When I lived in Dallas, I had a friend who had been to Naples to study architecture.  He told me that the first time he went to a pizza restaurant in Naples, he was surprised that pizza in Naples is so much different than it is in Texas.  He described to me a pizza made with a light sprinkling of cheese, olive oil and a pair of eggs.  Instead of placing the pizza in a convection oven, the chef placed it on a hearth to bake.  He told me that while he was hesitant to try it, the pie turned out to be delicious.  When I saw “Pizza Con Uovo,” on the menu at Pizza Nea, I just had to try it.

When last I wrote about this fine meal with Steve and Sophie Kelley, I left off when the food arrived.  In keeping with the Quiche Moraine spirit of using restaurants as the backdrop for good conversation, I would like to share some of what I learned during that meal about Steve and Sophie.

Steve reads science fiction, which I accept as a positive sign that he is truly interested in melding science and culture.  I asked about his favorite writers, and the first name that he mentioned is Minneapolis resident Lois McMaster Bujold. Sophie is more interested in mystery novels. She talked about P.D. James and specifically the book The Children of Men. I would classify that as science fiction too, but such boundaries are not fixed.

While we ate, I made the faux pas of asking Steve a question just as he was about to take a bite to eat.  When I realized that he was about to answer, I told him it was okay to wait until he had finished chewing and Sophie slyly reminded him to not talk with his mouth full.  In the meantime, I talked to Sophie about her own background and history.  As I mentioned before, Sophie has a background in banking and finance.  She worked her way from bank teller to CEO of local banks and is currently seeking a new opportunity in that field.

I first met Steve and Sophie at their headquarters in the spring of 2006, while we were all getting ready for the caucuses.  I had been watching his career and was impressed by the ways that he had used technology to improve public policy (more about that later).  We were sitting and talking in a group, and one of the first things that struck me about him was that he wanted to talk to those of us who were volunteering as much as to his hired staff.  I found this to be refreshing because in other campaigns, the candidate was “shielded” by his staff from the hoi polloi who were the “boots on the ground.”  Steve talked to me, asked about my concerns and won my loyalty.

He didn’t win the nomination in 2006, but he delivered a knockout speech at the convention. I asked him whether he had any regrets over the outcome in that race and in the race for attorney general (which ended up with the party’s endorsement of current Attorney General Lori Swanson).  He told me that he has no regrets, because he doesn’t think that way.  He learned some lessons on how to approach this race, and we need to watch what he does differently.  It is unfortunate that already he has been labeled as a “perennial” candidate after only one concerted effort at the governor’s race.  He referred to Blois Olson’s governor’s race handicapping article at MinnPost.  In my opinion, with the state DFL convention still more than a year away, it’s far too early to begin ranking the potential candidates.

At this point we should be looking both at what is at stake in 2010, and at what the candidates have done to show they can effectively lead this state out of the doldrums caused by a governor who has made a “No New Taxes” pledge the unmoving focal point of his administration.

Minnesota needs to be able to respond quickly to the emerging needs of our state’s deteriorating infrastructure.  Education and science are important tools for knowing how to approach the problems. So, what has Steve Kelley done to demonstrate leadership in using science and technology?

As a legislator and state senator, he recognized early on that emergency services and their support staff need to have the means to communicate across agencies quickly and effectively in order to respond to disasters.  Steve told me about the project to secure frequencies for emergency radio channels.  New York police and fire department officials had publicly stated that after the attacks on the World Trade Center, rescue efforts were hampered by the lack of cross-departmental radio communications. Changes to this infrastructure were recommended in the 9/11 Commission report. Many states and municipalities today have not improved their first responder communication systems.

It took several years to cut through the red tape, but a local system was firmly in place in time to assist the numerous rescue, fire and police departments in Minneapolis, Hennepin County and the State of Minnesota to coordinate emergency response when the 35W bridge collapsed in 2007.

The other major piece of legislation that Kelley was able to work through and see made into law is the one he is most proud of creating.  This is the medical “Adverse Event Reporting System.”  Patient protection is enhanced by monitoring these issues, and the legislation has enabled sites such as this one at the Minnesota Department of Health. What Kelley found most notable is that other states and even the federal government are now using Minnesota’s program as a model for developing their own reporting and procedures.

For Minnesota’s future, Kelley has promoted innovative programs to creatively reward and support schools and teachers.  He thinks that QComp’s incentive programs measure the wrong types of progress.  Both he and Sophie deplore the idea that because of the increased reliance on standardized testing, teachers are finding that they have less room for creative learning that builds on “learning how to learn.”

At this point in the conversation, Sophie looked at her watch. It was getting late and she had to leave for another meeting.  So Steve and I chatted a bit more about plans and politics, each of us saying just enough, and not too much, about our own thoughts about the future.

With two trips to Pizza Nea under my belt, I can give the restaurant a “thumbs up.”  I’d do the same for Steve and Sophie Kelley, but that would give the appearance of a bias….

Pizza Nea is at 306 E. Hennepin Avenue, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Neapolitan cuisine and a cozy atmosphere.

