Bergjord Boarding

March 7, 2026

By: Luke

This was as long as it was awesome and it was pretty damn awesome. Blake has been hyping up “the best breakfast sandwich” to me and we are on a mission to test that statement. We then spend a couple of hours in the Mall of America followed by a unique culinary experience and a comedy show! I told you it was awesome.

We stopped at a cafe on the way to breakfast for a coffee on the road. I ordered a iced caramel macchiato. Soon after putting the order in a barista came over and had some questions for me. Apparently Starbucks has deceived millions of people as to what a macchiato is. It is not a huge cold drink, it is tiny, hot, and mostly espresso with a small amount of milk. After the barista explained the milk to coffee ratio I thought I would like that better. I did not realize they served it in a child’s tea cup. It was still delicious and it still woke me up. Don’t make the same mistake I did!

Here is the promised breakfast item. It comes from Scramblin’ Egg. A former food truck that won an award that gave them a cash prize. They then moved into a brick and mortar and had a line literally out the door when we arrived early on a Saturday. It is a damn good sandwich. It is made on Norwegian milk bread and that really is the secret. They also have these fried hash brown bites that rocked by world. Come for the hash browns, stay for the sandwich. 10/10 and Blake’s word is without question.

We were in the neighborhood of the MOA and hopped over there to window shop and kill time. We were essentially mall walkers because we ripped a quick two laps around the whole mall on two levels. Barnes and Noble side tracked out exercise. More walking around led to getting Caribou Coffee and ultimately being drawn to the Carhartt store like a moth to flame.

Next is dinner! We saw a sushi train place in the mall and I have wanted to try it out for some time now. The one in the mall had a waiting list backed up a couple of hours. Blake found a place similar closer to where we would go that night.

The conveyer belts of food were fun and looks tasty. We just had to grab what we wanted and they totalled our bill by the color of plate and how many of them we had. The cheaper plates were blue and around $2.50 each. The most expensive were purple and I think $6.50 each? Something like that. It was a really great time.

Now the whole reason why I was invited to visit the cities. The comedy venue was in a room at Sysyphus Brewing Company. Blake had seen another comedian there prior. We got there early to enjoy the brewery part of the business. We played card games and even a little pinball.

The showtime got closer and the previous show got let out. We then took that time to go get in line for the next show. Blake new from his previous time that the seats were first come first serve and we got it in our heads that we needed to sit front row, I didn’t stop laughing for over an hour.

This is more of a brag but the comedian, Sam Tallent, had a receiving line and we got to share a couple of quick words!

We headed back to Blake’s and just kept of repeating things Sam had said all night until we both dozed off on Blakes couch.

The next morning! We had heard of this brunch place from friends and had to try it out. It was also on the way out of town for me, so it worked perfect. Blake, his lovely wife Lauren, and I brunched hard at The Hen & The Hog. I went with the spicy fried chicken sandwich and hash browns for my starch. It was gone within minutes. It was that type of food that is so good you can hardly put it down.

I also didn’t want to skip a chance to see what they had on the sweet side of brunch. This was an apple streusel pancake. It came highly recommended. I did not get anywhere near finishing this monster pancake. It was also excellent.

I pointed my car homeward as Blake and Lauren did the same. So very much happened in just a couple of days. I got to experience so many cool things, but it was really being with an old friend that made any of it worth doing. We could have sat around and did little else, I would have came back saying the same thing.

Best weekend ever.