Northern Minnesota towns (Biwabik, Virginia, Gilbert)

I made the long journey 4 hours north of Minneapolis to a wedding in Biwabik, MN. Biwabik touts itself as the midwest's bests ski resort. As a non skier, I have nothing to say about that, but I will say that the town doesn't offer much to eat. Fortunately, the fare is much better in the surrounding towns.

Nearby Virginia, MN (a comparatively huge city with its 8K people) has a place called Italian Bakery, which is "famous" for something called potica (pronounced "poteetsa"). The owner tells me that she's got one of very few stateside bakeries that make this Slavic pastry from scratch, and she ships it all over the country for her large and loyal following. From the looks of it, I thought the potica would be sweeter, but it is in fact a pleasant, moist, walnutty bread that could work just as well in the dinner breadbasket as it does on the dessert table. I think it would be ideal for breakfast with good coffee (something impossible to come by in this part of the country).

Potica fom Italian Bakery in Virginia, MN:


The rest of the stuff at Italian Bakery is relatively standard, not-especially-Italian bakery fare, including decent apple turnovers and fresh donuts that looked good.

Italian Bakery sign:



Gilbert, MN has something like 8 people and 16 taverns. My kind of town. They also have a great place that makes tons of homemade sausage. Almost everything at Koshar's meat market is made in house, and if it tastes as terrific as the Polish jerky, this place is worth finding if you happen to be anywhere nearby. The owner and his son couldn't be nicer or more proud of what they produce. The polish jerky was juicy, garlicky and just a little spicy. I brought a pound to a table of post wedding beer drinkers, and the stuff was gobbled up in about 30 seconds, with many "Mmmmm's" uttered in the process.

Koshar's Polish Jerky:


Koshar's menu (other unlisted stuff is available each day):



I could research and post the addresses of these places, but the towns are so tiny that if you're there, you'll see them.

Kennyz-- Thank you!

You have no idea how long I've been searching for the information you just posted. I grew up hearing about the wonderful "petite-sa" that my parents watched Dad's army buddy's Slovenian mother make in a small town in Kansas in 1953. That story took on the status of a culinary holy grail and was trotted out whenever the subject of my parents' courtship came up. Potica became the subject of one of my first attempts to mine the depths of Google, and the attempt was ever more amazing to my parents since we clearly didn't know how to spell it properly. The irony is that my parents lived in Minnesota for years, and always thought that potica was Middle European Kansas fare, not something my uncle Jack could have picked up on his way back from Ely and the Boundary Waters.

In any case, I am going to make an order from potica.com and send it to my mother, for whom it will bring very fond memories. For me, an order of the wild rice brats looks like just the thing.

HI,

Potica can be found in the Chicago area from Polish and Balkan sources. Josephine, I never realized this was on your shortlist.

Regards,

Kennyz wrote:The polish jerky was juicy, garlicky and just a little spicy. I brought a pound to a table of post wedding beer drinkers, and the stuff was gobbled up in about 30 seconds, with many "Mmmmm's" uttered in the process.

Kenny,

Polish Jerky looks and sounds delicious.

Nice writeup and photos, you make a trip to Northern Minnesota sound almost appealing.

Enjoy,
Gary

Kenny,

That is a very interesting report...especially the sausage shop. I now have an answer for people when they say there's no such thing as "Koshar" pork sausage.

stevez wrote:Kenny,

That is a very interesting report...especially the sausage shop. I now have an answer for people when they say there's no such thing as "Koshar" pork sausage.

Steve,

Yes, the irony of the name wasn't completely lost on me either

Incidentally, potica and koshar pork weren't the only new food things about which I learned on this trip. Something called "porketta" is ubiquitous in these parts too. From what I could gather, it's a seasoned pork butt that has sometimes been butterflied and rolled with spices, sometimes not. Northern Minnesota's take on Italian porchetta, I suppose. It's everywhere. I also learned that people in the area are wild about their home grown wild rice. I'm not so wild about the prices, though. I like rice, but at $8 a pound - which seemed the going rate everywhere - it had better be something special. I did splurge for a bag, so we shall see.

