Restaurant Review: Annie's Parlour

Doesn't he look post-vacation fresh?

Ah, it's good to be back.... To reviewing restaurants in the Twin Cities area that is. Not that there was anything unpleasant about the Grand Marais restaurant reviews, but this blog is our way to keep trace of places we have tried, what we've liked, what we didn't like, and everything else of that sort. And I just feel like we hardly ever go to Grand Marais (or on vacation period), so the chances of us forgetting what we enjoyed decreases significantly.

Anywho, one night after dinner I was hit hard with a craving for ice cream. When I get a craving for something so specific I MUST get it otherwise I will get cranky (I imagine this is what pregnancy cravings are like, or so says my cousin Heather). Lucky for me, Mark is ALWAYS down when I want a treat so the crankiness never develops.

Gosh he's a trooper, isn't he? Me making him go get ice cream with me... I can't imagine how much he must have suffered ;)

After some researching on the interwebz, we discovered this place called Annie's Parlour in Dinkytown that was known to make some tasty malts. Even though there were places for ice cream closer, we figured what the heck? We hadn't been to Dinkytown since college so we gave it a go.

We parked a few blocks away, which turned out to be awesome because we found where Al's Breakfast was located. It's one of the restaurants on our bucket list, so it was nice to see its existence in person as opposed to just reading about it.

Once we got to Annie's Parlour we were seated on the patio and ordered our chocolate and wild cherry malt with a side of fries, hoping the treat would be reminiscent of a place we used to frequent in college named Don's.

Delicious chocolate & wild berry malt with a
half portion of not-so-great fries

Since we had brought our cribbage board along we started a game while we awaited the arrival of our food, all the while eavesdropping on some of the conversations from other tables. This made us feel old. I mean the table behind us were a bunch of incoming freshmen planning someones 18th birthday party!

If you ever want to feel old while still being in your early 20's, go to a typical college hangout around dinner time.

When our malt finally came I was ecstatic. The malt was a Don's sized one (meaning it was the perfect amount for Mark and I to share) and we got to drink them out of cute ice cream dishes. We were very happy to see that the malt actually had real cherry chunks in. Even if it was mostly made with cherry flavoring, its the presentation that counts ;). It was a nice, thick, and creamy drink, although Mark didn't think it tasted "malty" enough. Not sure what that means but it doesn't really matter because that malt definitely hit the ice cream craving spot!

The fries, however, are a different story. Maybe it was because we had already had dinner but they were a HUGE disappointment. We ordered the half size but that was still an enormous portion. They were greasy and "flat".... not soggy, but not crisp either. Mark said they were what he imagined off-brand Arby's curly fries would taste like. Not a good thing. It takes A LOT for me to not like fries but these were just not favorable. I will definitely pass on them in the future.

Bottom line: good malts, bad fries. If you want both go to Snuffy's.

6.28.12