Joe’s Garage

The first stop on my Minneapolis culinary journey: D Featured are a ciabatta french toast (Tejus’ meal) and Biscuits and Gravy (my plate). The biscuits were really soft, and with sausage gravy and eggs, they really absorbed all the flavor while staying crisp on the outside. So delicious! Perfect brunch!

Friday date night with my kids here went really well.
Of course we all had chicken strips ! LOL They were perfectly crispy hand breaded goodness! At $ 5.00 each the kids meals came with a drink and cookie. I had the wedge salad and chicken strips with mashed potatoes. The salad was cool, crisp and tasty! With blue cheese, onion, tomato and Nueske’s bacon it was yummy!
* Note, this place can get noisy. Our waitress seemed stressed and never looked me in the eye. Is it possible to be too busy to be friendly?
We will try again when the patio is open.

What’s in your garage?
To answer the question, what’s in your garage? Most people will say things like; a car, my boat, the lawn mower, tools and a bunch of junk you would probably like to throw away… At Joe’s Garage in the Loring Park neighborhood, you’ll find the exact opposite, even though the flower boxes are made from recycled pickup truck tool boxes surrounding the quite large roof top patio with a scenic view of the Basilica of St. Mary and the downtown skyline.
Founder, Joe Kaplan, is out to «recreate American food!» and it sounds like he’s doing a great job at it. Take one look at his menu and you’ll see all sorts of weird combinations of typical American food. Burgers with ingredient combinations not found on a burger, Entrée’s that can make your mouth water just reading about them, Pastas you haven’t seen before and App choices like; blue cheese nachos, smoked liver pâté, lamb meatballs… Lamb meatballs? Yes please!
My wife and I stopped by for the first time and ordered the mac n’ cheese with aged cheddar, asiago & blue cheese with Mn. apple smoked bacon & sun dried tomato’s along with the beef short ribs with garlic mashed and sauteed spinach (which my wife ate). Sound delicious to you so far? I saved the best for last and I can’t wait to go back to try it.
How many places do you know in the Twin Cities serving up a mashed potato bar with all the fixings you would want to top your mashed potatoes with? One or two scoops to start, followed by a selection of veggies, sauces and finally meats. Sounds like the beginnings of a great meal that can be customized any way you’d like. Have you made your mind up about going to Joe’s Garage yet? There’s no custom hot rod, custom Harley or fansy cars and boats (well maybe at his personal garage), but you will find some great food.

I’ve been to Joe’s for Brunch, Lunch and Dinner and I’ve never been disappointed. Joe’s Garage offers all types of options: indulgent, healthy, veggie, pocket book friendly, picky-​eater, unique taster… its good all around.
They get really full with a definite wait on beautiful Sunday mornings when folks can sit on the rooftop, but they fill up quickly for brunch regardless of the weather.
I’ve gone with and without a reservation. I recommend dinner hour and brunch reservations, but any other time of day or walk ins are usually fine and I’ve been seated quickly.
Any waitstaff I’ve had has been super friendly, attentive and knowledgeable of the menu or willing to find out an answer quickly.
My favorite part of their menu is the «mashed potato bar»…you can order 1 or 2 scoops of their famous garlic mashed potatoes and then you add meats, sauces and veggies of your choosing. The turkey meatballs and garlic sautéed green beans are amazing. they also have things like chèvre, lamb meatballs and ratatouille!
Their brunch is to die for… everything from sweet buttermilk biscuits & gravy to veggie/​mushroom egg scrambles… something for everyone! Don’t forget their amazing bloody mary!
I’ve left there regularly, very satisfied and paying $ 20 or less, including tip! (though you can indulge and get adult drinks/​desserts/​heartier meals and pay more in the $ 25-​$ 30 range… which will be worth it.
Often you can see «Joe» at the restaurant as well… making sure everything is running smoothly or sometimes pouring over the books on his computer… its nice that the owner likes his place, that says something, right!
A great place to meet a friend for happy hour, bring your family for brunch, have a quick lunch or a great night out!

