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The Twin Cities’ 10 Biggest Restaurant Stories of 2024

2024-12-20T12:59:49-06:00

Oro by Nixta’s wild boar tamal. | Tim Evans/Eater Twin Cities

Legal battles, organized labor efforts in one local restaurant, plus, tracking Charles Barkley’s Twin Cities dining habits

As we wrap up 2024, it’s time to reflect on the stories that captivated readers and set the tone for the past 12 months in the Twin Cities. From legal battles and labor disputes that shook local restaurants to many ways that the region’s restaurants have been celebrated on a national stage and tracking Charles Barkley’s dining habits while in town, here were the biggest moments in Twin Cities food news in 2024.

Bank Files Suit Against the Owner of Wuollet Bakery and A Baker’s Wife

Chicago-based Byline Bank filed lawsuits against Eric Shogren, owner of A Baker’s Wife and Wuollet Bakery, along with his wife, alleging that he owned the bank more than $1.3 million after defaulting on two loans. Shogren began purchasing Twin Cities-area bakeries in 2016, but earlier this year, it became apparent that his businesses were on shaky ground, amid numerous closures and an accusation by one employee of bouncing a check, according to a court claim.

Chef Justin Sutherland Steps Away From the Handsome Hog

Chef Justin Sutherland surprised readers in January when he announced that was leaving St. Paul Southern-style restaurant, Handsome Hog — an establishment he helped to open in 2016. The chef had planned to buy out his partners with the Madison Restaurant Group — which he rose to the top of in 2018, overseeing its slate of St. Paul restaurants — but that plan didn’t pan out.

Chef Ann Kim’s Korean American Restaurant Will Close Following Unionization

Chef Ann Kim’s Uptown Minneapolis eatery, Kim’s, closed on Friday, August 30, “due to ongoing financial losses,” months after the restaurant’s staff announced their intent to unionize. Organizing with local hospitality union Unite Here Local 17, workers had hoped to bargain for better benefits, pay, and consistent scheduling. Kim’s opened in 2023 and served as a canvas for the chef to delve into Korean American cuisine, reflecting her family’s roots in Korea and her upbringing in Apple Valley, Minnesota.

Here Are the Twin Cities’ 2024 James Beard Finalists

Out of a pool of seven 2024 semifinalists, three Twin Cities chefs and restaurants were named James Beard Award finalists this year. Oro by Nixta was nominated for Best New Restaurant, a national category, while chefs Ann Ahmed of Khâluna and Christina Nguyen of Hai Hai were named finalists for Best Chef, Midwest.

Here Are Charles Barkley’s Twin Cities Restaurant Appearances So Far

When the Timberwolves made it to the Western Conference finals, fans were understandably hyped. Perhaps garnering more enthusiasm from the team’s game seven comeback story was a debate over where TNT analyst Charles Barkley should eat while he was in town. During a postgame interview, Barkley asked Wolves’ star shooting guard Anthony Edwards for a list of restaurant recommendations and Chuck received many, many, many of them from online forums, and of course, from Eater Twin Cities.

A New French American Bistro Fires Up in South Minneapolis

The opening of French American restaurant Bûcheron in January had readers excited to check the place out. Founded by Adam and Jeanie Ritter, the menu leans into France’s bistronomy movement by merging fine dining techniques with essential dishes like venison tartare, grilled carrots in yogurt, sticky toffee cake, and, in Jeanie’s words, a “really delicious steak.”

A Flashy New Asian Mall and Dining Destination Is Coming to the North Suburbs

Readers have their sights set on 2025 for the anticipated opening of a new north suburbs shopping center and food hall called Asia Village. Michael Bui, Mai Bui, and Peter Do — the trio behind Vietnamese restaurant Pho Mai and bakery Keefer Court — partnered with the owners of Eden Prairie’s popular Asia Mall to open the new destination in Blaine’s Northtown Mall sometime next year.

Introducing the 2024 Eater Twin Cities Award Winners

This year, the Twin Cities saw a generational shift in the restaurant scene, as reflected by the winners who took home tomato cans for the 2024 Eater Twin Cities Awards. Many of the chefs who’ve steadily powered the culinary engine of the region for years have struck out on their own and parlayed their experiences in canonical pastry making, famous burger slinging, legendary bar program shaping, and sommelier scene shifting into fully realized restaurants and bars.

A Twin Cities Burger Restaurant Owner Is Facing Felony Tax Charges

The owner of the Hamburguesas El Gordo chain faced felony-level charges this year for alleged tax evasion and fraud. Dakota County Attorney Kathy Keena announced in a news release on May 8 that Claudia Gutierrez Mendez was charged on several counts, including for filing a false or fraudulent tax return, failure to pay taxes, and failure to file a tax return. In all, she was accused of evading more than $260,000 in taxes.

After 35 Years Serving Its Famous Walleye, St. Paul’s Tavern on Grand Is Closing

The year started out on a sad note for fans of St. Paul restaurant Tavern on Grand when ownership announced that the establishment would be closing in June after a nearly 35-year run. A Facebook post sharing the news was short and sweet: “We are truly grateful to have been able to make our famous walleye and homemade meals for nearly 35 years,” it reads. “This could have only been accomplished with the love and support of our customers, community, and staff. We are thankful to have been like a home to many over the years with memories to last several lifetimes.”

‘We’re First Responders, Whether We Want to Be Or Not’

2024-12-18T13:36:04-06:00

Sarah Webster Norton sets Narcan on the bar at Spring Street Tavern in Northeast Minneapolis.

As fentanyl continues to drive the American opioid crisis, restaurant and bar workers are emerging as essential players in overdose response and harm reduction efforts

Sarah Webster Norton’s hands are steady as she inverts the small glass vial and punctures its rubber seal with a needle. She draws the liquid — a clear, water-based solution of naloxone hydrochloride — into the syringe, angling the vial to take in every possible drop. From there, the process is fairly fast and intuitive: To treat a person experiencing an opioid overdose, she has to inject the needle into a muscular part of their body, like the shoulder or thigh, and push down on the plunger to empty the syringe. Then the naloxone goes to work: By attaching to opioid receptors in the body, it has the power to rapidly reverse an overdose and restore breathing. Sometimes, the first dose isn’t sufficient, so multiple doses are needed. Naloxone, once administered, remains effective for 30 to 90 minutes, so it’s not a permanent solution — rather a “Band-Aid solution” until paramedics arrive, Webster Norton says. But it can buy crucial, often life-saving time.

Webster Norton is a longtime Twin Cities server, bartender, and manager, and the executive director of the nonprofit Serving Those Serving. Much of her work has centered on mental health care access for restaurant and bar workers, but these days, she’s tackling another issue impacting the industry: As fentanyl continues to drive the American opioid crisis, workers face a heightened chance of having to respond to overdose incidents on the job. “We’re first responders whether we want to be or not,” Webster Norton says. She’s made it her mission to get naloxone, or Narcan, the brand-name nasal spray version of the medicine, stocked behind the bar at as many restaurants and bars as she can, as well as fentanyl test strips. Part of her goal is to prepare staff for emergencies; part is to get these resources into the community’s hands. At Northeast’s Spring Street Tavern, for example, where Webster Norton works every Sunday, she sets out Narcan canisters and fentanyl test strips on the bar for customers to take.

“I’m distributing constantly,” Webster Norton says. “I stop at bus stops and leave it. I like to call myself the Narcan fairy, because I just literally run around town with a bunch of shit in my car, and I pass it out to anybody who will take it.”

Nasal Narcan is administered much like Flonase.

The Narcan canisters Norton sets out are usually gone by the end of her shift, she says.

Norton says Spring Street is “more than just a dive bar; more than just a good breakfast spot.”

Webster Norton also offers opioid overdose training for restaurants and bars. Some staff are wary of the naloxone needles, which Webster Norton understands — they creeped her out at first, too, she says. “We just signed up to bring people food and beer. It’s a stretch for some people, and I get it.” Nasal Narcan is less intimidating; it’s simply sprayed into the nostrils, much like Flonase. But it’s more expensive than generic naloxone, which means that much of what’s available through local distributing organizations like the Steve Rummler HOPE Network and Southside Harm Reduction are intramuscular kits. (Recently, however, Webster Norton received a $5,000 Narcan grant from the State of Minnesota, so now most of the restaurants she works with have both versions.) As part of the training, Webster Norton also dispels prevalent myths about naloxone, like the common fear of injecting an air bubble into somebody’s bloodstream (emergency naloxone is typically administered into muscle, not a vein); or the false notion that it will harm someone who’s not actually overdosing (it won’t). Restaurant owners are often concerned about liability, Webster Norton says, but Minnesota’s Good Samaritan Overdose Prevention law empowers lay people to carry naloxone and legally protects those who administer it in good faith.

