Here is my second report this year on a meal at 112 Eatery. No, I have not promoted them from the “Once a Year” tier in my Twin Cities fine dining rotation; After our meal there in the summer we’d expected to next eat there again a year later. But as it happened, a combo of a friend’s birthday dinner and a mini-grad school reunion brought us back there in mid-September. Two of the friends we were eating with were in the Twin Cities for the first time and while I don’t think it had been picked for that reason, 112 Eatery is really a very good way to introduce people to the Twin Cities dining scene. It was a nice meal again, on the whole, though it is probably fair to say that we were reminiscing and laughing a little too much to be able to pay close attention to the food. Once again, 112 Eatery is the perfect restaurant for that kind of a meal: the food is good if you pay attention to it; but it’s not striving to be a temple of haute cuisine and you don’t feel out of place if your table gets a little too loud. Here’s a quick look at the meal.

I should apologize at the outset for the poor quality of the pictures in the slideshow below. Not that I’m the greatest food photographer in the world under optimal conditions, but I did not have my camera on me and I’m yet to master low light photography with the iphone.

We were a party of six. We started with a bunch of cocktails. From their list two people got the Sicilian Summer, two got their Old Fashioned and one got the Bees Knees. The sixth asked if the bartender could mix them up an Aviation and received one. Most people were pleased with their cocktails. I have to confess I was the only one who not. I’d got the Bees Knees. The list of ingredients on the menu include espresso and cocoa but these are the last two items listed after 5 yo rum, nonino and curacao. What showed up, however, essentially tasted not like a rum cocktail but like spiked coffee. What the point of putting good rum in a drink like this is, I don’t know. This was the second cocktail in a row that I was disappointed with at 112 Eatery (see also the Smokey Passion at our meal in the summer). And so when it came time to re-up, I got their Brown Butter Bourbon, which never disappoints. Another friend got the Martinesque; the others rested.

For the food, we ordered a bunch of smaller plates to share and then an entree each. For the sharing plates we wanted our out-of-town friends to get a sense of the 112 Eatery classics and so got a couple of orders of the Lamb Scotaditto, the Blue Prawns w. Rooster Mayo and the Stringozzi w. Lamb Ragu. We also shared a bunch of the side dishes: the Roasted Sicilian Broccoli, the Asparagus w. Whipped Ricotta and Chimichurri and their French Fries. All of these were received with enthusiasm. For the larger dishes we had on the table the following: one 112 Cheeseburger, one Piparra Chicken Enchilada, one Bacon, Egg & Harissa Sandwich, one Pan-Fried Halibut with Prosciutto Crust & Salmoriglio Butter and two orders of the Candele w. Walnut-Chilli Oil Pesto (one of these was got in gluten-free mode, with the pasta made, I believe, with chickpea flour). The highlights of this round were the sandwich and the halibut. The cheeseburger could have been very good too but the patty had been cooked well past the asked-for medium rare. The rest were fine but nothing that got those who got them very excited.

We were all pretty full at this point (indeed a couple got some leftovers packed) and so we shared some desserts: the Butterscotch Budino was excellent as always. The Tres Leches Cake (two orders) and the House Made Ice Cream were fine.

For a look at some terrible pictures of the meal, launch the slideshow below. Scroll down for thoughts on service and to see how much it all cost.

Service was very good. Our lead server handled our not very organized and slightly badly behaved group with aplomb and was generally on top of things. She’d also offered to replace my first cocktail with something else when I expressed my surprise at its coffee-forward nature—I declined as I’d already had a lot of it by that point. She later offered to take it off the check but having consumed it I declined that offer as well. Cost? The total with tax was just about $512. As it was a multiple credit card situation I can’t guarantee the exact final total but I expect it came to around $615 with tip. So just about $102/head. For a meal including eight cocktails and a lot of food that seems like a pretty good deal.

Next up on the food front will be that long-promised last report from California in June. I don’t have any other Twin Cities meals banked and so after that to the end of the year it’ll be a steady diet of reports on the meals I have been eating in Delhi. And, oh yes, the usual Monday booze review will be posted tomorrow instead.