Food = 3 star.
Restaurant week deal = 5 star
Experience average = 4 star
The food is not impressive or innovative, but it does the job of filling me up. I had the eggplant Parmesan, which is one of my favorite dishes anywhere. It was delicious, though not spectacular. We were there around 7pm on a Thursday of Restaurant Week and they had already run out of half of the food options. Lucky for us the half that were left were all fairly good.
The chocolate pudding was amazing. However, I’m a fiend for anything that has sugar, so it is not too hard to appease me when it comes to desserts.
JG is a good place to grab drinks with friends, but don’t come for the food. It’s just ok.

Our team took our monthly restaurant trip to a different restaurant in the cities and this month was Joe’s Garage during restaurant week. For $ 10, you could choose from 3 different appetizers, 3 different entrees or three different desserts. For restaurant week, you could choose either an appetizer and entrée, or entrée and dessert.
A friend got the soup that looked amazing as well. very creamy and a good sized portion. For his entrée, he got the vegetarian lasagna, which looked a little skimpy, which really surprised me, because Joe’s usually goes all out.
I ordered the jerk chicken taco appetizer and the pork sliders. I slabbed rooster sauce on it of course, but they looked like Mexican tacos because they gave you 2 small tortillas per taco. A nice touch.
Another friend got the breakfast burger (It looked amazing!) Fried egg and ham on a burger. He loved it! The cheese was just dripping over the wonderful looking bun.
The 2 tacos were small, but flavorful. I loved that they put rooster sauce on the table. The spice was perfect and then came the sliders! Instead of fries, I ordered a side salad with blue cheese. The salad was awesome, not cheap iceberg stuff, and the dressing wasn’t too over powering.
About 75% of us got the same order, but most got fries. The fries looked super crispy and everyone said their meal was fantastic.
The two sliders came out and they were super flavorful. Just the right amount to make us satiated.
I had a few slices of the bread that came on the table, they made for a perfect dipping sauce in the best conglomeration I have ever made. The spice mixed with the cool like my aura going down Nicollet on a Friday.
The service was so great, lots of drink refills. This place has never disappointed me!

Good place to stop for a cocktail when in the area. Appetizers looked good but had to say no as we were meeting friends for dinner and more drinks.
If ever thin Minneapolis again I would stop in and have a drink and a bite. Great little area.

It pains me to write a bad review, but — foodwise, its a 3 star. But the environment and the service was pretty bad, so I am going to give a 1 because I don’t really plan on returning, or recommending it to anyone.
We chose because it was dog friendly, and our dogs had been cooped up for 8 hours.
When we got there, the hostess (some girl in a red dress) just gave us the stink eye. My friend asked if we could sit on the roof. First, she asked, «you want to eat with the dogs, right?» Umm.yes. She kept the stink eye on her face and got on her microphone and said, «this group of four wants to sit upstairs… AND they have 3 medium sized dogs with them.» I said, if you want, we could sit far away from everyone and she just shook her head abrasively. Ohhhkay.
We get upstairs and its pretty full. We would have totally understood if they had said to us, hey, our roof is pretty packed right now, since you have a dog group, mind dining outside down here, or waiting a little? We would have been completely cool with that. Not to mention when we got upstairs we heard another employee say, «oh great, dogs, get me out of here.»
If this facility wants to be dog friendly, be dog friendly, but make sure your employees are on board as well.
We didn’t get helped for awhile, and when the guy came up he seemed like he had been through a tornado. Everything was going fine, the dogs were smiling and standing around, we got drinks, ordered food.
Our meals never came. My friend’s did, because it was a salad off the cold line. But not the rest of ours. Eventually the server came back and asked how we were and my friend asked, um, are they getting food? And the server looked and was like, oh wow, you didn’t get your dinner? And ran away.
Turns out, the kitchen lost the ticket, and it was after 10 so it was already closed. The server asked us if we wanted our food still, which I found to be kind of a silly question, then made us feel like he was doing us a big favor by re-​opening the kitchen to make it. He was polite and apologetic, but… even if you are swamped, it’s just a normal server function to know if your customers have their main dish. I thought?
And not that I expected to be comped, but in most situations there is usually some sort of compensation for such a large mistake, like free dessert, or half off an entrée. We still paid for our meals, full price. It’s fine, but it also shows that the server nor management really cared that a mistake was made.

