to meet at Ecopolitan next Tuesday. I can't wait to my 'neighbor' Greengirl and I can't wait to go back to Ecopolitan!

-Lisa

[qetta]

Smasty - Sorry to have completely taken over your post! Also sorry that it's going to be flipping cold while you're up here in Minnesota. :( I hope you get to Ecopolitan - it was so good. If you have spare time and want to meet up, send me a PM or email! Hope you have a nice trip (bring warm socks!!).

-Lisa

[qetta]

Alissa - I forgot to tell you. Ecopolitan did not have eggplant parm. on their menu. I asked the server, and she said they're still working with the recipe. She said they sometimes offer it as a special, and will probably be adding it to their regular menu when the change their menu up.

-Lisa

[greengirl]

I'm bummed I wasn't able to meet with you two... it sounds like the food was heavenly and the conversation divine! I'm looking forward to next Tuesday, however!! :)

[Wrecked Spark]

Greengirl!

Haven't seen you post in a little while! How are you doing?

:)

Wrecked Spark

[greengirl]

Thank you, Wrecked Spark
Ohhhhhh.... my job is a little crazy this week! I haven't had time to go online much. I swear, checking out this website is the highlight of going to work!

[Wrecked Spark]

you know it! ;)

[smasty]

ECOPOLITAN is AMAZING!!!

Hi Guys!!!

I just got back from Minneapolis...I hijacked a girl from the office to go to Ecopolitan with me. Oh my gosh! It was incredible!!! I ordered so much food because I wanted to try everything. Here's what I had (or tried)

--The Lasagne....5 stars!! Amazing!!! The marinara tasted like Alissa's.
--Guac with taco chips....5 stars!! The chips were incredible.
--Pad Thai with ginger sauce....4 stars, a little bland, but good.
--Spicy vegetable stew....5 stars! Very thick and hearty with chunks of veggies and squash, had the brown color of beef stew
--Glass of organic sulfite free cabernet...5 stars
--Apricot/Pecan pie with cinnamon ice cream....5 stars!

I asked the waitress if they guard their recipes, she said "not at all!" I asked about the veggie stew...she said she starts with a veggie juice base..all different kind of veggies, then thickens it with avocado and spinach, then adds chunked vegetables and loads of spices...cumin, red pepper, ginger, some olive oil too...I don't remember what else, but it was awesome. They served it cold, it would have been even better gently warmed or room temp. I brought some of their pizza crusts home, haven't tried them yet, but they look great.

Anyway, Analeah and Lisa...I'm so glad you two could hook up!

[Analeah]

Just got back home to Switzerland last night (yay) and had a nice 12 hour sleep after about 4-5 days with less than seven hours of sleep total. It was so incredibly wonderful to meet up with Lisa in Minneapolis and go to the Ecopolitan raw food restaurant which was super good. I took the fetucchini alfredo which was so yummy. The way it was presented it actually looked just like its cooked counterpart and tasted like it too. I was amazed how noodle like the zucchini was. I tried some of Lisa's lasagna which was also good along with some ginger lemonade which was incredible. For dessert they had a special pina colada cake and it was amazing, made with fresh pineapple, a yummy crust and some kind of young coconut frosting that was unlike anything I have tasted. I brought it to go with me and ate it on the airplane and when they served food I tried some of the dessert that was served on the plane and (after one bite) then some of the raw food cake and it was just so much better it's hard to describe lol. Thanks again for everything Lisa! I just can't believe she came all the way to pick me up from the airport, drove us to the restaurant and then insisted on treating me for the whole meal! I'm so glad we got to meet, I don't think I have ever met someone so genuinely nice before and I think we had an instant connection. If anyone else out there has a chance to make it to this restaurant I would highly recommend it. The portions are bigger than both Roxeannes and Pure Food & Wine and also less expensive so definately check it out if you are in the area (hopefully they will become a chain)!

[Analeah]

Cool you went to the restaurant smasty! It's too bad Greengirl and you and Lisa and I couldn't all meet up at once but I am glad you went. I wish I could have tried more things on their menu as they all looked so delicious but I guess that just leaves more anticipation for next time (I fly in and out of Minneapolis quite often). Greengirl I hope you and Lisa get to go next week and if you do, definately post and tell us how you liked it!

[VeganWannaBe]

Oh ... I am so hungry now, ha!
I thought that I had read a web link somewhere on this thread to Ecopolitan? I could be mistaken, but if anyone has it will you please forward it on to me again ... I would love to place an order & have it sent via snail mail if that is even possible? The pina colada cake sounds divine! Thanks for sharing ~

[Analeah]

The website is www.ecopolitan.com I am not sure if they would ship food or not but you could always ask. I remember coming accross this one raw food website that was selling like whole raw cakes and pies that looked really good. I'll post the link if I can find it again.

[VeganWannaBe]

Hello Analeah!
Thank you so much for replying back so soon :)
I'll letcha know what they say about shipping ...
Raw Blessings ~

[qetta]

smasty - So glad you were able to make it to Ecopolitan while you were in Minnesoooooota. :p

Analeah - Glad you (finally!) made it home okay sweetie! Keep in touch! Ooh - and keep posting pics of your own recipes on this board if you have time. They all look so delicious.

-Lisa