North Coast Food
Atlas of the high and low
Heavy Table remains a can’t-miss web destination for good reason: It often captures a Twin Cities dining scene that grows in sophistication by the year while remaining resolutely suspicious of pretention. So The Secret Atlas of North Coast Food, helmed by Heavy Table editor James Norton, compiles essays and maps (literal, conceptual) in an entertaining push-pull between celebrating the high-end things on our plates with the homeier side of a region’s appetites. Thus a spread on the landscape of Minneapolis chefs (Schoenfeld to Bartmann to Flicker) sits alongside the cartography of East Lake, an olfactory tour of TC chow, the experiences of immigrant chefs, and the local origins of ice-cream truck music. Like the scene itself, it’s a searching work-in-progress, appealing both for its scope and undertow of affectionate skepticism.