Relish Trays

Friday Night we ate at Mancini’s in St Paul. Mancini’s is a classic old school super club located on West 7th street in St Paul. There are red speckled vinyl booths in the lounge with lots of brass railings scattered throughout. There is a cover band and pull tabs in the lounge. The crowd varies from 20-80 and like most places in St paul you would be at home in a cocktail dress or a Minnesota Wild Jersey and jeans.
Mancini’s specializes in a few cuts of beef and fish. Your entrée comes with brown and white garlic toast which is soft and doughy inside and crisp and buttery outside with grill marks from the grill. The bread is unique and offers something special unique to Mancini’s in its presentation. Steaks come with baked potatoes – still in the foil like all good supper clubs. Butter and Sour Cream however come in tiny single serve cups which does not make me happy, What ever happened to the Lazy Susan’s filled with sour cream, butter, bacon, cheese and chives? Bring back the lazy Susan.

Kurt and I have always loved a super club and lately I have become obsessed with the relish tray. Mancini’s has a relish tray. It is an old wooden bowl filled with slices of tomato, pickle chips and cherry peppers submerged in Italian dressing. I like it, I wish it had more stuff on it but I appreciate the effort and I like it. The relish tray standard I am comparing it to is, the old Country Club in Waupaca Wisconsin. I would eat there as a kid with my family for holidays and I recall their tray as the best. Black olives, celery, carrots, radish and herring are what I remember alongside a bread basket of packaged crackers, breadsticks and butter in little ceramic pots I remember putting one black olive on each finger- tip and there barely being enough to get both hands covered.

On Saturday we ate at the Twin Cities Grill in the Mall of America. I had salmon with a horseradish crust and creamed spinach. While I was scanning the menu I noticed at the very bottom that on Sundays they celebrate Supper clubs by having a relish tray and a “house” salad served with your entrée to share. The bartender said it’s a great relish tray complete with cheese ball with nuts smashed into the outside - How fun!

The last relish tray I know of is at Jensen’s Supper Club in Eagen. This is a homey spot that in addition to the relish tray has a popover that is served with the salad. For many, the popovers alone make it worth the trip. Jensen’s relish tray is pretty much celery, onions and carrots with a ramekin of dressing to dip served on the side. The tray isn’t fancy but they get points for having one.
Anyone else know of any great relish trays or steak houses in town?