Ever been to a house party and on the way to what you thought was the bathroom, you open the door to the host’s dirty bedroom? That’s how I felt about walking around the restaurant at Joe’s. On the way to the bathroom you have to pass by piles of tubs of silverware, napkins, chef aprons that are askew in a non-​self-​conscious cool way but more in a «dumped in a pile because people who work here don’t take pride» kinda way. The floors were dirty and looked like they hadn’t been washed in days. The walls need painting.
My anxieties were heightened when the waiter told my dining companion, «I would box your food in the back area but there is no, and I mean no place clean back there to put it.» Gross. Oh, and there was a hair in my salad.
(Besides the hair) The food was decent. The rooftop patio is divine, especially on a summer evening. I would consider coming back for drinks on the patio, but I would get food elsewhere. The management here needs to consider taking a little more pride in the place or refrain from interpreting «garage» so literally.

After a lack of planning, plenty of wandering, and attempting to eat at 2 other places that were closed, we stumbled upon Joe’s Garage.
Friends, we hit the jackpot. We asked to sit outside, since it was quite pleasant after the rain stopped, and it seemed a little stuffy inside. We thought it would be at one of the 2 tables by the front entrance, but there is a whole patio up on the roof! And we got it all to ourselves! I can only imagine how awesome it would be at night. But on a gray Saturday morning, it was pretty awesome as well.
No big surprise — they are known for burgers and potatoes. They had so many delicious sounding burgers to choose from. Our table ordered a teriyaki burger with wasabi mayo and fries, a martini burger with blue cheese and green olives and mashed potatoes, a falafel burger, and a brisket burger (that’s a burger with brisket and slaw on top). As we waited for our food, we admired the view of Loring Park.
Once the food arrived, we were all business. Everything was quite tasty. Mine was the teriyaki burger. It was good, but there could have been more wasabi in the mayo. The martini burger was just the right mix of tang of olives, umami of meat, and creaminess of blue cheese. And those mashed potatoes, divine! They were smashed and chunky and yet fluffy. The one bite of falafel I had was pretty much perfect — crispy on the outside, fluffy on the inside. That «burger» was actually a wrap. I didn’t get a bit of the brisket burgers but the noises and drool coming from the consumer indicated happiness.
I only wish there was a place like this in Atlanta!

Poor, poor Joe’s Garage. Under-​staffed, under-​stocked, and over-​their-​head. With a few tweaks this place could be rockin’ too!
Bread basket is unnecessary and warm tap beer? COME ON Joe’s! Also, please do not inform me that you are creating a waitlist because your kitchen is behind… sad face. And the ‘garage theme’ is great, but the dirty dishes piling up on our miniature bar table throughout the meal isn’t really helping the cause…
The reason I’m giving you 3 stars instead of 2 is because your teriyaki wings were yummy and the BBQ Brisket Burger is still off the chain (and cooked perfectly to order). Quick question though: have you always made your slaw with romaine lettuce or did you run out of cabbage?
Please please please hire more staff/​cooks/​whatever Joe’s, because your location is excellent and your food is good — you just need some polishing!

