Let’s Eat

By Dan Greenwood

From left, chef Kyle More, owner Julie Johnson Fahrforth and manager Ali Kuderle.

The Blue Boat

Restaurant focuses on ‘Blue Zone’ regions, rotating its menu

Photos by Pat Christman

When Julie Johnson Fahrforth opened the Blue Boat in downtown Mankato last year, she wanted a name that captured her vision for the new restaurant, which doubles as a retail art gallery and music venue.

“I wanted something that represented our experience on the Earth, so I came up with the Blue Boat – traveling 67,000 miles (per hour) around the sun.”

It’s a fitting title for the water and nature-theme artwork by more than a dozen local artists hanging on the walls and for the global cuisine on the menu. The food offerings now rotate every two months to focus on five regions of the world known for healthy diets and human longevity.

Johnson said the menu is inspired by author and explorer Dan Buettner, a Minnesota native, who partnered with National Geographic 15 years ago to identify Blue Zones around the world. They are areas where people tend to live longer thanks to healthy diets and active lifestyles.

“I’ve always followed his recipes,” Johnson said. “That’s the guiding light with the menu. For the first 10 months we’re going to follow Dan Buettner and National Geographic around those five Blue Zone areas where people live the longest, starting in Costa Rica.”

Johnson said the Blue Boat’s chef, Kyle More, and manager, Ali Kudrle, have been instrumental in getting the restaurant up and running.

“Her management skills are off the chart,” Johnson said of Kudrle.

From January until March, the Costa Rican-inspired cuisine was heavy on ingredients such as beans, corn and whole grains.

Empanadas – savory pastries filled with meat, vegetables and spices – have been one of the more

The Blue Boat Where:

12 Civic Center Plaza, Suite 1710A, Mankato What they’re known for:

Global cuisine with a focus on “Blue Zone” regions known for healthy diets and lifestyle

popular items on the menu, More said.

“We’re doing everything from scratch for the empanadas: the dough, the chorizo, everything is done in-house,” More said. “It’s a corn flour that’s stuffed with a pork chorizo with a variety of herbs and vegetables. We’ll stuff that, seal it, and either bake them or deep fry them.”

Another popular Costa Ricaninspired dish served was the gallo pinto, sauteed with peppers, onions and tomatoes with black beans and brown rice – topped with avocado, fried plantains and salsa verde.

Starting in March, they’ll be pivoting their menu to focus on Sardinia, Italy. More said he’ll be making the pasta from scratch and made to order.

“We’re going to get a pasta maker,” he said. “I’ll make the dough – it’s egg and a very specific flour that I’ll use – mix that up until it’s nice and solid, and let it rest a little bit. Then we’ll roll it out and put it through the pasta maker. We’ll boil them and make the sauces to order, so it will be nice and fresh.”

The Italian menu will continue throughout March and April, followed by a change in menu The Blue Boat doubles as restaurant and entertainment venue.

The Blue Boat not only features a rotating menu based on the Blue Zone. The downtown restaurant also features a retail art gallery.

every two months through October.

“We’re going to Greece after Italy, then we’re coming back to Loma Linda, California,” Johnson said. “They have a Seventh Day Adventist diet, with little meat, although we’ll have meat options. The sauces will be big with those items. Then our last stop is Japan.” Once they’ve covered those five Blue Zones, the menu will feature a variety of some of the more popular menu items for each region, plus some new dishes. If you missed the Costa Rican empanadas the first time around, they’ll likely resurface on the menu later this year. “We’ll have a standard menu of that kind of stuff, and we’ll still have a special sheet for Costa Rica, Italy and Greece (etc.) as we go through and see what happens from there,” More said.

“Wearing of the Green”