Kinsley’s and a HmongTown Rundown
The Churn for Friday, May 16, 2025
In this week’s edition of The Heavy Table’s Churn newsletter, we do some power dining at the remarkable HmongTown marketplace, consider the unreconstructed grandeur of Mancini’s, and check out the seriously gourmet (and seriously pricey) new sandwich spot at the Market at Malcolm Yards. Heavy Table exists solely because of the support of subscribers like you - thanks for making our work telling the stories of food and drink in the Upper Midwest possible.
THE MANCINI'S EFFECT
In last week's edition of the Tap, I wrote about the demise of the Apostle Supper Club. Is the restaurant's upcoming closure a matter of lawless Saint Paul's irresistible tide of criminal savagery (as restaurateur Brian Ingram suggested on Fox News) or a matter of $4 sides of steak sauce and the culinary felony that is lobster mac and cheese? I opted for the latter explanation.
Here's what I failed to mention: the supper club Mancini's is still doing a ridiculously vibrant business just blocks away from the Apostle Supper Club location.
Mancini's is such a fixture of Saint Paul dining that it's easy to forget and simple to overlook. It has been in business since 1948, its menu is incredibly short, and the vibe is about as trendy and contemporary as Milton Berle. There is a wide variety of food for everyone, as long as you want either steak or grilled lobster tails. If you don't want meat, you can order the "Tuscan Medley," a plate of couscous with tomatoes and green beans plus chimichurri for $20. It's the food-based equivalent of a lovingly crafted neon sign reading "Vegetarians Not Welcome."
Rather than providing a standard modern flotilla of obsessively crafted $18 artisan cocktails, Mancini's offers this: no menu whatsoever. You describe what you want (as long as it's fairly straightforward), and they bring it to your table from the bar. I ordered a gin martini and for $8 I received a cocktail that was large enough to completely drown my sorrows. I considered ordering a second one, but (as established in last week's Tulip and Schooner) I shoot for about four drinks a night and I suspect two Mancini's martinis would be closer to five or six.
On the food side: I don't totally understand how everything works, but a relish tray and grilled garlic toast appear to be mandatory. The toast, evidently grilled on the same surface that cooks the meat, tasted dramatically of steak. (This is not a bad thing.) The relish tray leaned a little heavily into pickled tomatoes, but in its defense, its pepperoncini were scorchingly spicy, which is tremendously entertaining.
Everyone working at Mancini's looked to be either 40-year service industry veterans or somewhere around their junior year of high school. I don't know what this means or how it happened, but it's worth noting and it feels inarguably authentic to the vibe. Customers ran the gamut from nicely dressed folks out on the town to celebrate to baseball hat- and shorts-wearing schlubs, a straight-on collision of traditional "dress up to go out" Midwestern supper club code and the grim reality of the modern dining environment.
In short: This is a place with no airs. It's not trying to impress you, it's not touting its own contemporary spin on a banh mi or selling biodynamic wine. Mancini’s is a paleolithic Midwestern supper club that makes no apologies for being what it is. It also serves a hell of a good cannoli for dessert.
If you're looking for why Apostle couldn't make it in Saint Paul, you don't have to hunt down burglars or carjackers, you can just take a bite of the grilled garlic toast at Mancini's and order a vodka gimlet. It's as good as stepping into a time machine, and a hell of a lot more affordable. – James Norton
HEAVY TABLE’S HOT FIVE
#5 Croissant Loaf from Vikings and Goddesses at Mill City Farmers Market | Minneapolis
Hot Five doesn't normally dwell upon value prospects, but for this item we need to make an exception: An entire loaf of croissant bread from the Vikings and Goddesses stand at the Mill City Farmers Market is $12. I felt legitimately guilty walking away with the massive loaf at that price, which is about two croissants' worth of money at some of our metro area's more assertively priced bakery cafes. The loaf is buttery and delicate and delicious, and like the (also excellent) croissant loaf at Black Walnut, it's pretty much tailor-made for delicious breakfast sandwiches. I like mine with bacon, scallion scrambled eggs, and a slice of melted American cheese. – James Norton
#4 Duck Salad Sandwich at Mint Mark | Madison, Wisc.
