Where:
 Pop!
2859 Johnson St. NE, Minneapolis
612-788-0455
poprestaurant.com

When:
M–Th, 11 a.m.–3:30 p.m., 5–9 p.m.
F–Sa, 11 a.m.–3:30 p.m., 5–10 p.m.

Prices:
Dinner entrées, $10–$15.50

Everyone has their short list of favorite comfort foods, and high atop mine is Swedish meatballs. Around the holidays, I could always count on my mother cooking up a batch of the ones she modeled on a recipe (I still have it) from the January 1953 issue of Gourmet.

One would think that exemplary Scandinavian meatballs would be a commonplace item on Minnesota menus, but they’re a rarity. Nonetheless, I have found one restaurant where Swedish meatballs are a signature dish, a terrific little Northeast Minneapolis spot called Pop!—but don’t let that form your full opinion of this eclectic place.

Clark Knutson, Pop!’s Culinary Institute of America-trained owner-chef, says the meatballs on the menu were initially a bit of PR. During a meeting four years ago where he and his wife, Leslie, were asking neighbors to support their application for a wine and beer license, an unconvinced old-timer in the audience opined that the restaurant’s proposed menu wasn’t sufficiently bland for Northeast’s Scandinavians, and that Pop! wasn’t going to last long enough to need that license. A lightbulb went on and Knutson switched his planned meatloaf entrée for meatballs.

For those who don’t favor “blandness,” Pop!’s menu offers some great Latin- and Cuban-inspired dishes that include a smoked queso fondue that comes with marinated grilled vegetables, cumin bruschetta, flatbread, and plantain chips for dipping, and matambre, a grilled steak with garbanzo bean stew, blue cheese, and a chimichurri sauce.


Pop Signatures

A dinner order of Swedish meatballs provides six racquetball-size monsters made from a mix of pork, veal, beef, and panko bread crumbs, a hint of nutmeg and cinnamon, and in deference to Nordic preferences for a bit of sweetness in their food, a tiny hit of corn syrup. Sides are luscious, creamy mashed potatoes and lingonberry sauce.

Dulce de leche is another Pop! signature, a trio of crepes filled with creamed milk caramel and topped with vanilla ice cream, caramel sauce, and hazelnut brittle.



Meatballs by the Millions
The few places that do sell Swedish meatballs sell a lot.

The Bloomington outpost of Swedish retailer IKEA has an excellent cafeteria serving bargain-priced Scandinavian favorites, including meatballs and gravy with boiled potatoes and lingonberry compote. This store alone sells more than 4 million meatballs a year! Eat in or pick up frozen meatballs, gravy mix, and lingonberries preserves at the small grocery shop near the checkout.

Ingebretsen’s, a fixture on East Lake Street for 86 years, sells ground, seasoned Swedish meatball mix. Around the holidays, customers are lined up out the door and the butchers move more than 1,000 pounds a day. They sell ready-to-heat gravy, too.