This weekend I had the opportunity to review
Pinstripes in Edina, MN and I have to say it was both one of the yummiest and most fun reviews I have had to do. Pinstripes was on my list of places I wanted to go to some time for quite a while now, and I don't know why I had not gone there sooner. When I had the opportunity to go there to review playing bocce ball I jumped at the chance and I knew the perfect opportunity was going to be for my 12th wedding anniversary to my husband when my in-laws were already planning to watch out kids.
My husband and I are no stranger to
bocce ball, we own a set at home but since we play with our kids we weren't sure if we were playing with abbreviated rules and so we asked out waitress for a quick tutorial, that's really all you need anyways. If you have not played it before, it doesn't take much explanation to figure out the game. We have always played bocce ball outside, so it is a novel idea to have an area with outdoor carpet.
I think it would be a lot of fun to go play bocce ball when it is snowing and negative temperatures. The basic rules is that you have 2 teams with 4 larger balls each and one small ball. The idea is to get as many of your large balls closest to the small ball and you get point for each ball that is closest so you will get 1 - 4 points per frame. It's similar to curling if you are familiar with that, just no brushing. You can read how to play bocce ball
here. And yes, they do provide a tape measure for those times when the balls seem close in distance. You would be surprised how many times you opt to default to the accurate results of a tape measure.
While we were there we did have a couple of beverages and food. When we don't already have an idea of what we want to order, we like to ask for recommendations from the restaurant staff because we figure they work there and eat the food and they know what seems popular with everyone. We did take several recommendations from our waitress (who was absolutely wonderful by the way!) and my drink was one of those recommendations. Her recommendation was not on the list I was looking at, but was a chocolate martini and since we were celebrating the eve of our anniversary and on the eve of our wedding we had the same thing before our dress rehearsal (yes, I was slightly buzzed before the rehearsal, but I think that was a good thing after all the planning I did, at that point it was either going to come together or it wasn't but at the end of the day we were still going to be married). The coincidence could not be overlooked and so that was the first of several recommendations we took.
The next recommendation we took was for our appetizer. It is a bacon, avocado, red onion, and mozzarella flat bread. Oh my! Was that ever delicious! Once we tasted this, we knew that we were in for a real treat with the food at
Pinstripes. I was a little nervous about disappointment after having such a great start, could the next items measure up at all? They sure did!
Since we were playing bocce ball we wanted to order food that we could easily pick up and put down and felt good about standing by a table to eat, which is why we went the directions of sandwiches for our next two options. Although, had we been sitting at a table, I am sure we would have looked more closely at the pastas and large plates on the
menu. We may have ordered the Seafood Linguini (that would have been my choice) and Braised Boneless Short Rib (husband's choice), although I think the Pine Nut Crusted Halibut and Filet Mignon Trio sound very tasty. What we did order was the Tenderloin Sliders (picture at the very top of this post) and the Prosciutto Caprese Sandwich. The sliders were a recommendation from our waitress (again, she was spot on with her recommendations) and the sandwich was something I had my heart set on after viewing the
menu at home and I was not at all disappointed. My husband didn't seem quite as convinced about it until he ate it and then went so far as to say it might have been his favorite thing we ate there. We split both our plates so that we could both try everything. That's just how we roll. :)
When we came to dessert, we were already quite stuffed and I have a really hard time passing up Creme Brule when it is on a menu. This was a Limoncello Creme Brule that we shared. If we had more room in our stomachs we would have loved to have tried the caramelized cheesecake or the baked apple tart too. As it was, we felt like we were rolling ourselves out of Pinstripes because of all the wonderful food we had indulged in.
Now that we have been there once, we hope to go back again. I would love to check it out on a Monday night for the $10 Bottomless Spaghetti and Meatball and Chopped Salad. Next time I think we will arrive after 5pm because that must be when the valet starts (we got there 5 minutes before 5) but there is a parking ramp connected to the building that Pinstripes is in, so it's a short walk if you don't find a spot in the lot outside.
It's fall in MN and the weather is starting to get chilly and a couple of the neat things that we saw that Pinstripes in Edina did was they had a box of blankets outside that you could use in front of the fire they had. Also, we saw them bringing out mugs of hot cocoa to the patrons that were waiting outside for a table.
I do think it would be fun to come up here with some girlfriends on a Thursday night for $4 Handcrafted Cocktails and $4 Bocce Ball (that special is Sun-Th after 8pm). What I really have my heart (ok, so maybe it's more like my stomach) set on coming for brunch some day What is there not to love about that whole menu? Made to Order Omelettes - yes please! Carved Prime Rib - Medium-rare please! Fresh Seafood! Chocolate Fountain! Actually, I think my kids would go gaga over the chocolate fountain and the good thing is that my son would eat for free. The only thing left is for me to look at our busy schedule and find a Sunday that we are free to make the drive there for brunch. Maybe we will even do some bowling next time (yes, they have that too!)
I can say without hesitancy that we had a wonderful experience at
Pinstripes and look forwards to going back again, and again.....
No monetary compensation was received for this post. All thoughts, opinions, and photographs are my own. I was given the opportunity to try bocce ball and received food and beverage to review for a post on this blog and for USFamilyGuide.I was asked to write an honest review and my review reflects this. I would not recommend anything to my readers if I did not believe the expressions I was making.
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My husband and I are no stranger to bocce ball, we own a set at home but since we play with our kids we weren't sure if we were playing with abbreviated rules and so we asked out waitress for a quick tutorial, that's really all you need anyways. If you have not played it before, it doesn't take much explanation to figure out the game. We have always played bocce ball outside, so it is a novel idea to have an area with outdoor carpet.
I think it would be a lot of fun to go play bocce ball when it is snowing and negative temperatures. The basic rules is that you have 2 teams with 4 larger balls each and one small ball. The idea is to get as many of your large balls closest to the small ball and you get point for each ball that is closest so you will get 1 - 4 points per frame. It's similar to curling if you are familiar with that, just no brushing. You can read how to play bocce ball here. And yes, they do provide a tape measure for those times when the balls seem close in distance. You would be surprised how many times you opt to default to the accurate results of a tape measure.
Now that we have been there once, we hope to go back again. I would love to check it out on a Monday night for the $10 Bottomless Spaghetti and Meatball and Chopped Salad. Next time I think we will arrive after 5pm because that must be when the valet starts (we got there 5 minutes before 5) but there is a parking ramp connected to the building that Pinstripes is in, so it's a short walk if you don't find a spot in the lot outside.
It's fall in MN and the weather is starting to get chilly and a couple of the neat things that we saw that Pinstripes in Edina did was they had a box of blankets outside that you could use in front of the fire they had. Also, we saw them bringing out mugs of hot cocoa to the patrons that were waiting outside for a table.
