So, where do you go to get a good pie around here?
We ate 14 pies from as far away as the North Shore and Osseo, WI, in order to figure who’s slinging a decent home-style pie in our part of the world.
The results: A few real gems, some fixer-uppers, and a healthy handful of horrifying pie wrecks. (Read on to see whose pie is “positively criminal,” and whose is “fantastic — I would eat it for breakfast after eating it for dessert.”)
Read the full story at HeavyTable.com
Barbara to Throw Out The First Pitch!
Barbara Hunn owner of Keys Café and Bakery will throw out the first pitch at the May 25th Twins game. Stop by your neighborhood Keys Cafe for a chance to win tickets!
"Keys Cafe Twin Ticket Giveaway"
Keys Cafe Apple Pie on Kare 11
GOLDEN VALLEY, Minn.-- Barbara Hunn and her daughter Jean Hunn from Keys Café and Bakery stopped by our KARE 11 Kitchen to show us how to make their signature apple pie.
Read the full story and see video at Kare 11
Check out Keys Cafe Roseville with JoinTaste of the Twin Cities
Keys Witches Take To The Streets!
The Keys Witches visited each of the Keys Café locations on October 31st, 2008 to see customers
and thank them for their business.
Ground Breaking on New Keys Café Location in Forest Lake!
The newest location is scheduled to open in the Spring of 2009. Check back for details.
MSNBC Live From Keys!
MSNBC broadcasted live from Keys Robert Street during the Republican National Convention.
Keys Featured in New Coen Brothers Movie!
The Coen Brothers filmed a scene from their upcoming movie, "A Serious Man" Sept. 8th at Keys Cafe's Roseville location.
Keys Café Celebrates 30th Anniversary
ST. PAUL, MN (January 16, 2003) – The Keys Café, a fixture in the Twin Cities' restaurant scene, is entering its 30th year in business. Founded in 1973, Keys Café has been recognized both locally and nationally as one of the best places for breakfast and home cooking. Barbara Hunn-Miesen, who just turned 65 (buts looks 45) opened the first of now seven restaurants in the failed D's Café on Raymond Avenue in the St. Anthony area of St.Paul. Her mission at the time was to serve good home cooked food profitably... she had no plans for expanding, just simply to have one successful restaurant. Seven restaurants later, hosts of annual accolades and awards, Keys Café is now a Minnesota icon. The restaurants will begin be introducing a series of specials this fall to honor their founder and recognize their patrons for thirty years of successful dining.
Keys Café serves breakfast all day from at all locations…Two in St. Paul, Raymond Avenue and Robert Street, Minneapolis on Nicollett Ave., Woodbury on Weir Drive, White Bear Lake on 4th Street, Roseville on Lexington Avenue, and Spring Lake Park on University Avenue.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.
Dateline NBC on Eggs
A "Dateline: NBC" crew got eggs-actly the ambiance it was after last week at the Key's Cafe in Roseville. They wanted quiet so they could record the sound of eggs cooking for a segment on the inconsistent enforcement of a regulation that requires eggs to be kept in refrigerated areas. "Everybody - 65-70 people - had to be quiet," said Jean Hunn, who co-owns this locale with her brother Roy Hunn. It was like the shooting of an E.F. Hutton commercial. "Everything had to be quiet. They turned off all the vents and fans, all the air conditioning units, all our exhaust systems so they could hear the eggs. Then they listened to the eggs. It was very funny to us. I have no idea how this is going to come out," said Jean Hunn, whose eggs are cool. Mark Falstad photographed the eggs, Hunn said, while Heidi Hesse handled the sound bites. They recorded the sound of eggs in bowls and on the grill for the better part of six hours. The crew stuck around for breakfast - all had eggs in one form or another, including former WCCOer and now Dateliner Steve Eckert, a Key's regular. Breakfast cook Mark Ballus told Hunn he would have been less stressed if the crew had been from a local cable outfit. Well into the morning's shooting, Ballus said, I've had IT! Don't know whether IT came with eggs on the side.