Asking restaurant and bar workers to prepare for potential overdoses may seem like a tall order. But for Meteor bartender Tyler Kleinow, it comes with the territory. Kleinow sees harm reduction as a key part of hospitality; for as long as bartenders have existed, he says, they’ve been responsible for staying aware of what’s happening at their bar, whether that means helping a customer to sober up with a bag of chips and water, keeping an eye on the couple arguing in the corner booth, or knowing what to do when somebody orders an “angel shot,” a coded drink that customers can use to discreetly tell a bartender they feel unsafe. “It’s healthy to remind yourself that you’re not performing brain surgery, but at the same time, you are responsible for other people’s lives to an extent,” he says. “Like, don’t be pretentious, don’t be an asshole. But also, you do have a job.”

Meteor’s staff started stocking naloxone kits behind the bar about two years ago, Kleinow says, as soon as they learned it was an option. They’re there in case of emergency, but are also available for customers to take, as are fentanyl test strips. (As Meteor put it in an Instagram PSA: “We don’t want you to do any nose stuff here, but you sneaky little shits are going to anyways so please be safe.”)

Kleinow behind the bar. Meteor does a monthly cocktail special to fundraise for local organizations; last July the bar fundraised for Southside Harm Reduction.

Meteor has both nasal Narcan and intramuscular naloxone on hand, as well as test strips.

The bar is connected with both Southside Harm Reduction as well as Serving Those Serving.

Nick Jeffrey has been a bartender at Spring Street Tavern for almost two decades. He’s observed a few ways that the opioid crisis has changed in the past several years, making it even more challenging for restaurant and bar workers to respond to. First is the rise of fentanyl, which has come to dominate the illicit American drug market in the past decade. Ultrapotent (a gram is about 50 times more powerful than heroin) and cheap to make, fentanyl has driven a staggering spike in overdose deaths, surpassing all-time peaks in American car deaths and gun deaths, though recent data shows a decline in overdose deaths in 2024. IThough it’s sold on its own, but fentanyl is also often mixed into other drugs like cocaine and heroin, or stamped into counterfeit Xanax, Percocet, Adderall, and other prescription pills. That contamination factor makes recreational use all the more unpredictable and dangerous. It used to be, Jeffrey says, that if somebody offered you a pill, the worst case was probably that you could get ripped off — now it’s that you could be poisoned with fentanyl.

Jeffrey also noticed that the crisis seemed to worsen during the pandemic — indeed it did, while also intersecting with nationwide mental health and housing crises. Those compounding factors have added complex layers to situations that staff have to respond to: In the past two or three years, Jeffrey says, Spring Street Tavern has had more incidents where a given customer was clearly in need of some kind of support, but he wasn’t able to ascertain what was happening — whether the issue was drugs or something else. “I’ve been doing this for 20-plus years; I understand the stages of drinking,” he says. But most bartenders haven’t been trained to recognize the stages of drug use and overdose, or to respond to mental health crises. “We might deal with some kooky people on a daily basis in the bar industry, but we’re sure not mental health professionals, as much as we sometimes play that role.”

Acting as de facto first responders can be scary for staff, he says. “None of us want somebody to die on our watch. Just the fact that it’s something that we may have to deal with — I think it terrifies a lot of people.” Spring Street staff haven’t yet had to administer naloxone to anyone at the bar, he says, but he assumes that it’s a matter of when, not if.

Norton grabs fentanyl test strips out of Spring Street’s first aid box.

Outside of her nonprofit work, Norton keeps a Sunday shift at Spring Street.

As the Minnesota state government takes its own approach to addressing the crisis, allocating more than $300 million in opioid settlement dollars over the next 18 years, bars and restaurants are emerging as part of the layered grassroots network working toward local harm reduction and overdose prevention. Damla Erten is the vice president of Sencha Tea Bar in Uptown, where she says she’s watched the opioid crisis escalate in real time over the past few years. Earlier this year, at the suggestion of an employee, she started stocking naloxone behind the counter and had her staff trained on how to administer it — just two weeks later, she says, a person overdosed on the steps behind the tea bar. One of Erten’s employees administered two successive doses of naloxone, she says, possibly saving that person’s life: Based on Sencha’s camera footage, Erten says, it took 12 minutes for paramedics to arrive. Erten now does outreach to neighboring businesses through her organization Uptown Community Coalition, encouraging them to carry naloxone. But it’s not always easy to get them on board.

Opioid use remains heavily stigmatized, and Erten says that some business owners are reticent because they feel they’d be encouraging people to use drugs in their business. She leads with a “human” approach — that stocking naloxone can save lives — but if she hits a wall, she’ll make a pragmatic argument, offering her own experience as a business owner whose own staff have already had to respond to an overdose. “To me, it’s just preparedness from a strictly business perspective,” she says

Webster Norton has also encountered pushback from certain restaurant owners and managers in her outreach work. Some, she says, seem to be in denial about the severity of the crisis; others express prejudice toward people who use drugs. Fentanyl test strips, in particular, prove to be a bridge too far for some because, of course, they precede drug use. But Webster Norton adheres to the first tenant of harm reduction: that drug use is a reality in our communities, whether we want it to be or not, and it’s better to reduce its harmful effects than to pretend like they don’t exist. “I don’t blame anybody or judge anybody for doing it — I don’t,” she says. She feels it’s essential to have test strips available, as they’re one of the most effective (though not foolproof) lines of defense against fentanyl poisoning. As she points out, restaurant and bar workers themselves are at a heightened risk, since the use of drugs like cocaine and prescription painkillers is relatively common in the industry.

Tim Evans/Eater Twin Cities

Norton recently received a $5,000 Narcan grant from the state.

Alicia House, executive of the Steve Rummler HOPE Network, says that restaurants and bars have a unique role to play in community-level harm reduction. Rummler operates a network of “Naloxone access points,” or NAPs, where people can access naloxone and fentanyl test strips for free: This year, Minneapolis’s A Bar of Their Own became the organization’s first restaurant or bar NAP. A Bar of Their Own’s harm reduction power goes beyond the physical distribution of naloxone and test strips. House says — it lies in its ability to boost awareness and combat stigma. “Resources are great, harm reduction is amazing, but if nobody’s aware of them, and they can’t access them, they’re only doing so much,” House says. “One of the biggest grievances that I hear, unfortunately on a very regular basis, is people saying, ‘Why didn’t I know about all this before my loved one died? Or why was my daughter not able to find fentanyl testing strips when she was asking around for one?’” Many people affected by the crisis use drugs recreationally, she says — they’re not likely to find themselves in substance use disorder spaces where resources and information are readily available. That’s where everyday spaces like parks, restaurants, bars, and music venues can have an outsized impact. At A Bar of Their Own, staff have even made hand-drawn harm reduction zines, which are available in the bathrooms.

Restaurants and bars are finding other creative ways to support harm reduction in their neighborhoods. Kat Naden is the owner of Duck Duck Coffee in south Minneapolis, which hosts a weekly secular 12-step group and often offers its space up for donation drives, comedy hours, and book clubs. But Naden wanted to expand Duck Duck’s community resources even more, so she reached out to Southside Harm Reduction to have the organization give her and a neighboring business owner a full naloxone training. Now, Duck Duck hosts community trainings through Southside, which are free and open to anyone who wants to learn how to administer naloxone and Narcan. Naden estimates that 50-some people have cycled through the trainings so far. “All types of people are affected by the opioid crisis,” she says. “If it’s not affecting your family directly, it’s certainly affecting families of people you know and love.” Sencha also hosts community naloxone trainings through the Rummler HOPE Network.

Marissa Bonnie demonstrates how to draw a dose of naloxone.

The trainings are free and open to the public.

Duck Duck aims to host a naloxone training every three months or so.

Southside offers a range of harm reduction services throughout the Cities.

Webster Norton says that ultimately, the power of a restaurant or bar to make a dent in the crisis boils down to its mission. For some, she says, it’s to serve food and drink; for others, it’s much deeper. She offers the example of Spring Street Tavern, which remains reliably open, every year, on Thanksgiving and Christmas. “They provide a safe space for people who don’t have families, who don’t have people that love them, who don’t have community,” she says. “We’re more than just a dive bar; we’re more than just a good breakfast spot. We’re a community that cares about the surrounding community.” Setting out canisters of Narcan and fentanyl test strips on the bar is an extension of that care, in Webster Norton’s eyes — and she knows it’s wanted, because they’re usually gone by the end of her shift. She hears stories from the restaurants she works with, too: an anecdote of a customer who slipped into the women’s bathroom and was found unconscious and blue-lipped, but staff revived her with Narcan; a server who grabbed fentanyl test strips before a bachelorette party and discovered that the Molly the group planned to take was, in fact, laced. Those are the stories that keep her going, she says, despite the exhaustion of the work and the hostility she sometimes encounters.