Went to Joe’s because my wife had a groupon that expires this week. It was an early Sunday evening, and we were told that the upstairs dining area was closed until 5pm (although we could see some other folks eating up there) and we’d have to sit in the bar or in front of the open kitchen. Since we had 2 kids with us, we opted for the kitchen. Huge mistake. Between the kitchen staff yelling for the waitress and the music, we had to yell to be heard across the table. Turned out, this was also the thoroughfare for the kitchen staff to pass to the storage area, so they were constantly going by with carts of glasses, and other stuff.
We’ve been to Joe’s at least a half dozen times before, and have always been impressed with the food. Not tonight. My lamb burger was very well done and served on a tasteless white bun (think McDonald’s). For $ 14 (an extra $ 1.50 for salad instead of chips), I expected a decent burger on a real bun. My wife had the ratatouille risotto, and this was also less than stellar. It tasted like plain white rice with canned tomato soup and some chopped vegetables. My son’s mac & cheese was so watery that he should have been given a spoon to eat it. Since he only ate about 4 bites, I guess that wouldn’t have even been necessary.
Joe, between the ambiance and the food quality, you really missed the mark tonight. Even with a groupon deal, not worth the visit.

We had a coupon deal for Joe’s Garage and decided to cash in on it this weekend. We made reservations for 7PM, got there a little early and grabbed a few drinks from the bar. They had $ 3 bottle beers, plenty of Summit!
We had been to Joe’s before during the summer and it was a great experience. We go the fish tacos again, the Bulgogi Burger and the Lamb Ratatouille Risotto.
The fish tacos are something you can never go wrong with. They have a great pineapple salsa that has a little kick to it and the panko exterior has a wonderful crunch to it.
The Bulgogi burger was a slight disappointment. The burger itself was done really well, rested with good flavor; however, the kim chee wasn’t the best at all. It didn’t add any flavor to it and I thought it could use MORE spice and just more quantity on the burger.
The risotto was amazing! The lamb meatballs were done very well. Great depth of flavor and it completely made the dish. The risotto had great flavor and nothing was overpowering, you could taste the range of flavors from all the ingredients.
I gave 4 stars based on both of my experiences there. The second experience was more a food choice on my part; I’ll definitely get something else the next time I go. Overall, great food and good service.

Burger King is better than this place.
First of all, I enter this joint and I’m greeted with a «Hi there, do you have a reservation tonight?» Huh? why on GOD’s green earth would I need a reservation for this place? Am I at Manny’s Steakhouse? Did I misread the sign outside?
Anyway, I ordered the buffalo wings, fries to share and the GF had the Teriyaki burger. So how was it? The wings were trash! the burger? Trash. The fries? Well, I’ll tell you we had about 5 each. I mean c’mon.who doesn’t eat all of their fries? Anyways, the service was awesome and I had a groupon which made it a little easier to swallow but all in all not worth me visiting a second time.
p. s. What’s with the place having no music? Invest in a jukebox or something at the very least.

I have been here twice and both times were around dinerr and it was DEAD. I mean like 4 people in the entire restaurant. I’m sure this place picks up in the summer because they have a huge patio.
Besides the weird feeling of no one in the resaurant I have had great experiences both time. They have great beers on tap and very friendly wait staff. I ordered the SWG Salad (strawberries, walnust, gargonzola. i think) with grilled chicken and it’s delicious. BUT the best thing on the menu BY FAR is the BBQ Brisket Burger. If you like burgers and brisket… this is amazing. SO messy but 4 people so far have claimed it to be the best burger they’ve had in Minneapolis. Try it. Also, the spinach artichoke dip is very good.

MANGOTINI!!! MANGOTINI! I’m obsessed with their mangotinis… they’re freakin’ amaaaaaaazing!
I had their salmon with risotto and that was good, as well.
I came with a whole group of rowdy friends (we were there for a friend’s wedding) and they totally accommodated us and serviced us perfectly.
If I lived in Minneapolis, I’d totally come here — even if only to take naps on their car seats (which they have lying around as décor).

Menu items were typical american fare like burgers and such. But quite a few items had a great spin to them. I opted for the brisket burger. Creamy coleslaw atop a slice of bbq brisket atop a juicy beef patty. Delish in the pish!
Having this ATOP the restaurant via roof patio… heavenly.
Met the owner Joe upon entry and exit… cool cat working and not just kicking back. Looking forward to a return.

