There are many storylines to be pursued in the Twin Cities and Minnesota: the minimum wage is on the way to $15/hr here, without a tip credit for servers. What will happen? Will restaurants continue their shift to fast-casual? Will they add service charges? Will they close? Like most places, the restaurant scene here is exploding. So is the craft cocktail, brewing and distilling movement.  In recent years, restaurants have connected with the incredible farms that surround the urban core and are growing their own food, using the beef and pork within an hour’s drive, and really working to create a food culture in a region that didn’t have one. With General Mills and SuperValu based here, Minnesota has one of the largest food co-op cultures in the country; and a large volume of food entrepreneurs starting their own businesses.

Defining the Culture of the North

• Northern BBQ: OMC Smokehouse (Duluth, MN, using MN wood, smoking salmon)
• PORK: Corner Table chef Thomas Boemer
• World-Class Cured Meats: Red Table Meat Company
• Jucy Lucy: founded at Matt’s Bar or 5-8 Club, it’s a burger with cheese in the middle

Local Beer & Spirits

• Surly Brewing Co: Just built a $30 million destination beer hall; great food
• Summit Brewing: St. Paul, one of the early craft brewers here
• Minnesota Craft Brewers Guild: 60+ breweries in the Twin Cities
• Tattersall Distilling: world-class gin, Scandinavian Aquavit is getting hot with bartenders on the coasts
• Bittercube: first a bitters company, but Bittercube’s influence on bars around the country is evident in their consulting program

Food Entrepreneurs

• Boomchickapop: Angie’s Kettle Corn/Popcorn started in a Mankato warehouse
• So Good, So You: Juice So Good, Coffee So Good (former Target buyer launched a juice brand)
• WholeMe: founded by two women who wanted nutrient-dense snacks
• Seven Sundays: Muesli & Bars
• T-Rex Cookies (giant cookies, women-owned, quit corporate job to make cookies)
• Mississippi Mushrooms (crazy mushroom growers, using spent grain from breweries)
• Squarrel (square barrels to age spirits – 1/3 amount of wood)
• Urban Organics (Largest aquaponics facility in the country in St. Paul)

Museum Restaurants:

• FIKA at American Swedish Institute
• Esker Grove at Walker Art Center (James Beard semifinalist for best new restaurant)

Eat-ertainment

• Psycho Suzi’s/Betty Dangers: (get on the ferris wheel and enjoy a cocktail while you ride)
• Can Can Wonderland: artist-designed mini-golf course with amazing cocktails, ice cream malts, food too
• Tilt Pinball Bar: excellent all-beef local hot dogs with cool toppings surrounded by 25 cent pinball games

Interesting Ethnicities

• Asian population: large Hmong population (Hmongtown Market in St. Paul); Vietnamese population: (Pho is a favorite – Quang Restaurant, Ngon Bistro, Jasmine Deli)
• Somali population: Safari Restaurant, Minneapolis; Afro Deli in St. Paul

Celebrity Chefs/Owners

• Gavin Kaysen: NYC wunderkid comes home Spoon & Stable in 2014; Bellecour opened in 2017
• The Governor’s Sons: Bachelor Farmer/Marvel Bar as well as clothing store Askov-Finlayson is owned by Gov. Mark Dayton’s sons Andrew and Eric.
• Reality Show winners: Pimento Grill (won a Food Network show, got a food court restaurant);  Nadia Cakes (Abby Jimenez won Cupcake Wars, and moved here looking for a good place to raise her kids)

Farm to Table

• Literal: Wise Acre Eatery (they own their own farm; 80% of food comes from it)
• Birchwood Cafe: One staff member is in charge of ordering from individual farms, they provide a report each year to customers. Also delicious!

Chefs Improving School Lunch

• MPS True Food Council: Chef Steven Brown from Tilia; Alex Roberts from Alma/Brasa; Ann Kim from Pizzeria Lola/Young Joni and others help the schools come up with more delicious recipes.

Worthy Restaurants For Tourism Roundups
Finer/Business Dining

• Alma Restaurant, Cafe and Hotel (7 room inn above this amazing cafe. The cafe is perfect for every day, the restaurant is the most consistently high-quality, high-technique kitchen in town. Wines designed to pair perfectly with the food. Service team is warm and knowledgeable. It’s a restaurant you feel like you’d like to live in, and with the hotel upstairs, now you can.)
• Bachelor Farmer (Incredible food, anchored in the ingredients of the Upper Midwest. Stunning wine program with cold climate whites and reds and an innovative approach letting any bottle be ordered as a half. Highly trained and talented service, rock star Marvel Bar in the basement is 4-stars in its own right.)
  
• Spoon & Stable, Minneapolis (The hype is legit: Spoon and Stable is the best restaurant in Minnesota. Gorgeous room, incredibly consistent and delicious food, beautiful cocktail and bar program, best desserts in the state, highly polished service: everything about Spoon and Stable is about excellence. This is not a chef trying to impress you with his talent, this is about coaxing all the flavor out of ingredients you’re going to want to eat again and again.)
  
• Corner Table, Minneapolis (Famous for it’s loving approach to pork, Corner Table can do no wrong – beautiful vegetables, some of the best pastas in town. Tight kitchen must foster incredible creativity – as the quality and consistency makes Corner Table my absolute go-to. Very creative and unusual wine list specializing in Germany, Italy and Austria.  Service experience is like a symphony – many moving parts come together in perfect harmony.)
• Bellecour, Wayzata (French bistro food done to perfection. Bellecour is focused: French classics re-imagined using technique from today. )
• Grand Cafe, Minneapolis (Chef Erik Anderson won awards in Nashville for Catbird Seat, now he and his partner Jamie Malone are killing it in a small cafe in Minneapolis)
• Manny’s Steakhouse, Minneapolis (the big steakhouse for big business.)
• Meritage, St. Paul (classic beautiful French in St. Paul)
• Saint Dinette, St. Paul (famous for their burger and bologna sandwich, young Chef Adam Eaton may be the best under the radar chef in town)
• Heyday, Minneapolis (most inventive food in town)
• Monello, Minneapolis (high concept, fine dining, Italian)
• Butcher and the Boar, Minneapolis (delicious sausages, comically large Fred Flintsone-style rib)
• Saint Genevieve, Minneapolis (champagne by the glass, French bistro)

Casual Dining

• Revival (fried chicken, southern, also BBQ in the St. Paul location)
• Hola Arepa (started as a food truck, focused on Argentinian arepa sandwiches)
• Young Joni (stunningly beautiful spot focused on wood-fired cooking and pizzas)
• Travail (a circus, tasting menu only it’s food as theatre)
• World Street Kitchen (Food truck from a fine dining chef Sameh Wadi becomes sit down global restaurant)
• Black Sheep Coal Fired Pizza (delicious pizza cooked over a coal fire)
• Punch Pizza (owner founded Caribou Coffee, was invited to State of the Union by President Obama for paying employees a living wage)