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CRAVE BlogGirl Power in Linden Hills!
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Kristen, owner of Clancy’s Butcher Shop in Linden Hills greets everyone who walks through her door by name. If she doesn’t know you by name, she asks in her perky voice- “what’s your name and what can I get for you today?” I watched her make 7 sandwiches from 5 different groups of people waiting and she never batted an eye with any of the special orders for her -so perfect it’s on the front cover of a magazine- turkey sandwich. My husband ordered the ham and I ordered the infamous turkey sandwich and we watched in awe as Kristen sliced the meat, the cheese and put about 14 other ingredients onto our works of art lunches. Warning us that they were too big to eat in one sitting, we defied her wisdom because the bread was so perfectly chewy and the flavors so deliciously melded together and finished our huge sandwiches off in one sitting. Clancy is her dog and Kristen is the owner, not to be confused by their lovable spirits. You feel like Norm from Cheers when you walk into Clancy’s and are greeted by name.
Shop several of the woman owned stores scattered about Linden Hills- Wonderment is a fabulous children’s toy store owned by 3 women who also have a Wonderment store on Grand Avenue in St. Paul. Wild Rumpus, owned by Collette, is the infamous bookstore not to be missed with all the menagerie of real live animals strutting and snoozing around the shop. Oscar & Belle is around the corner with everything for baby/toddler made using only hand-harvested, 100-percent certified-organic cotton, grown with natural fertilizers and free from toxic chemicals- started by Anna Gustafson in 2007.
Walk across the street to Leah Simon-Clark’s Extrados Salon & Spa to experience any beauty treatment you can think of to pamper yourself. Nationally renown for her skill with brows, she has developed a following for her attention to detail in every service a woman could need to look and feel great from head to toe. She has 3 locations and the Linden Hills flagship salon now with a masseuse to add to the bevy of beauty treatments offered.
A must stop on a Friday night is Cafe 28, tucked into the charming brick building on 43rd Street. A true hidden secret I will now share with you is their Friday night Fish Fry. When I asked the charming host for the menu describing the fish fry that came so highly recommended he said, “it’s only available audibly”. Everyone but me must know all about it if they don’t even have to print it up! It’s 3-4 large pieces of Canadian walleye (you can’t sell Minnesota caught walleye- who knew?) deep fried in a Pabst Blue Ribbon batter, with coleslaw, a heaping pile of fries and tarter sauce, all for $14. The menu does sneak you a hint that the best beer to accompany the fish fry is the $3 Pabst despite the fact that Linda’s husband Todd brews the Surly beers on tap! The attentive pigtailed waitress and the accommodating host made us feel like we were old friends in this packed restaurant on a Friday night at 6pm. We wanted to scoot home to watch the Olympics and did not have a reservation and he happily walked us to a table, never feeling rushed. There were babies and grandparents, new couples and old married ones sitting along side each other and guys drinking 3 kinds of Surly beers before a night out on the town. This cafe is truly a neighborhood gem and will be on my regular fav lists from now on.