Went here for restaurant week earlier this year. I want to say for $ 15 per person for dinner is a good ass deal. As far as I know, you can’t spend that low on app, entrée, and dessert at any restaurant for dinner. That being said, the food was okay.
We went in a group so kind of shared everything. The app enjoyed the most, was probably the liver pâté crositini with caramelized onions. Just good things to put together on a piece bread. The mussels with curry sauce weren’t bad either. I really did enjoy the chevre lamb burger. It was two pretty small, but simple burgers with portobella, red peppers, with a bun similar to a Hawaiian roll. Wifey said it was gamey, but she got no game :)… I thought it had a good taste… and juiciness… Deserts were good, but nothing spectacular… the rest of the food tried was pretty ordinary… Venue wise, the place is pretty big, and did not get to see the rooftop. Worth a try, especially during restaurant week if they keep it at 15 bucks… or just go to hang out with the friends and not feel super crowded and loud like some other popular restaurants can be.

On our first night in Minneapolis, my boyfriend and I wandered over from our hotel, checking out the Basilica of Saint Mary and the windows of the line of architectural and design firms near the intersection of Hennepin and Harmon Place. Not really knowing where we were going, we were excited to see the exterior of Café & Bar Lurcat (too expensive for what we were looking for that night), which led us to find Nick & Eddie Restaurant next door (also too expensive) and then, finally, Joe’s Garage. There was no indication that the restaurant comprised multiple floors, so I almost suggested we go elsewhere because its aesthetic didn’t seem sufficiently dark and cozy enough. But when the hostess took us up two flights of stairs and sat us at a table overlooking the skyline and the exposed floors below, my aesthetic desires were completely satisfied.
My boyfriend and I were both extremely pleased with our burgers (his completely plain, $ 7) and mine the turkey bruschetta burger (with basil pesto, tomato & parmesan, $ 9). The bottom bun was soaking with oil and garlic and butter and the pesto was delicious and my boyfriend even raved about his burger (extremely out of the ordinary, as a plain burger one place is usually just as good as a properly served plain burger another place for him). The problem, though, was that the fries were terrible. Okay, not terrible, but nondescript. The mighty fine establishments of Decatur, GA have spoiled us with an extensive range of excellent fries, so had all the other aspects of dining at Joe’s Garage not been above average, I would have given this place 2 stars instead of 3.
Nevertheless, should we return to Minneapolis in the summer, when it’s warm enough to sit on the fourth-​floor patio and watch the sun go down – we’ll definitely be heading here.

I have mixed feelings about Joe’s Garage. On the most recent trip, I thought our food was pretty good (2 people loved their dishes, the other 2 liked them), but the service was sub par. Our waitress never came back to fill our water, we had to go get a pitcher ourselves. Plus, she didn’t split our check when we asked her to and she brought our bill before we could even order dessert. Her one saving grace was she so kindly brought me my mittens that I had left at the table right before we were walking out the door, which I greatly appreciated and this one kind act almost made up for the poor service the rest of the night.
On to the food. My dad and husband ordered the peppercorn crusted steak and they both loved it. They said the steak was cooked perfectly and I must admit, it had great flavor. I ordered the bruschetta turkey burger and thought it was OK. The actual burger patty was a little tough, but I liked the pesto and parmesan topping. My mom ordered their famous mashed potatoes and had them topped with broccoli, shrimp and rosemary gravy. I guess I assumed the dish would be more composed, and not just a small scoop of mashed potatoes with steamed broccoli on the side and a skewer of shrimp. I really liked the flavor of the potatoes, but the gravy was a bit overwhelming and too salty.
For dessert, we ordered the strawberry shortcake. I thought it was pretty good. I liked that the shortcake was served warm and it had a nice, moist textures. The mascarpone whipped cream was also really tasty. But the best part of the desert was the tart raspberry purée and whole strawberries. One strawberry dipped in the mascarpone cream was all I really needed.