Stillwater: The New & The Old

The New: The Roman Market
The Old: Meister’s Bar & Grill
They both rock and you should visit them.

I have to give credit to the Lift Bridge guys, and their lovely wives, for giving me reasons to venture to Stillwater and discover little treasures such as these. Sure, you can find Lift Bridge brews throughout the Twin Cities, but it’s great to see so many establishments willing to put a truly hometown beer on their menus (either that or Lift Bridge is really the mob that secretly controls Stillwater.)

The Roman Market, our dinner stop before heading to Meister’s. This little gem has only been around a year or so but I’ve heard nothing but good things about them. On the way there, Scott was adamant that he was going to have a pizza. Once we got there and I took a look at the menu I would have had a hard time narrowing the choices if the idea of pizza hadn’t already entered my mind. While all of the combinations sounded great, I was very, very pleased with my choice of the Balsamico (candied figs, gorgonzola and proscuitto finished with an aged balsamic reduction, gourmet greens, and fig molasses). The Farm Girl went very well with it. Next time, the Vesuvio.

One note of caution: the parking spaces are extremely tight. You may want to consider finding a spot on the street or run the risk of coming back to your vehicle and finding you can’t open the door wide enough to get in. Or worse, that Kris is with you, can squeeze in to the driver’s side, but is really, really bad with a stick shift and only after killing the engine three times and beating up on the transmission is able to back the car up five feet.

After a great dinner we headed to Meister’s Bar & Grill, where Lift Bridge was tapping a cask of Farm Girl to accompany the Pale Ale already on tap. This place has been around for at least 60 years (according to the 60th anniversary shirts they had for sale). It’s a cozy neighborhood joint with semi-carpeted walls, light fixtures you could brain someone with and an 80+ year old waitress who I think is also the proprietor. We found the guys and their wives, enjoyed a few pitchers of Pale, a basket of surprisingly good mini tacos and samples of the specially made Pale Ale beef stew. I’m looking forward to going back for everything except for the unbelievably tight bathroom. You wouldn’t believe it if I tried to tell you about it. Instead, go yourself and enjoy!