DeRusha Eats

DeRusha Eats is on the road in Aspen, Colorado at the 41st annual FOOD & WINE Classic in Aspen. Hear from the three finalists in Bravo's Top Chef TV Culinary competition:  Milwaukee’s Dan Jacobs, North Carolina's Savannah Miller and New York City's Danny Garcia. Plus, are restaurants taking themselves too seriously? Maybe we all are. Chef Kwame Onwuachi reminds us: "It's just dinner." Minnesot...

Sameh Wadi was a culinary prodigy in his low 20’s. Competed on Food Network’s Iron Chef at age 24. Had his own fine dining Mediterranean restaurant, Saffron at age 23. But after a decade, he was burned out and closed it. In the interim, his fast-casual World Street Kitchen and ice cream shop Milkjam have taken his energy. But now, post-COVID, he’s returning to his roots and rebooting his first lov...

What is Minnesota barbeque? Is it a thing? We have seen more and more success in the upper midwest as pitmasters try to create their own flavors and businesses. In the North Metro, both Smokey’s BBQ and Jellybean and Julia’s have found large audiences and more than a decade of success. Chris Leibel talks about Smokey’s Pub & Grill in the East Bethel area. Koli and Cory Swap run Jellybean and J...

Two of my favorite restaurants in the 651 of St Paul Minnesota share their stories of Refining St. Paul food in DeRusha Eats. Jason Hansen and Peter Sebastian talk about their Spanish-inspired bar and restaurant Estelle and their sandwich and pizza shop Mario’s. Meanwhile on the East Side, Tongue In Cheek has been getting it done for a decade. Leonard Anderson, his wife, Ashleigh Newman, and Ryan...

Let’s talk coffee. From the biggest coffee company in Minnesota… innovating around the world. To one of the smallest roasters, growing throughout our cities. Sam Kjellberg is a third wave coffee roaster at SK Coffee. How does he go about crafting flavors- and how did he start SK Coffee? We’ll get into it. PLUS Gretchen Hashemi-Rad runs the Caribou Coffee Beverage Category. How does she and her tea...

Chefs Mateo Mackbee and Erin Lucas left Minneapolis for St. Joseph, a small central Minnesota college town, where they’re bringing New Orleans cuisine, racial diversity, and a lot of love to their restaurant Krewe. Josh Petzel spent his career running restaurants in the Twin Cities, and left for a Wisconsin River town to raise his family and open the Great River Roadhouse. What’s it like to leave...

Maple Grove. Minnetonka. Eagan. Suburbs of the Twin Cities with restaurant owners who are there to sponsor the football and basketball and volleyball teams. The owners of Malone’s, Scoreboard Grill, Jimmy’s Food, and Brianno’s share what it takes to make it work and make it last in the suburbs.

Jumping into small business ownership can mean taking a big risk. Karl Benson and Marie Dwyer teamed up with chef Gavin Kaysen to build a bakery into their home goods and kitchen store. Vanessa Drews credits an encounter with Prince for helping her leap into owning her own cheesecake business, Cheesecake Funk.

They are legends! Two family-owned restaurants, one with 50 years in the Twin Cities, the other with 90. It’s hard to imagine our food scene without Keys Cafe - Barbara Hunn is now on 4 generations of family working at these spots, with legendary breakfast. And think of anniversaries, proms, any special occasion in town without being able to go to Northeast Minneapolis and Jax Cafe. The Kozlak fam...

Hop in the car and get out of the Twin Cities Metro with two iconic stops: King’s Bar and Grill in Miesville in known for 100+ burgers on the menu. Located across from a corn-flanked baseball field, people travel from all over to King’s. And on the banks of the St. Croix River in Wisconsin, Pete Foster has built a little empire with three restaurants in Hudson. They explain what’s different about...

Both Ann Kim and Justin Sutherland were high school speech competitors, both at Apple Valley High School, in the Minneapolis suburbs. That foundation of storytelling has served both well as they’ve become celebrity chefs. Ann Kim was featured on Netflix’s Chef’s Table, she’s just opened her first restaurant focusing on her Korean-American cuisine. Justin Sutherland is the host of “Taste The Cultur...

Two entrepreneurs building their restaurant empires. Randy Stanley has two high-end modern steakhouses in the Twin Cities suburbs. Mark Toth is building a fast-casual chain of restaurants called Urban Wok. How do they find inspiration? What challenges have they overcome?