Jeffrey, who works those Sunday shifts with Webster Norton, says that as he’s watched the opioid crisis impact the community around him, he’s noticed changes within himself, too. Five years ago, he says, if he closed up the bar at 2 a.m. and found someone on the patio, he’d want them out of there. Now, he’s more inclined to leave them be, knowing that they may be having a mental health challenge, or may just need a safe place to rest. Sometimes, he sees posts on the Minneapolis Crime Watch Facebook page that mention overdose cases where naloxone was administered — inevitably, he says, there are comments blaming naloxone for enabling drug use in the first place. “There may have been a time in my life where I even felt the same way,” he says. “But it just blows my mind that people would bash somebody for having a thing that saves people’s lives, saying that these people deserve it.”

The reason Spring Street’s staff carries naloxone isn’t that they want people to be using drugs, he says — it’s that they’re trying to help where they can; to respond compassionately to a crisis that’s riddled and complex, and for many, devastating. “It’s tough to see the stigma around even making Narcan available,” Jeffrey says. “Once those people are impacted by it, all of a sudden, it opens their eyes.”

Norton founded Serving Those Serving in 2017.

Earlier this year, the city launched its first free Narcan vending machine outside of Fire Station 21.

How to Spend a Food-Fueled Weekend Sightseeing in Minneapolis

2024-12-18T08:00:00-06:00

Pasta from Khâluna. | Caroline Yang

Conquer the highlights of Minnesota’s largest city from fabulous Hmong food to frolics in the park

There’s a reason that Prince said that rock and roll is alive and it lives in Minneapolis. Minnesota’s largest city has no shortage of things to explore, even for longtime residents: The vibrant music scene ranks high, of course, but the city also boasts dozens of parks and lakes with miles of protected pedestrian and bike paths; one of the largest art museums in the United States (which also happens to be free); a thriving community of local artists; home stadiums for five professional sports teams; a strong network of independent media and indie publishers; and pretty spectacular food scene to fuel all of that activity. While you can’t cover it all in a weekend, here’s a good start on how to spend a 48-hour staycation in Minneapolis.

Where to stay

At the Hewing Hotel in the North Loop, the heated rooftop pool and sauna are a draw for both guests and locals, particularly in the winter months, when you can watch the windows of the city sparkle against the night sky from the vantage point of the hot tub. For an even more boutique stay, book one of Alma’s seven rooms and wake up to a tray of pastries delivered to your door from the bakery on the ground floor. Or get the best of both worlds at Nicollet Island Inn, whose riverside location means that you get a view of the skyline and the Mississippi as it rushes through the city.

Union Hmong Kitchen

Whole fish with chile crab sauce is among the many enticing options at Union Hmong Kitchen.

FRIDAY

Minneapolis is the proud home of the Minnesota Lynx, four-time WNBA Champions whose games regularly draw crowds to downtown’s Target Center. Grab a casual pre-game (or concert) dinner at Union Hmong Kitchen in the North Loop, just a quick 15-minute walk from the arena. Or head to the Seward Neighborhood for arepas and criolla fish tacos at Cafe Racer Kitchen; or nearby Himalayan Restaurant, where vegetarians and vegans will find plenty of options spanning Indian, Nepalese, and Tibetan cuisines.

SATURDAY

A burrito to fuel the day

Start off your morning by grabbing a scallion pancake breakfast burrito stuffed with smoky, thick-cut bacon or coins of sweet Chinese sausage, fluffy scrambled eggs, and creamy American cheese from the aptly named Saturday Dumpling Co. The website opens for orders on Wednesdays, with pickup anytime from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturdays at Dots Gray Kitchen. Or, as a breakfast alternative, head to the Dripping Root, a juice and smoothie bar in South Minneapolis where the smell of fresh fruit and abundant plants will make you feel like you’re stepping directly into a ray of summer sunshine.

Saturday Dumpling Co.

Spend the morning outside

Speaking of the weather — rain or shine, there’s no better place for getting outside than Minneapolis’s Theodore Wirth Regional Park. With more than 740 acres of land, the park offers activities for all seasons: birdwatching in the spring, fishing in the summer, hiking in the fall, snowshoeing and cross-country skiing in the winter. Visitors can rent bikes, skis, and other outdoor equipment at the Trailhead, a 4,200 square-foot recreational building in the park that also houses a restaurant, a fitness center, locker rooms and restrooms, and even a mobile sauna to warm up in the winter.

Lunch and people-watching

After a park wander of your choice, head to Cedar-Riverside for lunch. One of the few cooperatively-owned restaurants in the Twin Cities, Seward Cafe offers a wide array of diner-style classics, many of them made vegan: biscuits and gravy, loaded hash browns, fluffy pancakes measuring almost a foot in diameter. For those looking for something heartier, head north to Kramarczuk’s, a restaurant, market, and bakery serving Eastern European specialties like homemade pierogi and cabbage rolls stuffed with housemade sausage. At Dinkytown’s shoebox-sized Kimchi Tofu House, a clay pot of the eponymous stew and a sizzling plate of bulgogi, plus banchan, costs less than $20.

Katie Cannon

A combination plate at Kramarczuk’s might hit the spot, and then some.

Visit artists’ studios at Northrup King

After an active morning, make your way to the Northrup King building for a leisurely afternoon. Home to more than 300 artists and creative small businesses, the building is a cornerstone of the Northeast Minneapolis Arts District. All artists’ studios are open from noon to 4 p.m. on Saturdays, so visitors have a chance to purchase locally made treasures and meet the artists who created them.

Happy hour at the Walker Art Center

With a captive clientele, museum restaurants aren’t usually much to speak of, but Cardamom, located on the ground floor of the Walker Art Center, sheds that stereotype. Claim a seat on the patio for a view of the Walker’s iconic sculpture garden, which is only eclipsed by the quality of the people-watching: art students heading towards Sky Pesher, sketch pads in hand; children playing tag around the Spoonbridge and Cherry pond; well-heeled young professionals gathering at the Walker Cinema. The rooftop golf course, featuring 10 new artist-designed holes every year, is a summer must-do.

Saturday night splurge

Though you’d be hard-pressed to find a Minneapolis restaurant with a formal dress code, there are a number of scene-y restaurants where getting fancy is part of the fun. In South Minneapolis, Laotian restaurant Khâluna was designed to evoke a resort atmosphere, kitted out in cream linens, patinated bronze, and greenery. If you’d rather explore further north in the city, head to Oro, a full service masa kitchen in Northeast, where an unassuming exterior belies one of the most creative menus in the city; or visit the Camden Social in North Minneapolis, a restaurant and cigar lounge whose burgers have made a surprising splash in an otherwise canon-loyal town (heard of the Juicy Lucy?).

See what’s on at an independent theater

There’s nowhere quite like the Trylon Cinema, a 90-seat movie theater in Longfellow whose film series have included everything from a celebration of Alfred Hitchcock’s 125th birthday to a series featuring Laurence (formerly Larry) Fishburne’s greatest early-career hits. Get the Trylon Five Admission Discount Card, which drops each ticket’s price to $6. The card can also go toward Take-Up Productions screenings at the Riverview Theater, a classic wood-paneled 1940s-style theater in Howe, as well as the Heights Theater in the Minneapolis suburb Columbia Heights, where a live organist plays before every weekend evening screening. If you’re headed to the Heights, make sure to stop by the Golden Nuts, whose sweets and snacks make for the perfect movie treat. (Bonus, they’re entirely halal.)

SUNDAY

Birchbark Books

Pastries and an indie bookseller tour

Minneapolis is also home to a robust literary community, with independent bookstores dotting every neighborhood of the city. Magers & Quinn, Birchbark Books, and Wild Rumpus are conveniently located along the chain of lakes, so take a walk and stop by for a detour through the shelves (or rent a bike from the Tangletown Bike Shop). For those truly dedicated to the hunt, the Book House in Dinkytown is a treasure trove of secondhand books; and for romance readers, newly opened Tropes & Trifles in Standish is an essential stop. For lunch, grab a bite somewhere you missed on Saturday — or, if it’s summer, head to Sea Salt Eatery at Minnehaha Falls for great food and an even better view.

Chase the aurora

While the northern lights are more reliably visible in northern Minnesota, solar storms have brought the aurora as far south as the Twin Cities multiple times in the last few years. Follow the Twin Cities Aurora Chasers Facebook group for your best chance at catching a rare sighting — and if all else fails, snagging tickets to a Minnesota Aurora game at TCO Stadium is just as brilliant a way to end your Minneapolis weekend (and requires significantly less meteorological literacy).

Are Cocktail Bars Leaving Craft Spirits Behind?

