
Location
3220 W. Lake St., Minneapolis
GOOGLE MAP • YELP • WEBSITE
Ratings
| Location: | ★★★★ |
| Atmosphere: | ★★★★ |
| Coffee: | ★★★★★ |
| Food: | ★★★★★ |
| Service: | ★★★★ |
| Vibe: | ★★★★ |
| Overall: | ★★★★½ |
Pros
Nails the European bakery vibe pretty well…
Cons
…for a place in a strip mall.
Review
It’s safe to say that prior to this morning, Rustica was not on my radar. I didn’t even know it existed. But presented with the opportunity to run around Lake Calhoun and then head off to a nearby coffeehouse for a review, it came up as an option and I decided to give it a try.
I don’t spend a lot of time in Uptown these days, but I lived on Hennepin Avenue for a couple of years in my mid-20s. At the time I was incredibly disdainful of the strip mall at the northwest corner of Lake Calhoun. It felt like an incursion of suburban banality straight into the hip urban heart. (Yes, I was that pretentious.) Now that I live elsewhere, on the rare occasions when I do get to Uptown, I still don’t feel like hanging out in a strip mall.
But times have changed in Uptown, even at the strip mall. The anchor restaurant space that was, in my Uptown days, occupied by — good God are you kidding me?! — an Applebees is now the home of Burger Jones. And, whether Rustica was here back in the ’90s or not, it’s here now, and it’s worth a visit.
Rustica is a European bakery. From the (yes) rustic decor to the high quality pastries and traditional European-style espresso drinks (no 20-ounce cappuccinos here), it looks and feels the part. Even the table I’m working at is real wood, distressed by age and use (probably as a door), not the workers at the Pottery Barn factory. (Unfortunately it also has a large crack running most of its length that prevents my laptop from sitting evenly on its surface. Yes, a petty complaint.)
I decided to put Rustica’s bakers to the test by ordering my least favorite kind of pastry: a scone. I know some people like scones, but I always find them almost inedible… hard, dry and crumbly. They make a mess and they make me thirsty. But while Rustica’s scones meet those basic criteria, they are light and delicate and oh-so-delicious. I recommend the chocolate orange scone… chunks of high quality dark chocolate and crystalized orange pieces. Fantastic.
The scone pairs quite well with the traditional European cappuccino, which was expertly prepared. The coffee may not be in Kopplin’s territory, but it’s every bit as good as Angry Catfish.
I had read before arriving (in the Google reviews) that sometimes the service at Rustica can be a little sub-par, but that was not my experience. The barista was friendly and fast… this may be the least amount of time I’ve ever had to wait for a cup of coffee this good. There’s plenty of seating and free Wi-Fi (of course), although there are no “comfy” seating areas and the furniture and lighting are not necessarily optimal for getting serious work done.
Do I need to rethink my negative assumptions about places in strip malls? I think so. Rustica deserves more respect than that.






OK, so I’m not likely to put any baristas at 
