First Bite: A Look Inside Graze Food Hall

North Loop's new food hall opens officially on Friday, here's the what.

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North Loop's first food hall, Graze Libations & Provisions, officially opens to the public tomorrow. It's not a market, no fresh produce or ingredients like Keg & Case or Midtown Global, it's straight up a dining destination: a collection of locally owned eateries selling you tasty bits from their counters. Does that make it a glorified food court? Do you really care?

The hall is located at the corner of 4th and 5th, pretty much next to Modist Brewing and across the street from Darby's. There's HELLA construction happening around it right now, which means parking is a nightmare. Good news, the hall will be offering valet at night on the weekends. If you're not working/living in the neighborhood and want to pop by for lunch, might I suggest a scooter crew. 

It's a cool vibe, with green space out front full of tables and play space, a rooftop deck with fire, and two levels of bars that both open up to the outdoor spaces. I would expect this place to be rocking late on weekends. 

But let's look inside.

You walk into an open seating space. The early set will likely be laptoppers and coffee fiends, as Honey & Rye will be the first to open their shop each day. Like their St. Louis Park bakery, they'll have a great selection of bakery items and all the right coffee pours (looking at you, cortado-heads). They also have a sneaky little sidewalk pick-up window for coffee-walkers in the hood that might pass by on the early side. 

Move around the staircase, and you'll see the main dining/seating area with the first of the two bars. While the bar is stocked with bottles for custom drinks, all nine of the specialty cocktails are being pre-batched to help with speed of service. The man behind the recipes is Jesse Held of Earl Giles, shocking no one. "If you put the word 'libations' in your name, you better bring it," GM Andrew told me. "We wanted to bring elevated craft beverages, but didn't want to make people wait too long. This allows us to do both." They poured me a batched and stirred Old Fashioned and there is nothing wrong with that. 

Around the edge of the space are the vendors. MidNord Empanadas has expanded their usual truck offerings, to now offer churros! "We bought this machine from Spain, and we've been testing it all week," owner Phil Gaffney mentioned. "I bet these guys are all sick of trying my churros!" I'm not, especially since they are simply dusted with cinnamon sugar and come with a dark chocolate dipping sauce. Hello. Also look for Cuban pork and mac n cheese empanadas, elote salad, and yuca fries. 

Next to them, is a Flasgsmash. And I think you know how I feel about that. Jaime Gonzales and his crew, who started in a truck, then landed at La Doña Ceveceria, finally has a flattop big enough to be giving us all the megadillas we want. That's a massive quesadilla cut into hunks up there, this one happens to be stuffed with saucy meat, cheese, and fries FTW. You can only get this beauty here. But you can also get tacos, normal quesadillas, tres leches cake, and very great salsas. 

Turn around to find the jokesters at Fish Bowl Poke. The original location lives next to Ramen Kazama in Kingfield, but this one is streamlined and ready for go. Pick your protein (salmon, tuna, tofu), pick your base (white rice, brown rice, kale) and then let them top it with a number of creative preps that combine all manner of cucumber, edamame, kimchi, and the like ingredients. 

Next to them? Carbon Pit Beef which is the new venture from chef Stephen Trojahn of Gastrotruck. He's got a shiny Grillworks toy back there, and he's using it for Maryland style pit beef. "My wife brought me to this shop in Maryland, and I took a sliver sample of the beef and was done. We had to have this here!" The beef comes from local Peterson Farms, and is, in fact, the bottom round cut, "talking with Peterson, we asked what was the cut that was hardest for them to sell. I wanted to take a cheap cut that wasn't very popular and use the best skills and equipment to turn it into something simple and delicious." The main sandwich is that: thinly sliced rare grilled and rested beef, served with a bit of spicy tiger sauce, pickled onion on a brioche bun. Ooohdalolly. They're also using the beef on a Philly, a Chicago sandwich with spicy giard, a Paris with Gruyere on a baguette, among others. Also, he's throwing the beef tips bits with beer cheese on loaded fries. 

UPSTAIRS

Don't forget to go upstairs. Because that's where the first official Soul Bowl is!! Gerard and Brittney Klass have launched their first real outpost of the popular pop-up (yes, they did debut at the Twins Stadium this year, but this spot is actually THEIRS). The neo-soul food faves are all here, pile your mac n cheese with sweet corn and jerk chicken, or try something you may have missed, like the chicken and waffles or the chicken sandwich. Let's have a moment to say that if you are at all obsessed with that certain fast food fried chicken, please get over it by coming to eat the Big K.R.I.T Sandwich: A butter toasted everything bun topped with ranch and seasoned heirloom tomatoes, Fantasia fried chicken, mambo sauce, plus crispy turkey bacon.  And done. 

Next to them, we have Lu's Restaurant from the family behind Lu's Sandwiches. Truth that they have legendary banh mi sandwiches at their other shops, but this one is going to be a bit more experimental. Look for a signature banh mi burger (!) because it is the ONLY burger in this place! The rest of the menu plays with creative rice/noodle bowls like a pork chop bowl, grilled chicken bowl, or curry tofu bowl among others, and egg roll or spring roll snacks. 

The rest of the upper level is the second bar, plus the rooftop seating, and a wall of video games with couches. Your basic fun zone. 

Graze is open tonight for a neighborhood party, but officially tomorrow for all out go time. No one will blame you for crashing tonight, just sayin'.