'Ellen' finds fan, mimic
For a moment, Ellen Degeneres wasn't the funniest person shopping in a Beverly Hills clothing store. ABC's "Ellen" was spied at Barneys New York by Tiffany Wilson, owner of Minneapolis' V.I.P. salon. Wilson, who was vacationing in Smell-A, malodorous L.A., was examining wares in the exclusive area of Barneys when she spotted Degeneres, hair styled to stick up everywhichway and feet in her trademark Hush Puppies. Wilson tipped off her cousin Courtney Wilson, "That's Ellen." Degeneres looked up and gave Tiff "a very, very pleasant smile, kind of letting us know it was she." To jar Courtney's memory, Tiff lapsed into some Ellenesque silliness - dancing, slapping her tiny behind and singing "and booty slap, and booty slap. She did that booty--slap routine on some music awards show." Oh. "We happened to gain eye contact again, and Ellen burst into laughter," said Tiff. "She was really personable, just cool."
Jackie's a hushing bride
City Council Prez Jackie Cherryhomes was observed shopping for a wedding dress at Bloomies. She hit many Mall of America stores that day. "I'm not going to talk about where I'm getting the wedding dress from. I want to keep some of this stuff private," she said. "It's planned. It's happening. This is a very personal thing for me." Come on! Will the dress be strapless? White? Long? Give me something! "Something long," she conceded. "I'm a grown-up, and I'm going to have a nice dress." City Hall dwellers who believe that Cherryhomes has been grumpy of late, please note the "It's happening" quote. Perhaps she's not being friendly because she doesn't want to give anyone an opening to pry for details. The council prez is having trouble accepting that there is some curiosity about her nups with attorney F. Clayton Tyler - and not just from me.
Did it slip Arne's mind? Cherryhomes was more chatty about Gov. Arne Carlson's unilateral decision to send state troopers in to help Minneapolis manage its crime wave. Four days before Arne announced he was sending in the Big Boys and Girls, the governor didn't tip his hand while seated behind Cherryhomes at a State Theatre performance of Smokey Joe's Cafe. She said Carlson "didn't say a word" about his concern that Minneapolis' image is being damaged by the current crime spree. "We talked about the weather. We talked about his vacation," said Cherryhomes. She applauded acting Police Chief Lucy Gerold for her handling of a tough week in the news while Chief Robert Olson was on vacation.
Kat finds Wendy purrrty This 332-TIPS mewsing: "Hi C.J., Kat Woman. Funny you should write about Wendy Lubovich, because I just met her at a recent very happening bash in Hudson, Wisconsin. She was very nice. She looked beautiful in a hip, short, black dress. She was really friendly, fun to talk to. And we started talking shopping, and I told her how great the county market in Hudson was; so she might start shopping there. So tell the guys who called and asked about her that she looked fabulous. I love your column. This is Katherine Lenaburg, Kat Woman Productions (a video production company). Thanks, bye."
Boffo baby news
Tyler James Harris is only a month old and already he's a movie star. He cries, he flies, he naps during photo shoots. Jimmy Jam and Lisa Harris produced a darling baby boy and an incredible birth announcement. Wow.
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Keys to Success
Barbara Hunn Petersen opened her new 160-seat restaurant in Roseville the Friday before Labor Day, a seemingly unpropitious bit of timing considering the tendency folks have to head out of town on the last holiday weekend of the summer. There was no fanfare, no advertising, no grand-opening hoopla. "We just turned on the `Open' sign and unlocked the door,"said Petersen, 51
Whereupon a four-day marathon ensued
Customers began streaming in to the restaurant on Lexington Pkwy. and Larpenteur Av. shortly after the 6 a.m. opening, and by 8 a.m. the place was full
And it stayed pretty well full for all three meals through the next four days, a development that kept Petersen, her four children and two sons-in-law hopping through 12- to 17-hour days as they labored to train the staff and shake out all the glitches. She even shanghaied her sales executive husband, Jim, and her 71-year-old mother, MargueriteBova, to pitch in
By the time the weekend was over the place had gone through 300 pounds of turkey, 160 pounds of roast beef and 250 pounds of hamburger
The four-day take: close to $18,000
It was, in short, business as usual for the Keys Restaurant chain, a financial and gastronomic phenomenon that has generated an army of fiercely loyal, undoubtedly somewhat overweight Twin Cities customers in the last 15 years
Consider: The four Keys restaurants that were operating in 1988 did about a $1.5 million volume, a figure that becomes even more impressive when you consider that two of the stores are open only for breakfast and lunch
There are several elements behind the success, one of which is best illustrated by recounting how I fell off my diet with a thud the first time I confronted a Keys restaurant, this one the emporium on Raymond Av. near University Av. in St. Paul
