Fall 2012 - RESTAURANT WEEK: October 21 - 26

Mpls St Paul Magazine's Restaurant Week is back for their Fall edition. Join us once again for three-course lunches and dinners at a special price!

Lunch — $20

LUNCH ONLY: Free glass of house wine to start or non-alcoholic beverage

Appetizer (Choose one):

Soup & Salad Bar - Prepared fresh daily, featuring two house-made soups.

Entrée (Choose one):

Pasta Vodka - Ground spicy Italian sausage, roasted red peppers and Prosciutto ham, simmered in a creamy vodka tomato sauce, tossed with penne pasta and topped with freshly grated parmesan cheese.
Minnesota Walleye - Grilled, Beer Battered or Panko Crusted with wild rice, vegetable du jour
Petite Martini Steak - A flat iron steak grilled and seasoned with all the makings of a martini (shaken not stirred) and garnished with St. Peter’s bleu cheese crumbles and green olives. Served with vegetable du jour and scalloped potatoes
Black and Bleu Pasta - Spicy beef tips sautéed with red onion, spinach, sun-dried tomatoes and bacon. Tossed in linguini noodles with a Southwest sauce and topped with bleu cheese crumbles
Almost Famous Chicken Sandwich - Grilled chicken breast, jalapeno aioli, chicken fried bacon, butter lettuce, avocado, tomato slices, 7 grain Ciabatta.
Legendary Ken Burger - Ken Davis Sweet and Smokey BBQ, Cheddar, sautéed onions, bacon
Kielbasa Mac and Cheese - Macaroni noodles, knights vail gouda, cheddar, grilled kielbasa sausage and fried leeks
Pastrami Sandwich - Hot pastrami on Russian rye bun with horseradish mustard, Swiss cheese, spicy house made pickles and an over easy egg. Served with pasta salad

Dessert (Choose one):

Molten Chocolate Lava Cake

Creme Brulee

New York Style Cheesecake

Dinner — $30

Bottles of wine from our award winning wine list are available all week at ½ price!

Appetizer (Choose one):

French Onion Soup

Caesar Salad

Classic Wedge
Winter Green

Entrée (Choose one):

Filet Mignon - 6oz center cut filet mignon, roasted shallot demi-glace, asparagus, roasted fingerling potatoes
Short Ribs - Slow braised short ribs, carrot ginger puree, foie gras butter, whipped Yukon gold potatoes, braising jus
Chicken Marsala - Chicken breast, classic marsala mushroom sauce, whipped yukon gold potatoes
Panko Crusted Walleye - Minnesota’s state fish hand breaded with parmesan seasoned Japanese bread crumbs, pan seared and served with lemon aioli sauce and rice pilaf
Grilled Salmon - Heirloom tomato-caper relish, lemon buerre blanc, fingerling potatoes
Top Sirloin - 8oz top sirloin on a bed of sautéed mushrooms and onions. Served with vegetable our famous scalloped potatoes
Kielbasa Mac & Cheese - Macaroni noodles, knights vail gouda, cheddar, grilled kielbasa sausage, fried leeks
Pork Tendorloin - Center-cut tenderloin, sweet potato hash, apple, brussel sprouts, apple cider lingon berry glaze. Candied bacon, cheddar ale biscuit
Martini Steak - A flat iron steak grilled and seasoned with all the makings of a martini (shaken not stirred) and garnished with St. Peter’s bleu cheese crumbles and green olives. Served with our famous scalloped potatoes

Dessert (Choose one):

Molten Chocolate Lava Cake

Creme Brulee

New York Style Cheesecake

Sounds great, right?! Well, we hope you'll join us through Friday for Restaurant Week. Secure your reservations by calling Woolley's at 952.854.1010 or online at Open Table. 

Dining on a Dime - Part 4: Outstanding Dining

The last post in our four-part series, Dining on a Dime, is dedicated to a group that not only helps people save their dining dollars, it also helps the community as well.

Outstanding Dining, the brainchild of our very own Director of Restaurants, Ben Berry, is a website that sells online restaurant certificates at a discount. Yet, it doesn't stop there. Outstanding Dining also donates 10% of sales to different non-profit partners.

Further setting themselves apart from other discount certificate sites, Outstanding Dining is committed to three main goals. First, they seek to save consumers money by offering a great deal on certificates to local, independent eateries. Second, they want to help non-profits through their commitment to donating 10% of sales to various non-profit partners. Third, they want independent eateries to thrive by splitting the remaining proceeds of the certificate sales 50/50. No price gouging and leaving the restaurants to foot the bill.

At this time, you're able to purchase Woolley's Certificates as follows; a $25 certificate for $12.50 and a $50 certificate for $25.00. Check out Outstanding Dining this week for other amazing deals to great local restaurants, and make sure to look for them on Facebook as well. Through Friday, Outstanding Dining is taking entries on their Facebook page from fans who share a memorable dining experience. The comment with the most likes by Friday (November 4) at 12am wins the $100!