2024-12-12T07:00:00-06:00

Well? | Photo illustration by Punch

For some producers, the once-symbiotic relationship with bartenders is shifting

https://punchdrink.com/articles/craft-spirits-cocktail-bars/

An Eater’s Guide to the Twin Cities

2024-12-04T15:24:42-06:00

Shutterstock

Unofficial, highly opinionated information about Minneapolis and St. Paul

Cheese-stuffed burgers, basement speakeasies, and aromatic bowls of pho — these are just some of the highlights of the Twin Cities’ restaurant and bar scene. This is the homeland of the Dakota and the Ojibwe, where wild rice grows on the lakes, and where new generations have introduced lefse, sambusas, heirloom corn tortillas, cherry-smoked barbecue, Hmong sausage, soul rolls, and fragrant injera platters. This is a guide for navigating the Cities’ vibrant, ever-evolving food scene.

Welcome to the Land of Many Lakes

The Mill City or the Saintly City — which to choose? (St. Paul’s original name was actually “Pig’s Eye” — monikers have vastly improved.)

Minneapolis is a little edgier: This is the heart of the Cities’ music scene, where Prince performed legendary shows at First Avenue. There are stars of equal measure in Minneapolis’s restaurant world: Full-service Indigenous restaurant Owamni won the national, highly competitive James Beard Award for best new restaurant in 2022. Owamni serves a decolonized menu (think venison tartare and seaweed sorbet instead of beef, milk, flour, and white sugar) near St. Anthony Falls on the Mississippi River — or, in the Dakota language, Owámniyomni, a sacred site of peace and well-being.

East Lake Street offers an array of Mexican restaurants and panaderias, plus two popular indoor markets with plenty of restaurants and cafes: Mercado Central and Midtown Global Market. Lake Street was the center of the social uprisings of 2020, which began in Minneapolis and sparked nationwide protests for racial justice after the murder of George Floyd. That summer, many people at all levels of the restaurant industry helped assemble a vast network of mutual aid and community protection. At the same time, many family- and immigrant-owned restaurants were damaged in the fires. These businesses continue to recover today, and many chefs, entrepreneurs, and service workers are among the voices still calling for change.

Minneapolis’s Northeast neighborhood is a historically industrial area that’s long been home to many immigrant communities: Central Avenue is one of the Cities’ best food corridors, and dive bars in this neighborhood abound. The downtown area has upscale options, like Spoon and Stable, Bar la Grassa, and Kado no Mise, with the North Loop in particular being a hotspot for dining. North Minneapolis has local favorites like Wendy’s House of Soul, the Get Down Coffee Co., and Sammy’s Avenue Eatery, and south Minneapolis has a wealth of neighborhood restaurants and bars, with many of the city’s most beloved spots on Eat Street, a historic stretch of Nicollet Avenue, and in Uptown and the Kingfield neighborhood.

St. Paul has a more low-key, slower-paced feel, but no shortage of standout restaurants. Frogtown has many Vietnamese, Cambodian, Thai, and Laotian restaurants and bakeries, like Cheng Heng, which serves stellar kor koo noodle soup and flaky scallion cakes, and iPho by Saigon. (University Avenue is also one of the Cities’ main hotspots for pho.) St. Paul is also known for its classic, unpretentious bars, plus standout restaurants nestled on assuming neighborhood streets. A few standout spots in the capital city include Moscow on the Hill, which serves a house horseradish vodka; Mancini’s, a beloved, timeworn supper club; and Meritage, a classic French brasserie.

Eater TC

Hot Grainz in St. Paul.

Despite each city’s idiosyncrasies, Minneapolis and St. Paul are really part of one big metropolis. Across both cities, there’s a wealth of East African restaurants to explore, from beef tibs and honey wine at Bole to injera combo platters at Demera Restaurant on University Avenue. Breweries (and now, more than ever, distilleries) bottling some essence of Minnesota — like black spruce peat, or blueberries — are abundant. The Cities have one of the nation’s most unique culinary scenes in Hmong cuisine: Hmong Village and Hmongtown Marketplace in St. Paul are bustling markets and food halls, and chefs Diane Moua and Yia Vang have both recently opened landmark Hmong and Hmong American restaurants in Minneapolis. Soul food has a special place here, from classic spots like Mama Sheila’s gilded buffet, to pop-up successes like chef Gerard Klass and Brittney Alise Klass’s Soul Bowl, to Trio, where chef Louis Hunter serves vegan fare.

Where to Start on Eater Twin Cities' Top Maps

Hottest restaurants: Among the Twin Cities’ hottest new restaurants are Vinai, a much-anticipated Hmong restaurant from chef Yia Vang serving flame-grilled whole chicken, crab fat fried rice, and aromatic braised beef stews; Lynette, a bistro-like new neighborhood restaurant dishing up ravioli du Dauphine and ribeye with duck fat fries; and Tender Lovin’ Chix, a pop-up-turned permanent restaurant serving up all manner of crispy chicken tender dishes. Over in the North Minneapolis, Tap In is the lush, earth-themed new restaurant in a former Lowry Avenue gas station; in Minneapolis’s Seward neighborhood, Lagniappe is channeling the culinary spirit of the Big Easy with red fish on the half shell and jambalaya; and Black Duck Spirits & Hearth, the new permanent restaurant from chef and food truck owner Jason Sawicki, is serving wood-fired fare “from the hearth” in Northeast Minneapolis.

Justine Jones

Vinai.

Essential Restaurants: The Twin Cities’ essentials list includes 38 restaurants throughout Minneapolis and St. Paul — but if you have to narrow it down, start with a steaming bowl of pho or a banh mi for lunch at Quang Restaurant on Nicollet Avenue, a cornerstone of Minneapolis’s Eat Street, or grab tacos at St. Paul’s El Burrito Mercado. For dinner, make a reservation (well in advance) at enduring Spoon and Stable in the North Loop; James Beard-winning Indigenous restaurant Owamni; or Northeast favorite Hai Hai, where you can eat pork belly and shrimp banh xeo from Beard-nominated chef Christina Nguyen. Grab barbecue at Animales; a sandwich at Marty’s Deli; a plate of rich beef tibs and injera at Bole Ethiopian Cuisine; or try piquillo peppers and Basque cheesecake at Petite León. For dessert, there are few better combos that the Swedish egg coffee and rustic apple pie at Myriel. For a stellar tasting menu, check out Demi, Travail Kitchen and Amusements, or Tenant.

Justine Jones

A trail of excellent tacos around the Twin Cities.

Iconic dive bars: Northeast Minneapolis, one of the Twin Cities’ historic industrial centers, is a tapestry of great dive bars. Wear that old flannel with the elbows patched up — likely nowhere else in the U.S. will you meet a bar-going crowd so determinedly casual. Moose Bar & Grill is a neon-lit spot on Monroe Street with artichoke-and-bacon-stuffed potato skins, but don’t miss the meat raffles, bingo, and pull tabs. Grumpy’s has an old-fashioned jukebox and a range of draft pours, and is a favorite haunt of local musicians. The Terminal hosts weekly comedy nights on Thursdays, and Vegas Lounge — which, upping the ante for all local dives, has wood paneling on the ceiling — does karaoke seven nights a week. Over in St. Paul, the West Seventh neighborhood is another great spot for dive bars. Try the pizza and $3 rail drinks at Skinner’s happy hour, or go for White Castle brunch and cribbage at the Spot Bar.

Cocktails: Maybe an IPA garnished with a pickle spear isn’t your thing. Pivot from dive bars to the hottest new spots in the cocktail scene, or perhaps one of the enduring, essential bars of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Little Tijuana, a groovy local favorite on Eat Street, offers a slushy machine and vinyls on rotation; Meteor, which is especially popular among service industry folks, was a recent James Beard semifinalist for Outstanding Bar; and Spoon and Stable’s Jessi Pollak, who infuses the restaurant’s cocktail menu with a warm sophistication, was named America’s best bartender of 2022. Over in St. Paul, slip into Estelle’s snug cocktail bar for yuzu-infused sangria or grab a seat at Herbst’s U-shaped bar for cocktails in five flavor themes: mineral, bitter, funky, earthy, and seasonal. Elsewhere, Emerald Lounge in St. Paul offers a cozy, elegant ambiance; Juche serves makgeolli, an effervescent Korean rice wine that’s hard to find in the Midwest, let alone the Twin Cities.

Gene Pease

A cocktail lineup at Little Tijuana.

Burgers: The Juicy Lucy — a hefty beef patty stuffed with molten cheese, served with a variety of buns and toppings — is one of the Twin Cities’ most iconic dishes. The burger likely originated at Matt’s Bar (a legendary Cedar Avenue dive) in 1954, when — as legend has it — a customer requested two hamburger patties with a slice of cheese between them. Matt’s calls its burger the “Jucy Lucy,” with no “i”: New takes like the Groveland Tap’s Cajun Lucy and Blue Door Pub’s blue cheese “Blucy” have since proliferated. The Cities also have a wealth of smash burgers: Try the thin and cheesy diner-style burger at Parlour, or seek out the Station No. 6 food truck.