Two farmers for this episode of DeRusha Eats: One is a cheesemaker, Alise Sjostrom, her cheese company Red Head Creamery wins awards all over the world. What’s life like in the central minnesota town of Brooton? Trisha Zachman’s farm, Feathered Acres, isn’t that far from Brooton- Stearns County, Minnesota. Trisha and her husband practice regenerative hog farming - what’s that about? We can’t enjoy...

She’s a woman who owns a butcher shop! An unusual combination, but Teena Matson joins us to talk about why she thinks women have an advantage in this traditionally male-business. She owns Anoka Meats in the north suburbs of Minneapolis. Plus Jill Holter, talks about how one of the oldest co-ops in the country, the Wedge in Minneapolis, has adjusted with the times and with the increased competition...

Two of our most awarded chefs, both James Beard Award winners, talk about the challenges in their businesses. Sean Sherman’s Indigenous-focused restaurant Owamni was named Best New Restaurant in America by the Beard Foundation. What is Indigenous cuisine? Why has it been so hard for Native Chefs to get started? And Alex Roberts won Best Chef: Midwest in 2010, how he’s achieved more than 20 years w...

A national bartending competitor, a CEO driving innovation in CBD, THC, seltzers, sodas and beer, and a founder who's started multiple drinks companies. What's new, what's hot, what's coming? GUESTS: Jessi Pollak, Bar Manager, Spoon and Stable; Janet Johanson, CEO of Bev Source and The Lab; Joe Heron, founder of Bar Diver, Crispin Cider

Since 1950. Al’s breakfast has been part of the fabric of the minnesota food scene. What are we without our icons and classics. The spots that have been a part of life since before we were around. The spots we take our kids so they understand that they’re part of something bigger. Al’s Breakfast is that to Minnesota. It’s won most awards out there, and a former server, Alison Kirwin, is now the ow...

Two risk-takers. Innovators. Building an audience for great food in unexpected locations. Justin Ahlstrom and his wife opened Margie’s in a North Suburb of Andover. Craft cocktails. Food from scratch. Live music. Just a great scene. And Mik German - a master of the burger… who’s carved out a niche of terrific, creative bar food inside an American Legion Hall in St. Paul Park, the 328 grill. 

Two men who both should be in the mix for the next cycle of the James Beard Awards: Jorge Guzman has been there, Gustavo Romero should be there. Jorge Guzman  has been a beard award nominee for his work as the executive chef at Surly Brewing’s A Brewers Table… an awesome restaurant. He’s been at Solera, a distillery in LaCrosse, and now at Petite Leon in Minneapolis - we talk about expectations of...

Three powerhouse women making a real difference in St. Paul, Minnesota. One - the daughter of a founder, Milissa Silva is running her family’s business, El Burrito Mercado. We talk grocery, we talk the pain that comes with change, as she is mixing up the way her store does food service. Plus, two women who met in Chicago working at Girl and the Goat, have come back to St. Paul to open a modern clu...

I’m fascinated by the creative process in restaurants. How do you avoid the regular. The boring. The road oft traveled. Two real creative people here… Steve Schussler is the creative genius behind Rainforest Cafe. He’s created dozens of interactive restaurant concepts - including the incredibly successful Boathouse in Downtown Disney in Orlando Florida. His lab is based in suburban Minneapolis - h...

An East Coast businesswoman left a lucrative career in investment banking to follow her husband to the Twin Cities - but food kept calling Lindsay Pohlad. She attended culinary school and opened a restaurant in her adopted home of Wayzata right as the pandemic began. The Grocers Table was named MInnesota Monthly’s restaurant of the year - she shares the story of her number one seller, THE Chocolat...

An emotional episode: featuring Jamie Yoo, a Korean immigrant who lost his job when his high end restaurant Bellecour shut down during the pandemic. Yoo felt like a failure, considered quitting the field, until he ended up at a food hall in Minneapolis. Abang Yoli has been a huge hit with it’s flavorful Korean Fried Chicken among other treats. Plus, John Ng and Lina Goh came to the Twin Cities fro...

The runaway hit new food at Target Field is a combination of high tech and high culinary. Is there anywhere else in the country you can get a 4-piece of chicken? Jared Brewington talks about being a black businessman and bringing broasted chicken to Twins fans. And hopefully beyond. Plus Khalid Ansari is a restaurant baby - growing up with his sister in his dad’s suburban Mediterranean restaurant....

Two Minnesota women leaders talk about inspiration, creativity and their top-notch restaurants. Sarah Botcher is the chef/owner of Black Walnut Bakery - she finds inspiration in the routine of baking. Her croissants and cakes are among Minnesota’s finest. Karyn Tomlinson has cooked around the world, her St. Paul restaurant Myriel is taking fresh, local ingredients and bringing them to new heights....