Last Friday we got a chance to poke our noses into the Northwest African American Museum before it opened, as part of a test lunch group for the St Clouds Museum Cafe. The Museum is in the historic Colman School, at 23rd and Massachusetts. It's historic now, that is -- back when we lived across the street, on 25th, it was condemned, boarded up, and left a home for pigeons, until a group of black activists arm-wrestled the city into letting them do something with it. Upstairs there are two floors of "affordable" rental units (studios are $620) for artists, historians, teachers, and anyone else with a good reason to make their home above the Museum.

This is the grand opening week; the ribbon-cutting took place on Saturday. The St Clouds Museum Cafe was filled on Friday with crews doing landscaping, interior work, exhibit installation, and so forth, and was as crowded as it's likely to get before the school buses arrive (we're just guessing, but we think you can fit a lot more kids into a given area than adults). John Platt, owner of Madrona's St Clouds restaurant has built his reputation on home-style-plus cooking, and the cafe's menu reflects that, with mac 'n' cheese ($7.50), slow-roasted ribs ($9.50), and a Hoppin' John burger ($8.25, with a black-eyed pea and rice cake patty). We chose the Torta Rustica ($10.50, pictured), which is served in generous slices, and a cup of black-eyed pea soup ($4.50, with smoked onions and sweet potato chunks).

It's early to say, but we think they could give the Frye Museum's cafe a run for their lunch-spot money.