East African cuisine: The Cities have a big East African community, which is reflected in the restaurant scene. There’s a wealth of Ethipiopian restaurants around Minneapolis and St. Paul: Head to Erta Ale for kifto (a traditional tartare dish that’s marinated in mitmita and spiced butter) and beef tibs; find chuko (an Oromo specialty made with roasted barley flour, ample butter, and spices) and traditional coffee ceremonies at Yadot Ethiopian Restaurant; or stop by Lulu Ethiovegan Cuisine for an entirely vegan spread. Mama Safia’s dishes up stellar Somali fare on Lake Street, serving sambusas, curried goat dishes, and spaghetti with tilapia; or slip into Hamdi Coffee in Karmel Mall for a steaming cup of Somali shaah (spiced tea).

Pho: After the end of the Vietnam War, thousands of Vietnamese refugees resettled in Minnesota. As a result, the Twin Cities are home to many Vietnamese restaurants, and thus, an abundance of fragrant bowls of pho. There are two main hot spots for pho in the Cities: Eat Street on Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis, and Frogtown in St. Paul. Minneapolis’s Quang serves a classic, balanced pho tai, and Lotus Restaurant serves a variation it calls “pho stew,” made with potatoes and carrots. Over in St. Paul, iPho by Saigon offers massive portions laced with spices like cloves and star anise, and Pho Ca Dao is a cash-only restaurant that serves just two things: pho and egg rolls.

Hmong cuisine: The Twin Cities is home to a thriving Hmong community. Between 1961 and 1973, overlapping the Vietnam War years, the Hmong — who historically, lived nomadically in the mountainous regions of northern Laos, Thailand, Burma (present-day Myanmar), Cambodia, China, and Vietnam — were recruited as part of a covert, anti-communist CIA operation, now known as the Secret War in Laos. After the war ended, Hmong soldiers and their families who had aided the CIA were persecuted by the victorious Pathet Lao — many, after escaping across the Mekong River to Thai refugee camps, eventually resettled in Minnesota. Now, the Twin Cities is a center of Hmong cuisine — visit Hmongtown Village Shopping Center in St. Paul for papaya salad, koj thiab ntiv (Hmong chicken with herbs), and crazy steak with wasabi sauce and pepper paste from Santi’s. Two local chefs have recently opened landmark Hmong and Hmong American restaurants: chef Yia Vang of Vinai and chef Diane Moua of Diane’s Place, respectively. You can’t go wrong at either.

Breakfast and brunch: The Twin Cities have a wealth of reliable breakfast standbys: iconic greasy spoons like Our Kitchen, Ideal Diner, and Al’s Breakfast (the latter home to the best diner pancakes in the metro), Columbia and American breakfast fare at Maria’s Cafe, Cuban ropa vieja at Victor’s, and bagels at Asa’s Bakery and Rise Bagel. Get dim sum at bustling Mandarin Kitchen in Bloomington, or stop by one of the Twin Cities’ plentiful bakeries for a flaky croissant. For brunch, head to Hell’s Kitchen for lemon ricotta pancakes and walleye hash; Stepchld for Ethiopian birria tacos and pork belly with coconut rice; or Reverie for vegan French toast topped with a dollop of coconut-lime creme fraiche.

Katie Cannon/Eater Twin Cities

Al’s Breakfast.

Coffee shops: Nearly every neighborhood in the Twin Cities has an excellent coffee spot. Try the Turkish coffee (and tahini babka) from pastry chef Shawn McKenzie at Café Cerés in Linden Hills, or a cup made with coriander bitters and Hawaiian sea salt at Five Watt Coffee on Nicollet Avenue. Grab a sweet potato latte from Black-owned coffee shop The Get Down Coffee Co. in the Camden neighborhood. In St. Paul, cozy up in Claddagh Coffee’s red-brick coffee bar, or grab a to-go cup from Nina’s Coffee Cafe and wander the streets of the historic Cathedral Hill neighborhood. Two exciting new coffee debuts in south Minneapolis include Sunbean Coffee and Caphìn Mpls Vietnamese Coffee.

Ice cream: Even in a minus-17-degree windchill, ice cream is a year-round affair in the Twin Cities. Sebastian Joe’s is perhaps the most quintessential Minnesota shop. Its Nicollet Avenue Pothole flavor — a chocolate-and-caramel homage to the freeze-thaw cycles of the Midwest — is a favorite. Bebe Zito is the most exciting newcomer on the ice cream scene in recent years: it’s known for gutsy add-ins like caramelized Fruity Pebbles, Vietnamese coffee, and wedding cake. Milkjam’s vegan chocolate is richer than the deepest, black-gold layers of the earth’s crust, and Grand Ole Creamery serves waffle cones at a whiplash rate on summer nights. Conny’s Creamy Cone is an excellent spot for chili dogs and soft-serve nostalgia.

Tim Evans/Eater Twin Cities

Peach ice cream from Bebe Zito.

Pizza: For a James Beard-recognized pizza experience, head to Young Joni — favorites on chef Ann Kim’s menu are the Umami Mama with cremini, shiitake, and portobello mushrooms, and La Parisienne, with prosciutto and brown butter. (Kim also runs Pizzeria Lola and Hello Pizza, more casual spots.) Elsewhere around the Cities, try Detroit-style pizza at Wrecktangle or Mario’s, Buenos Aires-style pizza (with an irresistible, slightly sweet dough) at Boludo, and New York-style pizza at Slice, the Black-owned pizzeria that’s steadily expanding around the metro. There’s something to be said for dive bar pizza in the Twin Cities, too: Try the so-weird-it’s-good Rueben pizza at Skinner’s Pub in St. Paul’s West Seventh neighborhood.

Beer: Taprooms in the Twin Cities abound. Check out these essential spots: Bauhaus Brew Labs, which serves balanced IPAs and German-style lagers; Modist, which claims 18,000 square feet in the North Loop; and Fair State Brewing in Northeast, Minnesota’s first brewing cooperative. Lift Bridge Brewing Company out in Stillwater — a historic logging town on the St. Croix River — is a great stop for a day trip away from the metro. Sociable Ciderwerks is a popular option for house-brewed ciders — in the winter, the crew brings in hoses and fashions a skating rink out of the parking lot.

Twin Cities Food Neighborhoods to Know

Eat Street: On the north end of Nicollet Avenue, Eat Street is one of Minneapolis’s culinary hot spots. Pimento Kitchen and Rum Bar has some of the Cities’ best Jamaican food: Get a bowl with braised oxtail and plantains or go for the curried veggies — either way, add at least two of the house-made sauces. Lu’s Sandwiches has infamous banh mi, and Quang, a family-owned local legend, serves a fragrant, balanced bowl of pho. Marhaba Grill has a bountiful Mediterranean buffet, with plenty of desserts like baklava and basbousa.

East Lake Street: Running through the heart of Minneapolis’s Phillips, Powderhorn, and Longfellow neighborhoods, East Lake street is home to a wealth of Mexican restaurants and panaderias. Mercado Central is a great place to start: Explore this indoor market of 35 businesses and indulge in fresh-made tacos, tamales, empanadas, and aguas frescas (or an orange and beet smoothie at La Reyna de los Jugos). Tortilleria La Perla, which sells wholesale to businesses across the state, has a restaurant here. Stop into a panaderia for a snack after lunch — grab conchas or orejas from San Miguel. Further east, find crispy birria tacos at Taqueria Las Cuatro Milpas — or, get a margarita made with lavender syrup and creme de violette at Sonora Grill, and then head next door to El Norteño, a woman-owned restaurant. Central Lake Street is also home to Midtown Global Market, which has an array of local restaurants.

Uptown: Minneapolis’s Uptown and Lyn-Lake neighborhoods maintain a slightly tattered, scrappy cool. The intersection of Lyndale Avenue and Lake Street is a public transportation-friendly part of town that’s packed with restaurants. Check out LynLake Brewery for beer, rooftop views, and “Oakie Style” double-patty onion burgers. World Street Kitchen is one of the Twin Cities’ greatest food truck-to-restaurant success stories: Go for the Hanoi fish yum yum bowl, and stay for dessert (Milkjam Creamery is just next door). Nearby Nightingale has extensive wine, beer, and cocktail offerings. Isles Bun and Coffee is known for its braids of cinnamon brioche topped with cream cheese frosting, aka “puppy dog tails.” Grab some and wander down to the 32nd Street beach at Bde Maka Ska to eat them by the water.

North Loop: Minneapolis’ popular North Loop neighborhood is home to a number of upscale dining destinations, like Gavin Kaysen’s Spoon and Stable (and now, also, Demi); Italian and Japanese fusion restaurant Sanjusan; Kado no Mise, which serves the Cities’ finest omakase; and Bar La Grasa, which serves a mean lobster-and-scrambled eggs bruschetta. Argentinian steakhouse Porzana, by chef Danny del Prado, and French brasserie Maison Margaux, by chef David Fhima, are ambitious new opens in the neighborhood. Other more casual gems abound — like Graze Provisions and Libations, home to Soul Bowl, Union Hmong Kitchen, Wrecktangle, and more. Find some of the city’s best bagels at Rise, plus a selection of cream cheeses and spreads, from scallion and salted maple to strawberry preserves.