The Friday lunch menu at Mint Mark features a chicken salad-style sandwich that swaps in duck confit—a genius move. The duck is ever-so-slightly dressed in aioli, letting the rich, gamey flavor shine. The other salad components—pickles, lettuce, celery, fennel, apple, and golden raisins—are carefully calibrated to add a bit of sweetness, some sourness, and plenty of crunch. The hearty slices of toasted sourdough could barely contain the filling, but no complaints there—I happily scooped up every bit of duck salad with a fork. – Stacy Brooks
#3 Mediterranean Lentil Soup at Soup for You | Minneapolis
To my knowledge, we've never touted soup kitchen soup in this column before, but that may be because we hadn't yet tasted soup kitchen soup. Soup For You (a remarkable organization profiled recently in Longfellow Whatever) serves the community by sharing soups made from scratch, and they're terrific - the Mediterranean lentil soup we tried was full-flavored, balanced, and soothing. Signing up for volunteer shifts is a snap and a bowl of soup comes with the deal, so we can highly recommend the experience. – James Norton
#2 Asparagus and Ramps at Fairchild | Madison, Wisc.
Fairchild's gorgeous take on asparagus and ramps captures the exuberance of spring on a plate. Snappy asparagus spears are arranged around a pool of brilliantly green ramp leaf puree, garnished with tiny cubes of potato and even tiner cubes of Wisconsin-made Pleasant Ridge Reserve cheese. A quail egg, dyed a rich purple by red wine vinegar, dots of egg jam, and garlicky ramp bulbs complete the dish. The flavors are straightforward and delicate, a preview of the bolder summer ingredients ahead. – Stacy Brooks
#1 Lunch Special at Ruam Mit Thai | Saint Paul
We’re not generally prone to talking price here in the Heavy Table Hot Five, but the lunch special at Ruam Mit Thai kind of revolves around it: $15 gets you two appetizers, a salad, and an entree. It sounds like a ridiculous amount of food, but the eggroll is a single smallish specimen, the cream cheese wonton arrives solo, the noodle salad is a mere half-cup or so, and the entree is just a bit more than a cup’s worth. But add it all together and you get a light, refreshing, beautifully balanced lunch for the price of a typical main just about anywhere else these days. Ruam Mit Thai has a cult following, and it should - this kind of meal deal is something we’d like to see a lot more of, in a lot more places. – James Norton
STREET REPORT
Saint Paul’s Hmongtown Marketplace, revisited.
By Amy Rea
Fun fact: 2025 marks the 50th anniversary of the arrival of the first Hmong immigrants to Minnesota. There are now more than 66,000 Hmong immigrants in the state, which has the second-largest Hmong population in the U.S. after California.
That's a definite positive for Minnesota, as Hmong farmers have flourished and strengthened the overall farm market scene, and we've witnessed the rise of chef Yia Vang's and Diane Moua's highly acclaimed restaurants. But before Vang and Moua began making a splash, the Hmongtown Marketplace opened in 2004 and quickly established itself as a place for prepared foods and a Hmong farmers market. And now, 50 years after the first Hmong arrived, Hmongtown's ownership is getting ready to open Pan Asian Center in Maplewood, a huge complex that will reflect what the younger generations of Hmong want and look for.
Heavy Table visited Hmongtown multiple times, but in light of the 50th Hmong arrival anniversary and realizing that the eateries in the food court have changed hands since our last visit, we thought it was time for a return. Spoiler alert: Tons of good food. Surprise alert: Prices are almost ridiculously moderate given the quality and portion sizes.
NAW-MAW KITCHEN
The first thing we tried was the Pork Sausage with Rice ($9) because the slabs of sausage glistened in the display case, looking wonderfully charred. One bite, and we knew our visit was off to a great start. The skin was snappy and the sausage meat inside garlicky and fatty (in a good way). The accompanying hot sauce was right at the edge of fire, but still retained some chile flavor that was a great foil for the chewy sausage and sticky rice.
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