Town Talk Diner
2701 1/2 E. Lake Street
Minneapolis, MN 55406
612.722.1312
Recently, at the Town Talk, I had a meal that tasted like a plate full of summer. We've reviewed the Town Talk before, and I've corrected the record just so I could rave about their steak and eggs, so I was shocked when Perley admitted that he'd never even been to the Town Talk. It is a bit of a haul from Uptown though all of Lake Street's poorly-timed stop lights, but still, I'm always amazed when any member of our club has not been to what I consider one of the stand-bys of the Minneapolis breakfast scene. And so, when Perley called a meeting of the Club, and a small contingent of us answered the call (Beau was Studying for Boards, Jimmy wasn't answering his phone, Judy was on call), I insisted we rectify the situation.
The problem was that even though Perley called the meeting early enough, I had already eaten breakfast. I love the steak and eggs and all, but I balked at having steak and eggs for second breakfast. You don't go out to breakfast as often as I do without eventually learning that overeating first thing in the morning can ruin your day. And so I faced a dilemma, what could I order without weighing myself down and destroying any chance of having a productive afternoon?
I settled on a salad. I know. This is exactly what I'm always mocking Judy about. How can you adequately review a breakfast when all you eat is twigs, berries and leaves?
At least it was a smoked salmon salad. And smoked salmon is a breakfast food. It's even a breakfast food that I have often sworn never, ever to eat again. (Come on. If I followed through on not-doing all of the many, many things I swore never, ever to do again, where would I be? Alone, hungry, and bored, that's where.)
So, anyway, the smoked salmon salad at the Town Talk comes with sliced fennel bulb (which is the part of the fennel plant that only carries a whisper of the liquorice flavor that permeates its seeds), fresh strawberries, and feta cheese. One bite and I knew I was glad to have failed to swear off smoked salmon forever.
I can't speak to Perley's biscuits and gravy or Sarah's hamburger, because we've all gotten rusty on the idea of grading our breakfasts before we leave the restaurant, but I can say that I'm glad I had a second breakfast that morning, and I'm glad I was sensible enough to stay in the salad section of the menu, because that's where summer was hanging out that that morning. I give it a B+, because the strawberries could have been more perfect, but the combination of flavors could not have been better.