KZ

Kennyz wrote:
Steve,

Yes, the irony of the name wasn't completely lost on me either

I wonder if it is lost on the Kosahr family, though. In those parts, it just might be.

Kennyz wrote:I also learned that people in the area are wild about their home grown wild rice. I'm not so wild about the prices, though. I like rice, but at $8 a pound - which seemed the going rate everywhere - it had better be something special. I did splurge for a bag, so we shall see.

KZ

I bought some last summer, too. In fact I gave away a bag of it at the LTH Xmas Party. I'm finding it hard to like the stuff all by itself. I'm trying to find a good recipe where the wild rice is not the main ingredient, or at least had some textural support.

I've been to Markham on the Vermilion Trail, which is not too far, and that's lovely country. I slightly prefer the Lake Superior sweep to the southeast, especially around Castle Danger and even up to Grand Marais.

Here is a great article on Iron Range cuisine I found last summer:

http://www.rangebuzz.com/content/2008/0 ... ron-range/

This also covers sarmas (cabbage rolls, which I've had; they make them similarly here at Szalas) and sandwich loaf, which I avoid on every occasion. The local variety is pressed ham salad, tuna salad, egg salad, and processed cheese, layered in a dish, slathered in cream cheese, chilled, and sliced (and in this area, often without the interstitial bread layers you see in old Betty Crocker cookbooks). It's like the Three Treasures of Hell.

Hibbing really claims to be Porketta Ground Central. Most porketta I've had has been less succulent than I want it to be, with fennel overwhelming the natural porkiness, often served in hunks or slices on white bread.

Now, Cornish pasties (sometimes called "Swedes" because of the rutabaga), there I'm never disappointed. Minnesotans shine on root vegetables and pie crusts. A really great spot for pasties is a gift shop in Two Harbors next to the Vanilla Bean Cafe. Betty's Pies also does a nice version (better than her pies. Best pies are at the Rustic Inn - http://www.rusticinncafe.com).

My favorite smoked meat purveyor in northeast MN is Zups, which I've mentioned here before:

viewtopic.php?p=174249#p174249

There is also what I'm convinced is the best maple syrup on the planet in Lutsen, at a shack called Caribou Cream:

http://www.localharvest.org/farms/M5924

As long as we're talking weird Saxon-Jute takes on Italo-Slovenian (they all came to work the mines), I have to plug the infamous Sven & Ole's Pizza in Grand Marais:

http://svenandoles.com/

This is actually dandy medium-crust pie with local dairy cheese and good elasticity to the dough (compensating for a weak sauce). I actually miss this area (my wife's ancestral home) quite a bit. We'll be back up in the summer and I'll bring back supplies for the picnic or other event.

Great post.

For cross-country skiing, Biwabik (Giants Ridge) is a legitimately great ski resort as are the golf courses (the Legend and the Quarry, which have both gotten accolades from Golf Digest, etc). Biwabik is also along one of the most scenic bike trails (Mesabi Trail) in the northern US.

Pasties, potica and the like are worth the effort. These are the kinds of foods that work best when you get the from a church basement. I did a weeklong bike tour up there last summer and a church basement pasty was probaby one of the highlights.

As mentioned, porkettas are a heavily-seasoned meat. You have to cook them low and slow -- all day long. They end up along the lines of burnt ends -- chewy, sizzly, fatty, crusty. I could make a whole meal out of the pickins from the net after you remove it.

Northern Minnesota? You are brave. Having been raised in Minneapolis I never heard of any of those things mentioned (potica, porketta, etc). My first inclination is that it is a good thing.

**My first inclination is that it is a good thing.**

Your first inclination would be wrong.

Congratulations. Someone signed up for a message board for no other reason than to tell you that.

IronRangeWoman wrote:**My first inclination is that it is a good thing.**

Your first inclination would be wrong.

Congratulations. Someone signed up for a message board for no other reason than to tell you that.

