Rotisserie-roasted meats are featured in many of Twin Cities 400’s signature dishes.
If you’re hungry for rotisserie-roasted meats, brick-oven pizza and locally brewed craft beers or even an easy Sunday brunch, check out Twin Cities 400 Tavern, a new bar and restaurant attached to the Ramada Plaza, 1330 Industrial Boulevard in Minneapolis. Some may recall the Anchorage, a seafood restaurant that sat in that space for years.
The eatery quietly opened in late October, serves breakfast, lunch and dinner, and boasts a lively happy hour weekdays from 3 to 6 p.m. It’s a quick drive from Larpenteur Avenue: Just past Highway 280, take a right at the first light, Industrial Boulevard, and you’re there in less than two minutes.
Scalzo Hospitality, the company that owns the TC 400 and the hotel attached to it, had hoped “to create a destination restaurant that neighbors and nearby businesses would come to,” said Claire Holder, director of sales and catering.
Scalzo worked with Parasole Restaurant Holdings to consult on menu development, branding and staff training for the restaurant. Parasole is the company that brought Muffuletta Café, which closed last fall, to St. Anthony Park 40 years ago.
Many of the tavern’s signature dishes include meats from the rotisserie, which patrons can watch turning in a bright red roaster next to the wood-fired pizza oven. The restaurant offers a takeout chicken dinner, with mashed potatoes, au jus and vegetables, for $16.95 during the weekday happy hour from 3 to 6 p.m. It has been a big hit, Holder said. She also suggests trying her favorite: the rotisserie chicken pizza.
The tavern’s namesake is the Twin Cities 400, a 1930s express train that ran between the Twin Cities and Chicago. While it’s not a “train-themed” restaurant, there are subtle design elements that point to the rails: the bar has a taconite top and the foot rails are made from actual train tracks. The 60-seat private dining room at the back of the restaurant, the Pullman Room, has a sliding boxcar door. Shea Design of Minneapolis designed the restaurant.
Brothers Paul and Patrick Durand, owners of Scalzo, are Minnesotans, and they wanted to incorporate a local feel into the venue, Holder said. Hence the focus on partnerships with local breweries and distilleries. On Jan. 30, the tavern hosted an Insight Brewing (2821 E. Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis) paired dinner. Tattersall (1620 N.E. Central Ave., Minneapolis) is the featured distiller.
Twin Cities Tavern is open for breakfast at 6:30 a.m. Monday- Friday, and 7 a.m. on weekends. The restaurant stops serving at 11 p.m. each night. Find out more at TC400tavern.com.
