Ooh! Let's go to Bizzaro-Dennys!

Finding out that the Town Talk Diner suddenly closed this last month has been a traumatic experience on par with finding out that Superman died after getting hit by a bus.

Maybe that’s not the best analogy. I miss the Town Talk way more than I’d miss Superman.

My wife and I have been going there frequently since the summer of 2006. We’ve brought everyone we know there at least once. Most of my chef and bartender friends swear by it (It was fellow line-slave Brian C. who introduced me to the TT that summer).

It was a magic place where you could get wasted, eat a terrific burger and then show up the next morning for brunch with your in-laws. For most of their run they adhered to a from-scratch ethic and a playful attention to detail. Their bartenders belong in some kind of hall of fame for congeniality and knowledge of their craft. The whole place shined like the top of the Chrysler Building.

Yet that wasn’t enough to stay open. It’s a real pity.

I don’t know whether to be mad at Minneapolitans or feel sorry for them. This can be a schizophrenic city food-wise, where great restaurants can fail while others that are blatantly sucky thrive. It’s a city where hype over a name or location can have a greater impact on success than the product on the plate. Despite those injustices, there are also a lot of good restaurants that do well and a handful of great ones.

The great ones, of which I think Alma is the best example, can be counted among the best in the country right now. The problem is that most of us can’t eat at Alma every day, however much we want to. That’s why the closing of Town Talk is so sad. It was a rare place where one could experience luxury with things as mundane as hamburgers and french fries.

That ethic of taking something very simple and making it luxurious is perhaps what all the best cooking has in common. We mourn the loss of the Town Talk, but the people who made it great all have to work somewhere.

Chances are they’ll make that place pretty great too.