I was up visiting my dad last week in Hallock, Minnesota. The county seat of Kittson County is in the far northwestern corner of the state. With a population of 1200 people, it is not a big town. It is, at that, still the biggest town in the county. I grew up in Hallock, but my parents’ roots are in a far smaller town. Orleans is 10 miles north and, during its heyday, peaked at some fifty people.

How to get into and out of Lancaster

Fifty people is not a large enough group around which to build a full social circle. My parents had friends and family in both Humboldt to the west and Lancaster to the east. While I was growing up, my grandparents lived in Lancaster. Lancaster had, at that time, 462 people according to the sign outside of town. With a K-12 school, a few churches, a grocery store, dentist and some grain elevators, it was almost a self-contained town.

Dad still has friends in Lancaster, even though he’s lived in Hallock for nearly fifty years.  His best friend is Richard, and they got to know each other when Dad worked part time for my uncle after Dad retired from the U.S. Customs.  Richard works for my uncle, too.

Last Monday, when the kids and I arrived in Hallock for their spring break vacation, Dad suggested that we go to Lancaster to eat.  Dad doesn’t have much of an appetite these days, so this was kind of a surprise but a welcome one.  There are two restaurants in Lancaster.  The End of the Line is on U.S. Highway 59 on the north end of town.  Dean’s Diner is the other one, right on Main Street.

Susan built the café in the 1970′s.  It’s a steel building, rectangular and architecturally unremarkable.  When I was in high school, my social circle was a small group of kids from Kennedy, Hallock, Humboldt and Lancaster.  We gathered at the different restaurants in our respective hometowns.  Kennedy and Humboldt didn’t really have “hangout” places, so we were either at the Mileage Café in Hallock or Susan’s Café in Lancaster.

For some reason, Susan didn’t seem to like me very much.  I have no clue as to why.  I was as agreeable as a kid as I am now as an adult.  Whenever we would go into her restaurant, she would smile at my friends and then give me a disapproving glance.  It didn’t seem to matter how nice I was.  It might have had something to do with some mischief my cousin had created, or perhaps my older brother.  I had certainly never skipped out on a meal without paying for it.

Susan’s Café had a jukebox.  One Sunday we were in the café, and a guy from Lancaster I barely knew put in a quarter and picked out “Walk This Way” by Aerosmith.  It was a song that I didn’t really care for when it was new, and only later did I learn to appreciate it.  I asked who the guy was, and they told me his name is Dean.  I said, “Hi,” and he just kind of looked at me and gave me a disapproving glance.  Sometimes I just can’t win with people.  So we left and drove around Lancaster, talking on the CB radio with truckers.  (Seventies, remember?)

I saw Dean here and there over the years.  I never really said, “Hi,” to him again, and he never really said, “Hi,” to me.  I just knew him as the guy who liked Aerosmith but not me.

He took over the restaurant in 2006.  Several people had tried to make it work since Susan sold it to enjoy her retirement, but nobody could replicate the cooking and the magic until Dean took over.  Now it’s a going concern again, and it is Dad’s regular restaurant.

Monday night we sat down at a table; Dad, the kids, Richard and me.  We ordered dinner, or “supper” as they call it in the rural areas of Minnesota.  Ella ordered a California burger, Bing a bacon cheeseburger, Dad a hamburger, Richard a cheeseburger with fries and me a patty melt and a bowl of chicken wild rice soup. Dean’s Diner has a full small-town restaurant menu, but we all wanted fried comfort food.

If  I may digress: Earlier that day the kids and I had stopped to eat at a Culver’s Restaurant in Grand Forks.  I had ordered a sourdough bread patty melt, but it was the single blandest-tasting piece of meat I had ever had in my life.  I couldn’t taste the meat, couldn’t taste the “sour” in the sourdough, couldn’t taste the cheese and could barely taste the fries.  The only things at Culver’s that had any flavor were the ketchup and the salt.

At Dean’s Diner, the patty melt had flavor.  The meat tasted like fresh ground steak.  The “Swiss” cheese tasted like white American cheddar and the onions tasted like onions.  I didn’t need to add ketchup or salt in order to enjoy my meal.  The soup was rich and tasty, too.

As we were eating, a family walked in.  Six girls and their mother.  The mother looked somewhat familiar. She is a person from my distant past.  I wasn’t sure who she was, so I asked Richard.  He told me it was Kelli Hewitt.  When she was younger, and she is the same age as I am, she was Kelli Porter.  Kelli had married my friend Jimmy Hewitt.  I kind of knew Kelli, but never very well.  I decided to go talk to her.

I had to remind her who I was, but after I did, she remembered me.  I found out that Jimmy had just returned from the War in Iraq the prior Thursday, and that their daughter Ashlee is headed back from Nashville to welcome him home.  Kelli and I didn’t have much to talk about, so Katrice (click the link to find out who Katrice is) and I talked about music for a few minutes.

I went back and sat down, and enjoyed my meal.  Dean came out from behind the counter and looked my way, but he didn’t say anything. Not even, “Hi.”

If you find yourself in Lancaster, Minnesota, stop in at Dean’s Diner.  Don’t tell Dean I sent you.  Just enjoy the meal.

Dean’s Diner is at 123 Central Avenue S. in Lancaster, Minnesota.  Daily specials until the food runs out. Map to Dean’s Diner.