Dining on a Dime - Part 3: Using Happy Hours to Your Advantage

After many years of dining out and scrutinizing other menus, I'm convinced that Happy Hours are probably as the restaurants that offer them. Some have ridiculously good deals, some don't. Some include food, some just beverages, and some even have a whole separate menu devoted just to the occasion. 

For our third installment of Dining on a Dime, we've decided to expose another great way to stretch your dining dollars, Happy Hour. 

First, your goal is to find a Happy Hour that includes both food and drinks for maximum savings. Look for restaurants that offer cheap appetizers or even small portions (mini-meals) of their regular entrees for a value. Then, ensure that the restaurant is also offering a good deal on drinks. We're not talking $1 off Miller Lite, but full-on deals on a variety of beverages, so that everyone in your party can participate. 

Thrifty Hipster is your friend in locating Happy Hour deals. As a website dedicated to finding Happy Hour deals, their whole goal is meeting your needs. You can search by location, date, or even your favorite bar to see what specials are being offered. 

Once you decide where you're going, make sure you specify that you're there for Happy Hour, so you don't mistakenly sit in the restaurant if Happy Hour's only offered at the bar, etc. Additionally, some restaurants offer both an earlier Happy Hour and a later Happy Hour, so if you can alter your dining time off the beaten path a bit, you can save big bucks!

Here at Woolley's, we love Happy Hour and offer the following deals between 4pm - 6pm, Monday through Friday.

HAPPY HOUR DRINK SPECIALS:

$2 Domestic Beer Taps & Bottles

$3 Import/Craft Beer Taps & Bottles

$3 Forest Glen House Wine

1/2 Price Specialty Martinis (and all other Drinks)

1/2 Price Bottles of House Wine Selections

HALF-PRICE HAPPY HOUR APPETIZERS:

Calamari, Walleye Fingers, Shrimp Cocktail, Onion Rings

Mozzarella Sticks, Chicken Wings, Chicken Quesadilla

Crab Cakes, Diablo Bites, Artichoke Dip

Fruit & Veggies, Combo Platter, Pot Stickers

Chicken Tenders

So stop on by this week and get happy, and good luck scouting out the best Happy Hour deals in town! 

Dining on a Dime - Part 2: Specials!

Everyone knows that the best things in life are free, right?! It should be no different in your dining experiences. Often, people assume that they should only be granted a free meal or a discount if they experience a service shortcoming.

What about specials and freebies that simply require you to show up on a certain night or order a certain item? That's a whole new ballgame! Our second recommendation for dining on a dime, is to look for deals! Here at Woolley's, we offer deals on Wednesday and Sunday evenings in the form of Wine Lovers Night. From 5:30 to 10pm on those days, any bottle of wine off our award winning list is half off with your dinner entree purchase.

We also offer a Tri City Passport Program that gives patrons the opportunity to dine at Woolley's and our two Tri City sister restaurants to earn punches on their passport cards. Once the card has been stamped for each location, diners will receive a free dinner at the Tri City restaurant of their choosing.

A great way to learn about your favorite eateries' specials and freebies is to follow them on Facebook, twitter, and/or sign-up to be on their mailing lists.

Good luck and happy eating (and saving)!

Dining on a Dime - Part 1: $20 Dining Cheques

As a participating Open Table restaurant, Woolley's diners have the option to make online (or mobile) reservations. Then, they earn Dining Rewards Points when they honor those reservations at Woolley's and other participating Open Table restaurants.

Points then accrue and may be cashed in for Dining Cheques, which can be used at any Open Table restaurant. Once guests have accumulated at least 2,000 points, they are able to cash them in as follows:

• 2,000 points - $20 Dining Cheque
• 5,000 points - $50 Dining Cheque
• 10,000 points - $100 Dining Cheque

These points accumulate a lot faster if you take advantage of Open Table's 1,000 point reservations. Here at Woolley's, our 1,000-point reservation times are outlined below:

• Sunday - 9:00pm-10:00pm
• Monday - 11:00am-2:00pm, 8:00pm-10:00pm
• Tuesday - 11:00am-2:00pm, 5:00pm-10:00pm
• Wednesday - 11:00am-2:00pm, 9:00pm-10:00pm
• Thursday - 11:00am-2:00pm, 5:00pm-10:00pm
• Friday - 11:00am-2:00pm, 4:30pm-6:00pm
• Saturday - 4:30pm-6:00pm

By making and honoring only two reservations that fall in any of the above timeframes, you can earn a $20 Dining Cheque. (Open Table rules and restrictions apply, so make sure you review the information on their website).

That's just one easy way to stretch your dining dollars!