The Good Life Cafe - Park Rapids, Minnesota

Calhoun and I have been up to Itasca State Park almost every summer since we first started dating way back in college. It's the state park that he grew up going to as a kid and when we drive through now he doesn't need a map to find the boat launch or the headwaters.

As we were on our last leg of our trip to Itasca this past weekend we stopped in Park Rapids to pick up a few birthday sweets and grab a snack to tide us over at The Good Life Cafe. We ate at The Good Life Cafe for the first time last summer when we were all up at Itasca for the Headwaters 100.

It is a gem.

First of all, don't let the "cafe" fool you, this place is a full on restaurant, complete with a patio out back, beer on tap and an incredible menu to take you through every meal of your day.

Second, while they have an established menu they have a full selection of daily specials. I love that they have thought about what they're going to offer you and why it might be good, and they use local foods to inspire their selections.

Finally, their food is spectacular. So - I'm just going to say it. Here in the midwest, we live in a meat and potatoes kind of world. It is not hard to find a place to serve you chicken and wild rice hotdish or steak and potatoes - I've eaten both in the Itasca/Park Rapids area. But if you're looking for something a little finer, a little more adventurous, stop by The Good Life Cafe.

Calhoun and I ordered Bruschetta with Berries because we wanted something small and something we couldn't get here in Windom.

The dish was the perfect. I love desserts but I love savory more and although this was presented as an appetizer I thought the savory goat cheese made the sweet components perfect. 

The next time you're in Park Rapids stop by The Good Life Cafe and enjoy!

Nomads for a Day

The other day there were people working on the house putting new shingles on. Our landlords kept us in the loop and we knew they were coming and we thought that it would still be possible to work here in the house while they were working on the roof...we were wrong.

I spent the morning studying for the bar then grabbed lunch with a friend. When I got in touch with Calhoun he let me know he had escaped the cluster of our house and wanted to spend the afternoon studying at a coffee shop! Although we've been together for a long time, we've never studied together at a coffee shop (why buy coffee when you can make it at home for free??), so I was excited!

coffee cups at Turtle Bread

A new Turtle Bread just opened in our neighborhood so we went to check it out. It was awesome! First, they came into a building that has been sitting un-used for years, so we were happy to see a good business go into the space. Second, they did some remodeling but also kept a lot of the charm of the building, so the place is filled with great, sharp word work and open windows and white subway tiles in the bakery area (I'm mildly obsessed with subway tiles right now). Third, the soup and pie were awesome and the coffee refills were free. Finally, we brought Sogn and sat outside and he was so well behaved (he was exhausted after a ten mile run/bike with Calhoun). It was a great way to spend the late afternoon.

Sogn at Turtle Bread

strawberry rubarb pie at Turtle Bread

We left Turtle Bread just before they closed at 6, drove past the house to see that the crew was still here so we grabbed our wooden nickels from Tracy's and headed over for their tacos.

One of my favorite things about Tracy's is the diverse patronage of the place, different people at different times of the day. We first started going to Tracy's on taco nights, but usually post 8 pm so we could catch the wooden nickel happy hour - 8 pm on a Thursday is the start of the weekend for undergrads and about 10 pm the place would always start to get packed with Augsburg students getting a jump start on the weekend (ahh...I remember those wonderful college days). Then we discovered the amazing date night on Friday, date night has different attendance than the thirsty Thursday crowd. We've also nabbed a few other cheap meals at Tracy's, lunches and the half priced burgers. But, we've never been there early on a taco night and we had a great time in the chill atmosphere, used our wooden nickels and loved the discount on our tab.

Finally, we came home and the crew was just finishing. The house looks great and we had a fun, mid-week nomadic adventure!

The Sauerkraut Flight

My Mom and I went to one of my favorite places after work tonight, the Riverview Winebar. We had planned to go on a walk, but due to the dreary weather we re-located. It's fun to take my mom out! This afternoon was my mom's first experience with a flight of wine, and she tried the Sauerkraut Flight. She loved it.

Another thing that we tried and loved was their mango, prosciutto and red onion pizza. I love the pizzas at the wine bar because they are always an ingenious combination of fruits and savory, salty meats that I wouldn't think to combine, but it always tastes wonderful!

After wine we took a stroll through Mother Earth Gardens, a great garden store that had beautiful plants and pots, and price tags just high enough to remind me that Sogn likes to dig and would kill any beautiful, expensive plants I would buy for the backyard.