Dining in--Minneapolis/St. Paul cookbook

French Onion Soup Green Salad with Sour Cream Dressing Standing Prime Rib Roast Yorkshire Pudding Stuffed Tomato Baked Apples Wine: Cabernet Sauvignon Bill Kozlak, Proprietor Kenneth Wolf, Executive Chef JAXICAEE 1910 Stan Kozlak erected a brick building to house his various [I businesses. It was converted to Jax Cafe in 1933—the moment prohibition ended—and its grand mahogany bar has been a monument to northeast Minneapolis’s hospitality ever since. Joe Kozlak, the eldest of Stan’s five boys, expanded the business in 1943 as his own family expanded. Today it is managed by Joe’s son Bill, born just a block away and recruited early on to help his mother and brothers in the kitchen. Today Bill’s practiced eye roves the series of comfortable wood-paneled dining rooms and the garden patio beyond with its slowly turning millwheel, waterfall, and trout stream, where guests can net their own dinners and pose for photos on its grassy banks. The fish come fresh from the Kozlak’s rural Minnesota trout farm. Other seafood, including the lobsters that sport in the bar’s aquarium, are flown in with regularity. Minnesota walleyed pike is nearly as popular as the aged and cut-to-order tenderloins and New York strips upon which Jax has staked its reputation and which, as Bill notes, prove to be quite a competition: “You're in mid-America; beef’s the big seller.” Nevertheless, also popular are the house chowder, clams casino, and creamy Caesar salad, not to mention the Viennese dinners that Kozlak throws whenever the spirit moves him or whenever the customers insist. They come—sixteen busloads at a time—for the weekend football lunches which are “a tradition. It’s the thing to do.” It is a place for celebrations of all kinds. Kids which Bill once lifted into highchairs are now returning with kids of their own. Birthday cakes appear with regularity from the kitchen, with a few more candles as the years go by. Couples celebrate their fiftieth anniversaries here in the hall where they held their wedding dances. “Lots of people get engaged at these tables and come back to get married in the patio,” says Bill, as he sends a complimentary bottle of champagne to the newlyweds holding hands at the window table. The numerous framed awards on the restaurant’s walls are bronze testimonials to Jax’s good food. Even more treasured is the longstanding place of honor that it holds in its patrons’ hearts. Bill’s Minnesotan philosophy sums it up: “Treat your customers like friends you have invited into your home.” 1928 University Avenue N.E. Minneapolis FRENCH ONION SOUP 2 chicken bouillon cubes 3 tablespoons flour 2 beef bouillon cubes Ya cup sherry 4 large onions, peeled 6 slices French bread and halved Y2 cup grated Parmesan cheese 4 tablespoons butter (approximately) . Ina large saucepan, bring 1% quarts water to boil and dissolve the chicken and beef bouillon cubes. Reduce heat. . Thinly slice the onions and separate the rings. In a sauté pan placed over very low heat, slowly sauté the onion rings in the butter, stirring with a wooden spoon untii they become transparent and barely amber. . Sprinkle the flour over the onions and stir until blended. While continuing to stir, add the sherry and simmer 3 minutes. . Add the onion mixture to the bouillon; bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Immediately reduce heat and simmer 20 minutes. . Toast the French bread slices and sprinkle them with grated Parmesan cheese. Ladle the hot soup into six warmed bowls and float one slice over each. Serve at once. GREEN SALAD WITH SOUR CREAM DRESSING 6 small heads Bibb lettuce 2 tablespoons grated onion or 3 heads romaine or 1 clove garlic, minced 6 hard-cooked eggs, chopped Pinch of cayenne pepper 1 cupsourcream Salt 2. tablespoons lemon juice