Kingfield/Fulton: Nicollet Avenue’s southern stretch is dotted with fantastic restaurants like Hola Arepa, one of the pioneers of the Twin Cities’ food truck community, which offers a cozy year-round patio for outdoor dining in all seasons. Petite León, the work of James Beard-nominated chef Jorge Guzmán, is an intimate neighborhood cafe with a Yucatán Peninsula-influenced menu, an exceptional burger, and creative, citrus-forward cocktails. Nighthawks has some great takes on diner food and often hosts live music on the patio.

Lucy Hawthorne

Petite León, in the Kingfield Neighborhood.

Linden Hills: This quiet, residential pocket of Minneapolis is surprisingly restaurant-dense. It’s home to James Beard Award 2020 finalist Steven Brown’s Tilia, and two restaurants from chef Danny del Prado’s elegant trio: Rosalia, which serves wood-fired pizzas, and Martina, with more elevated dishes like bavette with potato churros and seared scallops. The Harriet Brasserie has a lovely patio where you can follow a glass of white wine with a slice of tres leches cake — or grab a ham sandwich from France 44 Cheese Shop and head to the Lake Harriet Bandshell for live music and a picnic on the weekend.

Northeast: “Nordeast,” as longtime residents might call it, is one of Minneapolis’s former industrial centers, historically an area that’s been home to many immigrant communities. Central Avenue is one of Minneapolis’s best food corridors: Get a $3 slice of pie at the Ideal Diner, a colossal burrito at El Taco Riendo, or a tender seco de pollo at Ecuadorian restaurant Chimborazo. Northeast has an array of more upscale restaurants: Hai Hai, by James Beard-nominated chef Christina Nguyen, and Young Joni, by James Beard-winner chef Ann Kim, are both favorites. Anchor Fish and Chips has arguably the best fish and chips in the Twin Cities, and Aster Cafe has jazz music and dancing on Sunday afternoons. There’s a whole barbecue scene in the area, too — check out Animales when it’s open for the season. Don’t miss the Mexican breakfast and lunch options at both Maya Cuisine and Vivir.

Kevin Kramer

Hai Hai in Northeast.

Lowertown: Long a hub for artists of the Midwest — and home to a new minor league baseball stadium for the St. Paul Saints — Lowertown, though it’s been hit by recent closures, has historically been hot spot for restaurants in St. Paul. Saint Dinette has one of the Cities’ most revered burgers: two chunky patties with American cheese and a side of delicate pickle slices. Grab a Somali steak sandwich at Afro Deli; or snag a seat at the distinctly Parisian crescent bar at Meritage for a glass of champagne and fruits de mer.

Cathedral Hill: St. Paul’s Cathedral Hill neighborhood is in the shadow of the city’s Roman Catholic cathedral. The area is filled with charming, historic red-brick buildings and stately homes — its main food corridor runs along Selby Avenue. Revival is a popular spot for fried chicken — or swing in a hammock on the breezy patio at the Gnome Craft Pub. Wee Claddagh is a charming spot for coffee, and J. Selby’s serves creative vegan takes on fast food, like dairy-free shakes and crunch wraps filled with a taco-seasoned Beyond blend, peppers, and onions. W.A. Frost has a lovely patio, and serves classic entrees like braised pork shoulder and New York strip.

West Seventh: Extending out of downtown St. Paul, the West Seventh area has long been known for neighborhood bars and restaurants. In recent years, new shops, restaurants, and craft breweries have opened alongside some of these classic spots — but the dive bars, those old stalwarts, remain. Brake Bread and Mojo Monkey Doughnuts serve early-morning treats, and Café Astoria is a go-to for coffee in a cozy room. West Seventh is also home to Keg and Case, a market and food hall with many options, from mac and cheese to Jamaican fare.

Frogtown: This neighborhood has a marvelous array of restaurants along University Avenue. The Green Line light rail runs down University Avenue, making this a super-accessible spot for a meal. Bangkok Thai Deli and Supermarket serves a gigantic bowl of pork boat noodles, and Cheng Heng is known for its red curry tom yum soup, chive cakes, and red bean rice donuts. Trung Nam French Bakery serves equally good banh mi and croissants, and Hoa Bien has creative takes on desserts, like a banh flan with Vietnamese coffee. Hot Grainz is a go-to for Thai street food that “pushes the boundaries of the Twin Cities Thai foodscape.”

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Introducing the 2024 Eater Twin Cities Award Winners

2024-12-03T10:00:00-06:00

Chef Diane Moua’s eggroll stuffed chicken. | Connor Siedow

Doling out tomato cans for Chef of the Year, Best New Bar, Best Damn Pasta, and more

Every year, the Eater Awards recognize the restaurants, bars, bakeries, pop-ups, and chefs that have defined the past year in dining. In 2024, the Twin Cities saw a generational shift in the restaurant scene, as many of the chefs and others who have steadily powered the culinary engine of the Cities for years struck out on their own, and parlayed their experiences in canonical pastry making, famous burger slinging, legendary bar program shaping, and sommelier scene shifting into fully realized restaurants and bars. From sweet sunchoke-stuffed doppio to heady aromatized wines to ginger-laced, flame-grilled whole chicken, this year was chock full of delight, surprise, and plenty of gutsiness. Here are the 2024 Eater Awards for Chef of the Year, Best New Restaurant, Best Damn Pasta, Best New Bar, and “The Game Changer.”

Drew Anthony Smith

Vinai: Best New Restaurant

Presented by SevenRooms

Four years in the making, chef Yia Vang’s long-awaited Hmong restaurant, Vinai, has resonated on both the local and national level, landing on Eater’s best new restaurants list for 2024. Vang has had such an outsized presence in the Twin Cities food scene — from his scrappy early days toting Union Hmong Kitchen around West St. Paul as a pop-up, to full-service locations in the North Loop and on Lake Street, to State Fair stardom and a string of television features — that by now, his story is well-known: He cooks for his parents, Hmong refugees who escaped Laos at the end of the Secret War and met at Thailand’s Ban Vinai refugee camp, where they gave birth to Vang before resettling in the U.S. But somehow, at Vinai, that familiar story is entirely renewed, catching you by surprise as you swirl your spoon through the crystalline, lime-bright broth of braised chicken and tofu soup, spiking it with Mama Vang’s hot pepper sauce; as you pile lavender-hued rice noodles atop fried catfish and herbs in a crunchy lettuce wrap. Maybe that’s because Vang isn’t actually retelling his story at Vinai — he’s adding a new chapter. His mother, he says, told him that when she first came to the U.S., she never wanted to speak of Vinai because it was a place of hardship and darkness. Now, since the restaurant has opened, when she hears the name she doesn’t think of pain and suffering — instead she thinks of joy. That’s something the accolades can’t quite beat.

From our sponsor: SevenRooms is the leading CRM, marketing, and operations platform helping hospitality operators increase sales, delight guests, and keep them coming back — automatically.

Tim Evans

Dallas Currie

Dario: Best Damn Pasta

It’s a beautiful thing when a restaurant as buzzy as Dario — and as swanky, as sleek — has such evident heart behind it. When co-owners and industry veterans Stephen Rowe and Joe Rolle set out to open their own restaurant, they had to scrap, hard: Neither had the necessary friends in high places, so to speak, so they invited potential investors out for coffee and pitched them with pop-up dinners in Rolle’s St. Louis park home, buying their own glassware and linens and whipping elegant meals out of a few overstuffed coolers. They made a brilliant decision when they brought on Rachel McLeod of Cornelius Pasta Co. to helm the restaurant’s sun-filled, flour-dusted pasta room: An exceptional pasta maker, she applies equal measures of precision, artfulness, and soul, operating in a realm “somewhere between a three-Michelin-star chef and a true pasta granny,” as Rolle puts it. Together, the three of them have made a canonical addition to the Twin Cities’ pasta scene and established Dario as a destination restaurant, one that pairs an electric atmosphere — a punchy, shell-pink aesthetic that would befit Miami or Los Angeles; a punk rock soundtrack playing at all hours — with the easy comforts of doppio stuffed with sweet sunchoke and ricotta; agnolotti bursting with braised short rib, parmesan crema, and red wine jus. Not to mention that Rowe has schemed up one of the Cities’ finest beverage programs, its cocktails as compelling as its nonalcoholic spritzes, fragrant botanical tonics, licorice root Shirley Temples, and dandelion pours.

Connor Siedow

Gemma Weston Photography

Diane Moua, Diane’s Place: Chef of the Year

When, in 2022, chef Diane Moua decided to depart Bellecour Bakery and chef Gavin Kaysen’s Soigné Hospitality — where she’d established herself as one of the Twin Cities’ most acclaimed pastry chefs with her feather-light crepe cakes, beeswax ice cream quenelles, and caramel-lacquered kouign-amann — it was an exciting change for her; a momentous leap from the pastry world to helm a full-service restaurant. What’s clear now, eight months since Diane’s Place opened in Northeast Minneapolis’s Food Building, is just how immense a gift that leap gave the Cities.

