Town Talk Diner

2707 1/2 E Lake St
Minneapolis, MN
612-722-1312
http://www.towntalkdiner.com/

Category: American Casual

Rating (Scale 1-10, with 10 being the highest):
Food: 7
Service: 7
Ambience: 7

Recommendation: Very Good. Town Talk, located on East Lake Street, adds a unique touch to the Twin Cities up market diner scene offering standard fare with a few twists, as well as a host of inventive dishes and cocktails.

Town Talk is an urban diner that has a unique combination of offerings… comfort food you’d expect from a neighborhood diner along with a more creative selection of offerings. It stands out because of the unique menu, as well as the urban décor with exposed brick balls, light blue paint, and stainless steel. The bar area is a great place to hang out and start up interesting conversations with the diverse crowd. The main dining room, although open and clean, doesn’t give out the same retro vibe as the bar. Town Talk is just a couple of blocks from the Hiawatha light rail line. They offer outdoor street side seating in the summer.

While they serve both lunch and dinner (their Adult Malts are very famous), we’ve only been here for weekend brunch. The menu includes mainstays such as Pancakes and Omelets, along with creative dishes such as the Pulled Pork Pepper Hash. The Banana’s Foster French Toast with a side of bacon or sausage ($9.25) came with two thick slices of Challah bread soaked in sweet syrup and was lavishly topped with fresh bananas and walnuts. The bread itself was soft on the inside and crispy on the outside, a perfect combination. The poppy seeds on the bread were a bit of a distraction that took away from the main flavors, but overall, a great dish! The Fried Egg Sandwich ($8.25) came with two hefty slices of Texas toast topped with eggs, cheese, bacon, ham, and tomatoes. For an additional $1.50, we chose to add avocado to the sandwich. While the sandwich was great, it was too big and sloppy to eat. The addition of the avocados made this worse but we didn’t care. The combination of the runny eggs, crispy bacon, and avocados all nestled between two thick slices of toast was excellent. The accompanying potato fries were perfect.

$$. Street parking on Lake Street.