I agree with you, but do hope that this isn't really the only reason you signed up. I'll be returning to the area, and would love to hear about any good regional foods or food places that I missed the first time.

It really was the only reason I signed up, yes. I happened to be Googling Northern MN and the search led here.

I laughed, not in a mean way, when you said that The Italian Bakery is famous for potica, when everybody knows it's grandma who is famous for potica. Provided grandma is Slovenian.

I grew up in MI, but visited here all my life, because it's my grandmother's hometown. All my life I waited for the Christmas shipment of potica, and would eat it layer by layer, unpeeling the spiral. It was made by my grandmother's mother, a woman who spoke with a thick Slovenian accent and who I remembered as huge, until one visit in my teens when it occurred to me that I towered over her.

My grandmother lived with us in MI, helped raised me, so pasties were a regular meal. She didn't make the little hand-sized version, but made and still makes it, like a big pie. The secret is the rutabaga and parsley. I know this since she's said it to me twice this week. It seems to be true.

I was recently back in Michigan for several months. My mother was dying. The nature of the disease took a lot of her appetite, but she was still obsessed with food. One of the nurse's aides said that there was a pasty place near her, and that she would bring my mother some. The aide missed a shift, because the schedule changed, and my mother waited for that pasty all day long. When finally she brought it, it was a disappointment. I think it was the lack of rutabaga...and parsley.

She also got a shipment of potica, because she wanted it so much, and we dutifully offered some with great pride to all the nurse's aides, nurses, and guests.

Last weekend, I brought home half a loaf made by the real estate agent in town. We were looking at possible rental properties, and she was making potica in the upstairs apartment of the office. A lot of people make it for Easter, because it goes good with ham. Or so I'm told -- not a ham fan.

Poor Josephine though, thinking potica was from Kansas when it was a couple hours away.

It's hard to recommend places, because restaurants tend to be more serviceable than special around here. The good food is the homemade stuff. I remember coming up here to visit after my grandmother moved back, and trying to surprise her with a cake. Since so many of my memories were of delicious eats, I figured there had to be a really good bakery somewhere. Well, no, people make their own cakes. Someone, somewhere in town said, "Mary ______ likes to bake, go knock on her door and explain to her." So, I ended up on her front porch, explaining to her that I wanted to surprise my grandmother with a cake, and after a few minutes of discussing family trees -- she lived a block away from my grandmother -- I was told when to come back for it.

People hole up in the winter here, businesses close down. Sometimes, depending on how few tourists were through on the way to the BWCA, they might not reopen. The higher end places make you wish locals could do a secret handshake and get the non-tourist rate. The diner everybody visited -- tourists and locals -- was killed by the economy: http://www.elyecho.com/main.asp?SectionID=2&SubSectionID=2&ArticleID=9532 I still remember going there, it was technically in a different building, after my baptism. (It took my family 8 years to get around to baptizing me.) Their pasties were pretty tasty. It was just a nice, friendly, unpretentious place.

Although, there's nothing particularly regional in terms of cuisine, a lot of people like The Ely Steakhouse That might be about the strong drinks, but nah, the food is pretty good. It's pretty much the most happening place in town, with other eateries and bars suffering.

I'm sorry that TRPT seems to have an issue with the food from my part of the state. I prefer the food in St. Paul to Minne though. Market Street Grill, downstairs of the St. Paul Hotel. Even Liffey's Pub, attached to The Holiday Inn, but I'm possibly swayed by the memory of sitting on the roof at dusk with my husband, sipping Long Island Iced Teas, eating Shepherd's Pie and watching the sun set behind The Cathedral of St. Paul. I experienced almost perfect happiness.

Nice "talking" to you.

Santander wrote:As long as we're talking weird Saxon-Jute takes on Italian (they all came to work the mines), I have to plug the infamous Sven & Ole's Pizza in Grand Marais:

http://svenandoles.com/

Jeez. I mean, jeez! Sven & Ole's. I remember it very well and very fondly. Went up to the Arrowhead more than a couple years back to do some solo backpacking; the country up there is gorgeous. Really beautiful, especially when I was there in the late fall. As I recall (I think this may even be tucked in another thread somewhere), there was a drugstore next to Sven & Ole's that had killer milkshakes. The spectacular kind I remember from the 50s when they knew how to make 'em! Maybe time for another trek to see the country.

