Diggin’ In: “Wow!” Says It All for Wise Acre Eatery

Sophisticated comfort food in a converted garage — of course.

You walk in the door and know something unique and fun is about to happen. Wise Acre Eatery’s converted garage space houses an intimate, rustic 55-seat dining room (it expands to 95 seats in warmer months, taking in patio seating), and what happens here is synergistic and magical.

Head Chef Dan Schmit explains the three facets of the Wise Acre enterprise: the restaurant which we experienced, the CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program which brings subscribers fresh produce from the company’s Tangletown Gardens Farm, and the on-site deli case filled with soups, sauces and “staples” like Chicken Wild Rice, Korean Curry and Jambalaya. In addition, freezers and coolers filled with proteins also raised on the organization’s farm facility (such as thick-cut bacon) line the walls. In-house chicken stock? Sure. On-site baked cookies? You bet. You name it, it’s here.

This bountiful, efficient space is owned by Scott Endres and Dean Engelmann who became business partners after meeting in a U of M agriculture program. Both farm boys by heritage, they respect the land and they respect the food it provides. Endres explains the Wise Acre philosophy of providing “everyday food for everyone, served in an absolutely authentic way with the best quality possible.” Endres notes that 80-90% of the food served at Wise Acre is sourced from the company’s farm. Wise Acre’s dedicated team of 18-20 employees brings it all together.

When the business partners founded the adjacent Tangletown Gardens garden center 22 years ago, Endres says, there were initially no plans to acquire the “under-loved, under-appreciated” auto repair shop next door that eventually changed hands to become Liberty Frozen Custard before it evolved into Wise Acre in 2010. But, Endres recalls, “We wanted to produce something that was complimentary to what our garden center was doing, and that also had some connection to our farm.” The rest is delicious history.

Schmit, by contrast, didn’t start out on a farm: he started with machines in a mechanical engineering program which occupied him for three years until he found himself in an unhappy internship designing widgets on a computer. “I decided on another field where I got to be hands-on — I like making things,” he says.

Schmit garnered the beginnings of his culinary expertise at Minneapolis Community Technical College and became acquainted with the farm-direct initiative via his first job at another restaurant. “I got interested in serving food that could be sourced locally,” he says.

Schmit then bounced around from one restaurant to another for several years, and finally landed at farm-to-table Birchwood Cafe in Minneapolis, where a 10-year tenure ended when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and “things sort of fell apart there,” he says. Personal connections led Schmit to Wise Acre in October 2020, and he was glad to be able to continue working with the farm-to-table philosophy “even more.”

Endres also recalls the pandemic and its effects, as Wise Acre entered “a survival mode” that fueled the evolution of the establishment. “The pandemic actually gave us license to try new things — to try new models,” Endres says, such as incorporating farm-direct grocery items into the cozy but limited space Wise Acre inhabits.

“People weren’t going out to dinner anymore,” Endres notes, so the food had to find its way to customers via other avenues: “We expanded our deli offerings and [created] meal kits and the sort of thing.” The daytime-only facet of Wise Acre was also formulated in the winter of 2020.

Endres explains that eliminating dinner service allowed Wise Acre’s team to more sustainably create and serve the breakfast, brunch and lunch favorites for which the venue had become known. Focus and efficiency are watch-words at Wise Acre, and the establishment’s “bandwidth,” Schmit notes, allows for events such as a Valentine’s Brunch and a Winter Dinner series which showcases the “creative vision” of Wise Acre’s talented staff. The August Farm Supper offers a feast for the senses served in a field, while a September Harvest Dinner brings a cornucopia of food grown on the company’s farm to a fine dining experience served in the parking lot.

Over an acre of greenhouse space means salad greens and some other ingredients in Wise Acre’s food are “day-of” harvested year-round, Schmit says. He is careful to point out that Wise Acre’s evolving menu includes a daily soup special, sandwich special and veggie scramble special. You won’t get bored eating at Wise Acre: “There’s always something new,” Schmit notes, and “the menu changes based on what we have.”

And what they have, child, is great food!

Wise Acre Eatery
5401 Nicollet Ave. S., Minneapolis
(612) 354-2577
www.wiseacreeatery.com

---

The Chana Masala Curry Bowl: chickpeas, onion, tomato, masala spice, jasmine rice and cilantro. Available carnitas, Korean beef, ham, grilled chicken or egg. This curry dish has spice, but is not overwhelming — it didn’t kick my butt with heat, but rather foreshadowed the freshness of the ingredients with a curry prelude, all in accordance with Wise Acre’s overall philosophy of fresh-tasting food. Nicely prepared rice and very bright cilantro. Don’t forget the thoughtful garnish of an edible flower.

Smoky Pepper Chicken Sandwich: “This is one of our signature items,” Schmit notes. It’s a chicken thigh, cabbage slaw, pickles, smoky pepper sauce and mayo on a bun from local bakery Baker’s Field. The smoky pepper sauce (which incorporates honey and vinegar with peppers) is available in Wise Acre’s deli case, and you’ll want to pick up about a gallon of the savory stuff. We had the grilled version of this sandwich, as served most of the year — currently, the chicken is fried. But it doesn’t matter, as the creamy ingredients and the hearty whole wheat bun compliment the chicken-tasting chicken that’s the point of this nosh. The base of this great “sando” shouldn’t be concealed, and it’s not.

The Breakfast Sandwich we had is one of several variations on the comestible served throughout the year. Sausage, bacon or carnitas, fried egg, microgreens, a pimento cheese spread and — uniquely — kimchi, all served on an English muffin. We had sausage: flavorful and a bit peppery. Like many of Wise Acre’s offerings, the overall experience of this dish brings together international influences in what Endres aptly describes as an “approachable” way. You’re not eating exotic food; you’re eating fun food that includes exotically rendered ingredients, and it’s just plain tasty. The pimento cheese component really gives this sandwich a kick.

“Brunch Bowl is our most popular dish,” Schmit says. Homefries, cheesy scrambled eggs, seasonal vegetables (we had sweet and sour cabbage, but sometimes it’s grilled zucchini or fresh tomato), pickled vegetables, rosemary garlic aioli, and an available meat add-on of carnitas, Korean beef or grilled chicken (we had carnitas — no regrets). There’s no denying it: the components of this hearty fave brunch bowl make it a complete brunch in a bowl (did I just write that?), and you don’t need to look any further for a mid-morning meal that satisfies.

Rum, cinnamon and brown sugar go into an outstanding bread pudding that’s then transformed into an improbably delicious French toast, topped with squash maple syrup, whipped cream and toasted walnuts. This dish made my taste buds happy with discretion. It doesn’t attack with harsh, fake maple syrup or too-much sweetness — this French toast is civilized. My only wish: more toasted walnuts to eagerly gather up from the side of the plate. Just wonderful.

These are just some of the high points of Wise Acre’s menu, to say nothing of the deli case and grocery offerings on hand. Check it out!

Endres concludes better than I can: “Our food is the closest distance from the earth to the hand and the mouth. It’s the best food that can be grown.”

A bold statement.

And true.