318

Coming up with a tagline for the 318 would make for a great contest. Is it a coffee shop? Breakfast spot? Music venue? Wine bar? Easy enough, it’s all of the above, so the owners have gone with “café and coffee bar by day; live music and wine bar by night.” Kind of a mouthful, don’t you think?

The well-kept secret about 318 is that it’s not just for music. For breakfast, lunch or dinner, you can’t go wrong with healthy scratch cooking at affordable prices. Items like rustic pizza with bacon, apple, walnut and Gorgonzola on a house-made crust are permanent fixtures. And couldn’t we all stand for a thrifty meal for two, including wine, in the $30 range?

Desserts are also made from scratch. Dozens of very pretty red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting are devoured here on a daily basis (we certainly did our part). Luscious layered carrot cake, tres leches and caramel flan are other fantastic staples for sweet tooths.

If you are headed there for the music, the 318 is all about bands that are “a little cooler than the size of the room,” as owner Matty O’Reilly, who is usually behind the bar, describes it. Reservations are accepted and recommended for the musical acts, which range from jazz to bluegrass to reggae.

Where does 318 fit into your evening out in Excelsior? I’m thinking dessert, espresso and wine, maybe even on the outdoor deck, if you don’t mind squeezing in with a few of your neighbors. (318 Water St.; 952.401.7902; three-eighteen.com)

Tammy Sproule Kaplan is a Twin Cities food writer who contributes regularly to such local publications as METRO magazine and Minnesota Bride. She’s been in the restaurant business since her teenage years, first as a waitress and then as wife of restaurant owner Joe Kaplan, of Joe’s Garage Restaurant in Minneapolis.