IronRangeWoman-

Thanks for dropping in. I really enjoyed reading your post.

Gypsy Boy wrote:

Santander wrote:As long as we're talking weird Saxon-Jute takes on Italian (they all came to work the mines), I have to plug the infamous Sven & Ole's Pizza in Grand Marais:

http://svenandoles.com/

Jeez. I mean, jeez! Sven & Ole's. I remember it very well and very fondly. Went up to the Arrowhead more than a couple years back to do some solo backpacking; the country up there is gorgeous. Really beautiful, especially when I was there in the late fall. As I recall (I think this may even be tucked in another thread somewhere), there was a drugstore next to Sven & Ole's that had killer milkshakes. The spectacular kind I remember from the 50s when they knew how to make 'em! Maybe time for another trek to see the country.

I was going to say "Lang's?", then thought that it might not be open anymore, then Googled it, then found it as "Leng's," in response to a post you made on Chowhound in 2002! Here is a 1999 NYT article on the little town, which also mentioned The World's Best Donuts, which is definitely still there, and just fantastic.

http://www.nytimes.com/1999/05/09/magaz ... -minn.html

At TWBD, the skizzles (like Italian fried dough, only thinner and crispier) are the real draw for me. The donut mistress sadly passed away last year in her late 80s but the shop chugs on (40th anniversary this summer).

Heading out to Ely, MN tonight - excited to stop at Koshar's in Gilbert along the way.
Also, making sure to pick up some sausages at Zup's - I've been there many times, but generally only for "essentials". I can't believe I was missing out all these years.

So glad I found this thread! Its been a great tool - Many thanks to all that have posted

I'm missing you by a quick blue warbler flight, Janna - we're hitting the Zup's in Silver Bay this afternoon. Won't get far enough inland for Hibbing and Ely this trip, but I do plan to pick up porketta seasoning, potica, and other Slovenian/Croatian delights on the coastal location for comparison. Enjoy everything you get!

stopped by Koshar's in gilbert - picked up the recommended Polish Jerky, as well as a stick of pepperoni and some wild rice brats. I'm not a jerky fan usually, but this stuff is great! Perfect snack for sitting in the boat in the wilderness. Also goes well with Bloody Marys (but what doesn't, really?)

The pepperoni - some of the best my husband has ever had, and he's been on a lifelong search for the good stuff. Not too spicy, just enough body to give it a good chew.

Definitely makes it on the list of places to visit again.

As for Zups, we actually visited both the Ely and Tower locations. Slab Bacon, pepperoni, smoked polish sausages, and summer sausage. Pepperoni not nearly as good as Koshar's, put passable. The smoked polish and the bacon are great though - and I havn't gotten in to the summer sausage yet.

I was so happy to be able to pass on the information I learned here! My husband's family has been going to Ely for decades and never experienced the tasty treats found so close. Now everyone is hooked!

Unfortunatley, on the 10 hour drive home, which took 13 hours, we almost hit a bear, went thru flash floods in Duluth, and traveled under a torrential downpour from Ely to the Illinois border. Makes it a little difficult to look forward to the next trip. I'm sure I'll need more pepperoni by then though.

jannamae008 wrote:stopped by Koshar's in gilbert - picked up the recommended Polish Jerky, ...

Awesome! Glad you liked it too.

jannamae008 wrote:
As for Zups, we actually visited both the Ely and Tower locations. Slab Bacon, pepperoni, smoked polish sausages, and summer sausage. Pepperoni not nearly as good as Koshar's, put passable. The smoked polish and the bacon are great though - and I havn't gotten in to the summer sausage yet...

...went thru flash floods in Duluth

Happy you connected with Zups bacon! We caught the floods as well (and a spectacular microburst in Beaver Bay, and no, that's not code). Will post basics from my trip soon.