My wife and I took a trip to Minneapolis. It happened to be the middle of December, which is actually an odd time to visit Minnesota. We were lucky though. Our three-day trip was sandwiched between sub-zero temperatures and a winter storm that brought a foot of snow to the area.

The trip was mostly for business. My wife’s business partner was in town, and while we were there, I did some research on an Italian American sandwich invented in St. Paul.

The first night in town we ate with my wife’s business partner at a cocktail speakeasy. The second night he left us to explore Minneapolis on our own. We were staying in the North Loop, a neighborhood that Gawker, the one-time arbiter of such things, declared the Bushwick of Minnepolis.

We headed out from our hotel and literally crossed the tracks into the rapidly gentrifying warehouse district. A few restaurants had popped up on our map search, but we weren’t entirely sure which one we would end up at.

Much like actual Bushwick (or more accurately, East Williamsburg, which lots of people call Bushwick), the North Loop was a mix of new luxury apartments and warehouses. We ended up at the Butcher and the Boar, an enormous restaurant and bar with rich wood paneling and oversized leather club chairs.

The Butcher and the Boar was originally founded in 2012 by chef Jack Riebel, who passed away in 2021 from cancer. He had built a number of successful restaurants in Minnesota, including the notable The Lexington in St. Paul.

Following his death, Jester Concepts, a local hospitality group, added the Butcher and the Boar to their portfolio, reopening the restaurant in 2023 in the former offices of Mpls.St.Paul Magazine.

The restaurant was mostly empty. It didn’t feel all that late to us, but by the time we finished dinner, we were some of the last patrons left in the restaurant. I assume this is in part because it was December, and it was cold and dark. The cavernous room could clearly host a crowd, plus there were plenty of private little nooks throughout the space for parties and small groups.

We started off with cocktails. The vibes called for brown liquor and so I ordered the old fashioned.

When it came to food, meat was definitely on the menu at a place called the Butcher and the Boar. I could not convince my wife to sample the sausages, but we had a lot of other meat nevertheless.

We started with the slab bacon. These were thick pieces of meat. They came out tender and smokey, with the sweetness from the apricot chutney complimenting the salty bacon. It was a wonderful dish, warming us on a cold, dark night.

Along with the bacon, we also started with the hot link croquettes. It’s hard not to love a croquette with their crispy outside. The tang of the mustard was also a good dipping sauce.

It was about this time in the evening when I realized nobody in the apartment building across the parking lot had bothered to install curtains. There was nothing sordid happening in the windows, but there were a lot of televisions playing. It was a strange distraction, but perhaps explained why the restaurant was so empty.

My wife ordered the steak salad. Strips of red meat on greens. Like I said, lots of meat.

I ordered the beef tartare for dinner. Technically this was an appetizer, but I very much wanted a pile of raw meat. It was light and lovely, although I could have had another piece of crostini or two.

Concerned that the beef appetizer wouldn’t be enough for a full meal, I also ordered the Smoked Beef Mac and Cheese. Yes, lots of meat. I should have known better than the midwestern portion sizes were larger than expected and I didn’t really need the macaroni and cheese.

This was tasty but the addition of the beef was a bit overwhelming and perhaps even unnecessary. The salty carbs were a nice balance to the freshness of the tartare, but ultimately it was too much meat.

Generally, this felt like a great pick. It was a cozy place to be, and felt like an appropriately heavy menu for cold, Minnesota winters. I did feel a bit like a 19th-century robber baron, but perhaps that was the goal.

As we left, the attendant was surprised to see us walking off down the sidewalk rather than to a parked car.

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