Eater

Sometimes, big-name new restaurants are relegated to the realm of special occasions and rare splurges after the opening dust has settled, but Diane’s Place — a bone-white, cavernous space decorated with the wicker baskets Moua’s parents used for gardening and hand-embroidered pillows cut from traditional Hmong dresses — is so thoughtfully built for everyday dining and the everyday people who live here. Brunch regulars return again and again for the savory, fat-studded Hmong sausage or the custardy Thai tea French toast; lone diners slip inside for a bowl of warming chicken noodle soup; industry folks gather on a late Monday morning with coffee and sweet pork Danishes. Moua’s much-anticipated dinner menu, which launched in November, is an equal testament to her deliberateness and rigor: Her landmark vision of Hmong American cuisine is articulated as thoughtfully in the salty, simple pleasures of sardines with tomatoes as the lush duck stew, swirling with Thai eggplant and lemongrass.

Zoe Prinds-Flash Photography

Small Hours: Best New Bar

Eater

For all the excellent drinking destinations that the Twin Cities have to offer, we’re short on wine bars (though we love those we have). So it was all the more exciting when Small Hours, the hi-fi wine bar from sommelier Sarina Garibrovic and musician Sam Cassidy, came onto the scene this fall, debuting in an amber-lit, white-curtained space on a quiet block of Northeast Minneapolis. In the restaurant and bar world, there’s sometimes an instinct to break something great down to the sum of its parts, to sacrifice intrigue and make a safer bet — maybe due to our endemic Midwesterness, our tendency toward the middle ground. But Small Hours is uncompromising in the best way. Wines — an exceptional list of jammy Croatian oranges, bruised blackberry Spanish reds, herbal French whites and more curated by Garibrovic — are served mostly by the bottle, because conviviality is the whole point. Joni Mitchell, Curtis Mayfield, and Mariah Carey albums are played straight through; heady aromatized wines are poured over crushed ice in sparkling goblets; there’s an almost encyclopedic menu of tinned fish served with warm, earthy sourdough. For all the imprecision of the word “vibe,” Small Hours conjures a pretty damn infectious one, offering the Cities a little deserved indulgence and delight.

Tim Evans

A Bar of Their Own: The Game Changer

Is it kismet (or perhaps inevitable?) that Minnesota’s first bar dedicated to women’s sports would open during a year when women athletes are dominating the conversation more than ever? A Bar of Their Own owner Jillian Hiscock, who took inspiration from Jenny Nguyen’s Portland bar the Sports Bra, brought ABOTO onto the scene through sheer force of will (and, of course, plenty of community support). She transformed Tracy’s Saloon into a new kind of neighborhood destination, decorating the walls with Maya Moore jerseys, pride flags, and softball murals; negotiating streaming rights with the disparate platforms that show women’s sports, getting everything from roller derby to the WNBA on the screens; and, crucially, keeping Tracy’s uber-popular wing recipe in the kitchen. The mark of a great sports bar is that when the wins rack up and things are good, your own joy is compounded by the joy of the community around you. When things are bad — like, per se, when the Minnesota Lynx lose a record-breaking championship game on the most egregious referee call in the history of the WNBA — it’s one of the only places where you’ll find a home for your heartbreak. When ABOTO opened this spring, there were more than a few naysayers in the comment section, sure that a women’s sports bar wouldn’t last the year. Yet here it stands, a testament to not one but two great American baseball movies: If you build it, they will come.

Where to Eat on Christmas Day in the Twin Cities

2024-12-02T09:39:35-06:00

Giulia is serving a special Christmas menu all day. | Giulia

Festive brunch buffets, Cantonese seafood feasts, fondue, and more

For anyone less-than-excited at the prospect of spending Christmas in the kitchen, these Twin Cities restaurants offer festive, piping hot meals. Here’s where to dine on Christmas Day around Minneapolis and St. Paul, with restaurants listed geographically (not ranked) as always.

5 Twin Cities Restaurant Closures to Know This November

2024-11-27T10:03:30-06:00

Eater

Goodbye to an Eat Street pizza staple and an artisan cheese maker — plus more closures to know

Tattersall Distilling in Northeast

Tattersall’s long goodbye comes to an end on November 30, when the Northeast Minneapolis cocktail room will close for good. Tattersall opened in 2015 as one of the trailblazers of the local craft distillery wave; in 2020, it became the country’s first unionized craft distillery. This January, Tattersall found itself locked in a tricky eviction dispute with its landlord; a month later, its owners announced it would not renew its lease. Tattersall’s River Falls location remains open.

Black Sheep Pizza on Eat Street

Coal-fired pizza mini-chain Black Sheep is permanently closing its Nicollet Avenue location on November 30, per Racket. The restaurant’s owners posted a note on the door, writing that they’re shifting attention to focus on their North Loop location and their grandchildren. Black Sheep occupied its Eat Street address for ten years.

Hi Flora

Vegan, THC restaurant Hi Flora is calling it quits on Lyndale Avenue amid regulatory challenges, but there may be more to come from owner Heather Klein, who says she’s exploring new “options and opportunities.” The restaurant and temperance bar will remain open until December 5.

Alemar Cheese in the Food Building

Cheesemaker Keith Adams has relocated his company Alemar Cheese from Northeast Minneapolis’s Food Building to Sebastopol, California. Adams told the Pioneer Press that a number of factors led to the decision — namely, he hasn’t been able to turn a profit since the pandemic began; his head cheesemaker recently relocated to a new city; and he was struggling to find a new milk supplier. Though he didn’t want to close his Minneapolis location, Adams told the Pi Press he’s excited to be back in California, his home state.

Wuollet Bakery on Grand Avenue

Wuollet Bakery shut down its Grand Avenue location in early November, the latest in a string of closures for the local chain, which was sued by its bank last month. Per the Pioneer Press, however, owner Eric Shogren is looking for a new location on Grand.

9 Classic Italian Red-Sauce Restaurants in the Twin Cities

2024-11-26T09:44:09-06:00

Cossetta

Where to find old-school spaghetti and meatballs, stromboli, and handmade tortellini

The Twin Cities have a lot of great Italian restaurants, from Japanese-Italian spots in the North Loop to wine bars with extensive, region-by-region wine lists in south Minneapolis. But the historical heart of the Cities’ Italian cuisine lies in St. Paul, where Italian immigrants built a thriving Little Italy on the Upper Levee in the early 19th century. Flooding forced families out of the area in the 1950s, but many long-held family businesses and restaurants still persist today. Here’s where to find a plate of meatballs drowned in tangy marinara, a hearty slice of lasagna, or a thin-crust pizza topped with a bubbly blanket of mozzarella, listed geographically (not ranked) as always.

Where to Eat at Minneapolis St. Paul International Airport (MSP)

2024-11-25T10:30:33-06:00

Mill City Tavern. | MSP Airport

Fill up on Neapolitan pizza, walleye sandwiches, ice cream, and more before take off

A strong showing of homegrown favorites — plus some well-loved chains — offer travelers at Minneapolis St. Paul International Airport a taste of the Twin Cities. On the way to your gate, stop for Neapolitan pizza, a half-dozen gourmet doughnuts, and a beer by a local craft brewer. Here’s a guide to what to eat at MSP: First Eater’s recommendations, then a comprehensive list, organized by location.

Best Bets

Stone Arch

This sprawling bar has a massive tap list of local craft beers — exclusively brews from the MN Brewer’s Guild, in fact. Food includes pub fare like walleye sandwiches, juicy burgers, and salads, plus a few dinner plates like meatloaf and pan-seared salmon. Grab-and-go is available, though the vibe is sit-down. [Terminal 1, MSP Mall]

Settlebello

If you’re on the hunt for pizza, head to Settlebello. These Neapolitan pies are airy and light, heaped with crushed tomatoes, fresh mozz, and a variety of toppings. Settlebello serves salads and antipasti too, and offers a gluten-free crust. There’s a full bar. [Terminal 1 MSP Mall]

Peoples Organic

People’s Organic is a reliable go-to for fresh soups and sandwiches, baked goods, breakfast scrambles, and big, leafy salads — it’s one of the airport’s best bets for vegan and gluten-free eaters. This place is good for grab-and-go meals, or you can slide into a booth and relax a little. People’s serves cocktails, wine, and beer as well. [Terminal 1, MSP Mall]

MSP Airport

Hi-Lo Diner.

