J. Selby's

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J. Selby's

Date: June 14, 2024

169 Victoria Street S

St Paul, MN 55104

Phone: (651) 222-3263

https://www.jselbys.com

I’m a publisher, both print and web. Periodically I get asked about writer’s block. I don ‘t get it. Why? It’s simple, you get writers block because you don’t bring new things into your life. New experiences, new people and in today’s case NEW FOOD. You can ward off writer’s block by making your brain rewire and learn about new things. E & I do so weekly.
E&I are omnivores… Some days we border on carnivores. Remember, if we were not to eat animals god would not have made them so tasty.
That said, part of life should be experiences all that food has to offer. We were asked the other day what our favorite Vegan restaurant was. I told them let me get back to you in a month. At which time I got the look from E. Well, we talked about it and agreed sometimes you need to push the envelope to expand the envelope. So, when I asked online it seems J. Selby was the preferred choice in Vegan restaurants. So, E booked it.
Let’s start out with though we have Vegan friends, we live different lives and find different things important. That doesn’t mean we can’t like the same foods. That said when I asked people what we should order, what was good, the only answer it seemed I got was cauliflower. OK I’ll admit I don’t have daily conversations with a lot of Vegans.
So, after our Friday wine tasting, off to Selby & Dale we went. Actually, J Selbys is closer to Victoria than Dale… either way midtown south of 94. The place was nice, kind of non-descriptive to the many 100-year-old buildings with restaurants. I dropped E off and upon entrance she told me we should stand and read the menu, order then find a place to sit. That’s not how we do things… I know trouble already.
So, we found a table, spread out the menu and wine list and started our decision. Scratch that, they have no wine at J Selbys. So, we looked at the one-page menu. One page/two sides is good when you have no idea. Not like 90-page wine lists we have been greeted with.
We normally have an appetizer, perhaps a salad, some bread, and an entrée all of which we split. Didn’t work so well at J Selby. Neither E nor I could find a killer entrée’ to share. So, she went with the Gyro, and I went with the BLT. Hell, I have no idea what the B stood for, but it was brown and crunchy. I eat bacon every morning about a foot from our Springer & Vizsla, we ALL like bacon. The menu did not help us decide what we were eating.
Then E decided she wanted French Fries something that is always good. I don’t know why but I felt French Fries were a bit strange for a Vegan place. Hey, I was out of my realm. The French Fries were not to die for, but they were ok. I found some French-Fried mushrooms which seemed much more in keeping with the place. They were huge, the size of a small child’s hand. E had one I had six. They were all right but again not to die for.
Last week at the Italian restaurant we had the entrée’ wasn’t great but they had a salad just like we used to get from salad bars. A blast from my past. So, I thought worse case I could enjoy a great salad at the vegan place. But I did not find J Selby’s salad great or fresh. E thought it was made earlier in the day. It was just not the salad we had hoped for.
I forgot, to drink E had an Arnold Palmer and I had a very tasty Strawberry shake. E thought she could taste the oats in it… but then she is working on the different places Pinot Noir she tastes could be from as I am still working on the red/white thing. She needs to explain food tastes to me on occasion.
To take a step back, we ordered after we decided and then got our number which they brought our food out. Totally different than the personal service we got with Marge our waitress the week before. But the food was brought out promptly.
I showed E the bill after I brought it back and she pointed out a few line items. From the $64.50 bill add $9.68 for 15% for Employee Wellness Charge, State tax of $5.72, 17c for Metro area housing and 48c for Metro area transportation taking that $64.50 bill to $80.55. We paid the same charges as last week, but last week they were added to the price of the food before we ordered them. Just thought you should know. If you are on a budget the extra $20 can be tough.

Will we be returning? I don’t think so…. though the strawberry shake….
But that said our favorite Vegan place to eat is officially J Selbys.