Hola Arepa Food Truck

I didn't have time this morning to make grab anything for lunch. Plus I was feeling a little adventurous, so I decided to try out this foodtruck phenomenon. My boss and I walked over to Marquette Ave and the first one we came to was Hola Arepa.

The Chicken-Avocado Salad Arepa caught my eye, so we decided it would be a good place to stop. Plus, they accept credit cards, which was good for me since I had no cash.

Anyway, you may be wondering what an arepa is. Well, at least we were. From their menu: It's a cornmeal patty cooked on a griddle, split & filled with deliciousness.

They weren't lying! The chicken-avocado salad arepa really hit the spot and was oh, so tasty! And filling.

My only recommendation would be to try and find a place to cop a squat (do not look this up on urban dictionary. gross. I mean it in the Pretty Woman sense of simply taking a seat) nearby and eat outside. The salsa I added to the arepa and the mayo in the chicken salad made it a little bit messy by the time I'd walked the 4 1/2 blocks back to work to eat at my desk.

chicken-avocado salad arepa with cucumber lavendar lemonade

Like I mentioned, I was feeling a bit adventurous, so I also ordered the cucumber-lavendar lemonade. I'm not sure how I feel about this. It's definitely different. Not sure I'm too crazy about the flavor combination. Oddly, though, as the ice all melted and I've been nursing it for the past two hours, it's actually kind of grown on me. Still not sure I'd order it again, though.

All in all, it was a great experience. The guy taking our orders was very personable and answered all our questions with a smile. When you order, he gives you a playing card as your order number (I was 9 of Hearts), which I thought was a very clever idea.

Great job, Hola Arepa! I'll definitely come back. :)

Vic's On the Minneapolis Riverfront

Last night, I had a company dinner at Vic's. Our whole office went out (12 people) as a little thank you for all our hard work. Boy have I got them fooled. lol.

I love this little area of Minneapolis, and I wish I were able to spend more time down there. It had been pretty rainy all day yesterday, so the patio was very wet! Sitting outside would've been fun, but I prefer to stay warm and dry. The patio is pretty large with great views of the river and the Minneapolis skyline.

If you're into wine, they have a pretty incredible happy hour. $2 bottles of various house wines at 2pm, $3 bottles at 3pm, and $4 bottles at 4pm. After 5pm, their bottles go back to regular prices, which are still very great prices.

I got a BLTA Salad with extra bacon. It was really tasty! And, I got. so. very. full. Oh, the A is for avocado. Yum! Most everyone else got steak or pork or chicken. Something a little meatier. haha! I kill myself. Many of the entrees that were ordered were huge and some still resembled the animal a bit. Ew. I much prefer my meat off the bone and no longer resembling the animal from whence it came. I love meat; I just don't like to work very hard to get my meat.

I didn't mean to get all political. This is supposed to be a restaurant review afterall, so this is just a warning to be careful what you order. :)

The service was pretty good - despite how busy it got and how large of a group we were. The bruschetta and pepperoni flatbeard were delicious appetizers and came out pretty quickly. Unfortunately, it did seem like our food took a. long. time to arrive.

Overall, I would definitely recommend this restaurant!