Hi-Lo Diner

Hi-Lo is a reliable stop for breakfast dishes like “Hi-Tops” (fried dough piled with savory or sweet toppings), Tex-Mex burritos, and frittatas. Other diner fare is served too, like burgers and wedge salads, plus beer, wine and cocktails. This place is best for a sit-down meal. [Terminal 1, Concourse F, Gate F10]

Angel Food Bakery

This breakfast savior opens at 4 a.m. daily for grab-and-go sweets like pastries, cupcakes, and scones. [Terminal 1, Concourse E, Gate E5]

Sebastian Joe’s

Sebastian Joe’s a Minnesota-favorite ice cream brand. Round out a meal with a scoop of pavarotti, or an ice cream sandwich. [Terminal 1, Concourse E, Gate E5]

MSP Airport

A scoop of Sebastian Joe’s.

Mill City Tavern

If you have enough time to settle in for a full meal before your flight, head to Mill City Tavern. For breakfast, there are egg sandwiches smeared with tomato jam, cardamom sticky buns, and classic eggs Benedict; the lunch and dinner menus feature sandwiches, salads, and entrees like grilled Atlantic salmon and New York strip. [Concourse G, near Gate G18]

Surdyk’s Flights

Options at MSP’s smaller Terminal 2 are a bit sparse, but Surdyk’s is a great option for a light meal before a flight. Pair a glass of merlot with a cheese plate, panini, or salad, and save room for dessert. Surdyk’s also has a case of gourmet cheeses if you’re looking to bring a treat home with you. [Terminal 2, near Gate H8]

Terminal 1

Airport Mall Food Court

People’s Organic: Organic wraps, sandwiches, salads, and hearty breakfast dishes

Ike’s Clubhouse: Golf-themed restaurant with classic grill food and a broad selection of beers on tap

Stone Arch: Great pub food, a breakfast menu, and a robust tap list of beers from MN Brewer’s Guild craft brewers

Firehouse Subs: Specialty and build-your-own sub shop (founded by firemen) with beer, wine, and cocktails

Escape Lounge: Vast lounge set away from airport bustle; admission buys you food and drinks

Northern Soul: Quick-serve fried chicken sandwiches, tenders, and burritos

Settlebello: Neopolitan pizza, salads, and charcuterie, plus a full bar

MSP Airport

Settlebello.

Lake Wine Kitchen + Bar: Flights of wine with soups, salads, small plates, cheese, and charcuterie, plus a full bar

The Cook & The Ox: Swanky steakhouse setting with premium cuts, pan-seared salmon, burgers, wine, and cocktails

Hissho Sushi: Sushi, sashimi, and poke bowls, accompanied by a full bar

Farmer’s Fridge: Vending machine for salads and other fresh fare

Moe’s Southwest Grill: Breakfast burritos and bowls, salads, nachos, and quesadillas

Leeann Chin: Fast-casual kung pao chicken, cream cheese puffs, and potstickers

Shake Shack

Starbucks

Dunkin’ Donuts

Auntie Anne’s

Chili’s

Caribou Coffee

Concourse A

Blue Door Pub: Local burger spot offering Juicy Blucys (blue cheese-stuffed burgers), wings, totchos, salads, and sandwiches, plus a full bar [At the tram stop between Gates C28 and A1]

Bruegger’s Bagels [Gate A1]

Panda Express [Gate A1]

Greek Kitchen: Falafel, spanakopita, pita wraps, and salads with zesty seasoned fries [Gate A1]

The Cocktail Room at 18th and Central: A full bar pouring craft cocktails from local distiller Tattersall. [Gate A10]

Concourse B

All options are temporarily closed.

Concourse C

T Rex Cookie: Humungous, half-pound cookies in flavors like sea salt caramel chocolate chip. [Gate C1]

Joe & the Juice: Fresh-pressed juices and smoothies, plus sandwiches, breakfast bowls, and coffee [Gate C1]

MSP Airport Official

Joe and the Juice.

Buffalo Wild Wings [Gate C3]

Farmer’s Fridge: Vending machine for salads and other fresh fare [Gates C4, C10, C18]

Bottle Rocket: Fast-casual restaurants with sandwiches, snacks, salads, and full bar, plus grab-and-go options [Gate C5]

Verdi Market: Gourmet grab-and-go market with sandwiches, salads, and fresh-made pastries delivered daily from popular restaurant the Lynhall, plus local Dogwood coffee [Gate C6]

Vino Volo: Full-service wine bar with small plates, flights, and bottles to-go [Gate C7]

Twins Grill: Minnesota Twins-themed full-service sports bar with burgers, nachos, wings, salads, and more [Gate C12]

Smashburger: Juicy smash burgers on butter-toasted buns with shakes and sides [Gate C12]

Starbucks [Gate C12]

Chick-fil-A [Gate C12]

Concourse D

McDonald’s [Gate D1]

Republic: Nachos, fish and chips, burgers and more, plus a small breakfast menu and bar service on Tuesdays and Saturdays [Gate D6]

Concourse E

Holy Land Deli: Local halal restaurant serving shawarma, kebabs, gyros, greek salads, and hummus [In food truck alley]

Angel Food Bakery: Grab and go sweet treats, known for excellent gourmet doughnuts [Gate E5]

MSP Airport

Angel Food.

Red Cow: Local spot known for burgers, also serving cheese curds, wings, local beers, and cocktails [Gate E5]

Sebastian Joe’s: A Minnesota-classic ice cream brand. [Gate E5]

Qdoba [Gate E6]

Farmer’s Fridge: Vending machine for salads and other fresh fare [Gate E12]

LoLo American Kitchen: Elevated small plates, burgers, tacos, steak and salmon entrees, and desserts, plus a creative bar menu [End of Concourse E]

Roasting Plant: Pick-your-own-blend coffee spot where the beans are roasted onsite [End of Concourse E]

Concourse F

Caribou Coffee [Gate F1]

Camden Food Co.: Paninis, baked goods, Half Moon empanadas, and sandwiches [Gate F2]

Donut Trap: Stellar local doughnuts, served from a vending machine [Gate F2]

Panda Express [Gate F5]

Auntie Annie’s [Gate F6]

Cinnabon [Gate F6]

Wendy’s [Gate F7]

People’s Organic: Organic wraps, sandwiches, salads, and hearty breakfast dishes [Gate F7]

Chick-fil-A [Gate F7]

Farmer’s Fridge: Vending machine for salads and other fresh fare [Gate F8]

Zona Cocina: Mexican restaurant serving tacos, enchiladas, fajitas, and more, plus a full bar [Gate F8]

Hi-Lo Diner: Local retro diner with decadent breakfast options like Hi-Tops (fried dough with sweet or savory toppings), burgers, malts and shakes, and a full bar [Gate F10]

Concourse G

Caribou Coffee [Near the entrance of Concourse G]

Shoyu: Modern Japanese menu of sushi, ramen and other noodle dishes, and dumplings [Near the entrance of Concourse G]

Mimosa: French brasserie-style restaurant and bar by local chef Russell Klein [Near Gates G1 and G2]

Cibo Food Hall: Quick-serve dining options — Eggy Weggy and Poppy’s Bagels until 10:30 a.m.; Uptop Pizza and Custom Burgers in the afternoon [Gates G1 - G6]

MSP Airport

Minnibar: Small bar and cafe with sandwiches, starters, and hearty entrees [Gate G2]

Volante: Full service modern Italian restaurant with pasta and paninis by local chef Doug Flicker [Gate G12]

Cibo Express: Grab-and-go market with salad, snacks, and sandwiches [Gate G13]

Yo-Kai Noodles: Ramen serving from a vending machine (yes really!) [G15]

Twin Burger & Tap: Burgers, pub fare, pizza, and a full bar [Gate G16]

Starbucks [Gate G17]

Mill City Hearty Minnesota classics like smoked white fish dip, smoked pork chops, and sweet potato fries, plus a great kids menu [Gate G17]

Crisp & Green: Fast-casual, locally founded salad bar [Gate G22]

Custom Burgers: Variety of burgers and toppings, fried chicken sandwiches, hot dogs, and wings [G22]

Poppy’s: Early morning spot for bagels, breakfast sandwiches, and pastries [G22]

Terminal 2

Minnesota Wild Bar and Restaurant: Hockey-themed sports bar with classic bar and grill food, beer, and wine [After security]

Vending machine options: Illy Coffee, Subway, Yo-Kai Noodles, Donut Trap, and Farmer’s Fridge [Near gate H1]

Starbucks [Gate H5]

Caribou Coffee [Gate H8]

Cocina Del Barrio: Latin American and Mexican menu of tacos, tortas, and enchiladas, plus a wide selection of tequilas [Gate H8]

Surdyk’s Flights: Food and wine market with gourmet cheeses, plus a bar and a menu of salads, paninis, sandwiches, desserts [Gate H8]

MSP MKT: Bistro-style marketplace with pizza, salad, sandwiches, and an array of grab-and-go items [Gate H8]

Subway [Gate H8]

Farmer’s Fridge: Vending machine for salads and other fresh fare [Gate H10]