I partake in restaurant food more than I should. It's easy and while I do like to cook, it's kind of crummy to cook for one person.

That said, I tend to frequent the same spots over and over again, and as a creature of habit I tend to order the same thing.

The other day I was walking around St. Paul at lunch. It was a beautiful day and I was thinking of maybe going for some Chicken Satay at the little Thai place however as a was walking I noticed some cute bistro tables set up in the restaurant where A Rebours used to be. Goes to show you that I don't leave my office very much because apparently this new restaurant isn't so new.

Meritage, takes the ambience of the really too small restaurant and offers and eccletic French-sorta menu that was a tad pricey for an everyday lunch but for a treat suited me fine.

I ordered steak frittes. Just to compare theirs with A. Rebours. The frittes were lovely. The bernaise had too much lemon for my tastes and I think the herb in it was too finely chopped for my tastes too, plus they charged extra for it which was annoying.

The steak was a bit on the rare side of medium but nicely seasoned. I was thinking though I probably could have gotten away with just eating a plate of frittes for lunch. (Those who eat with me on a regular basis know that after awhile I just stop eating and typically leave 1/4 of the food on my plate, mostly because of portion control.) However I ate every fritte. Even though I probably shouldn't have.

The thing that bugged me about the restaurant was the servers. Kind of highbrow for St. Paul, they were required to explain the specials to the n-th degree....and in particular I asked one what was in an odd looking jar that he had just delivered to a guest and his explanation was something about pork, sitting in rendered fat with a puree of figs that you apparently spread on bread and is just delicious.

He then shared the specials. Everything was explained. The tomato confit, some sort of peruvian vegatable...all the steps the chef takes...honestly while I appreciate the food network sometimes it's best if the mystery of how it gets cooked just stays in the kitchen.

All in all this place was decent. A tad expensive for something like soup and 1/2 sandwich but I'm sure with the Republicans coming to town in a few months they will be hoppin.