I had the best of intentions, I swear. In fact, with the diet in mind, I ordered the short stack of pancakes. Some short stack: There were just two pancakes, all right, but they were about the size of manhole covers, each of them measuring approximately an inch in thickness
Contrary to my father's rather inelegant adage - "better belly bust than food waste" - I left behind about a third of the short stack, which still amounted to enough pancake to make up a full order at most of the restaurants I frequent
The tab: $2.50
It could have been worse. I could have succumbed to the $1.25 homemade caramel roll, which is about the size of a bowling ball. Or I might have shelled out a buck for a freshly made cookie that would cover your average salad plate. Or have thrown caution to the winds and paid $1.95 for an order of hash browns that arrives separately on a king-sized platter
That's one of the secrets for Petersen's success: Across the menu, she offers imposing portions at moderate prices, all of which adds up to what I call "value." For example, the most expensive item on the dinner menu at the three locations that are open at that hour is grilled salmon, which is billed modestly as "wonderful" and goes for $6.95
Not only that, everything is made from scratch: the breads and the pastries, the soups and sauces, the potatoes and gravies. No canned or frozen foods, no portion-controlled helpings
"You won't find an open can in any of my kitchens," Petersen boasted. I am forced to report, however, that she was ordering out for at least one item: There was trouble with the potato peeler at the Lexington Pkwy. store, so she was buying fresh potatoes already peeled
There's a simple explanation for her decision to prepare her foods from scratch: "It's the only way I know how to cook," Petersen said. "And it's the way I like (food) prepared." The home-cooking style "absolutely" is a more expensive process that takes a fair-sized bite out of her profit margins, she conceded. "But I don't need to make a million dollars; I can pretty much buy whatever I want the way it is." Nevertheless, all of her restaurants are profitable, including the recently opened Lexington location
The chef responsible for this tasty entrepreneurial recipe is an energetic woman who professes to be unable to stay home with nothing to do because it tends to make her sick
Indeed, when Petersen quit working as a licensed practical nurse to raise her son and three daughters, she worked at a variety of odd jobs ranging from cleaning houses to cutting hair to cooking at a church summer camp. After the kids were older she spent several years clerking in a hardware store during the winter and managing a Dairy Queen in the summer
Then, in 1974, the woman who owned the Dairy Queen came up with a proposition: A 100-seat restaurant on Raymond Av. called Mr. D's was for sale. She had the capital to buy it, and Petersen clearly had the energy and capacity to run it. How about a partnership? The name came just as easily to Petersen: "My partner was heading for a vacation in the Florida Keys, and that sounded like paradise to me." The Raymond Av. restaurant - the "Keys Original," as it's called on the menu - was a surprising success, drawing a diverse crowd that on any given morning will range from pinstripes to hard hats and, on occasion, from wrestlers to politicians. It was so successful, in fact, that Petersen didn't even consider opening another restaurant
But then it became apparent that her daughter Jean Hunn was too accomplished to continue working in her mother's shadow at the Raymond Av. store. Hunn, now 29, is an ambitious, independent woman with "a good business sense," her mother said, "and we started bumping into each other" at the Keys Original
So, using accumulated profits from the Raymond Av. location, Petersen in 1983 bought a 75-seat restaurant in New Brighton, added another 55 seats a year later, and turned it over to Jean
That's been the pattern ever since: Whenever a family member felt ready to join the business, Petersen bought another restaurant, usually without having to borrow a dime
She opened two more Keys in 1987, a 130-seat restaurant in downtown St. Paul and a 160-seat unit in Brooklyn Park, which are run by her daughter, Carol Pace, 30, and her son-in-law, Rick Pace, 34
And now there's the Lexington, for which she borrowed $30,000 for equipment and furnishings. The general manager is Brian Carlson, 33, Petersen's son-in-law, and the night manager is her son, Roy Hunn, who also is her assistant manager at the Raymond Av. unit
Petersen's third daughter, Celine Carlson, 28, also is helping out in Roseville, but only temporarily. She was running the downtown St. Paul unit until recently but decided to retire to raise a family
With all of her children fully occupied with the existing Keys restaurants, you might think that Petersen is through expanding the chain
But I spotted one of her grandchildren, a lad of 15, slicing tomatoes in the kitchen of the Lexington Av. restaurant the other day, so I wouldn't rule out a new round of expansion in a few years.
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