St. Paul’s Hmongtown Marketplace A pillar of the Twin Cities’ Hmong community—which is the largest in the country—the sprawling Hmongtown Marketplace in St. Paul is the next best thing to hopping a flight to Southeast Asia. This market and those making the food represent centuries of Hmong traditions. In warmer months, you’ll find people selling plants,… Read More →
Blue Door Pub If burgers stuffed with cheese aren’t on your list when you visit Minnesota, then you’re not doing it right. We Minnesotans love to debate who does the best juicy Lucy. There are plenty of spots serving up classic beef burgers with a molten hot cheddar cheese filling, such as perennial favorites Matt’s… Read More →
Wise Acre Eatery It seems just about every restaurant claims to be farm to table. In the case of Wise Acre, it’s part of the business plan. Depending on the time of year, 75 to 95 percent of ingredients originate on sister business Tangletown Gardens’ 100-acre farm in rural Plato, Minnesota, including Scottish highland cattle,… Read More →
Rise Bagel Co. The Twin Cities are my second home, and I love living here, but over the years there’s been one gaping hole in the food scene and it was bagel shaped. As a Jewish kid from New York, I’m admittedly picky when it comes to bagels, and there wasn’t a worthy one in… Read More →
Revival St. Paul This town was a barbecue waste land, until my friends Thomas Boemer and Nick Rancone opened their second location of Revival in St. Paul and decided to add classic smoked meats to the menu, celebrating Boemer’s southern roots. The fried chicken and burger were reason enough to battle the crowds getting their southern comfort… Read More →
St. Genevieve I’ve often said that one of Minneapolis’ greatest assets in the food scene is chef Steven Brown, and his newest addition, St. Genevieve, is a testament to that. A Parisian-style buvette, it’s one of a slew of new restaurants in Minneapolis celebrating familiar, yet reinvented French fare—proof that the classics never go out… Read More →
Marla’s Caribbean Cuisine Located just south of Powderhorn Park, Marla’s Caribbean Cuisine is justifiably famous for its incredibly fresh, spicy, from scratch, honest and delicious Pan-Caribe style food. Marla is a doyenne of jerk and an expert with the hallmark Caribbean mashup of Indian, Creole and Latin flavors. I can typically take down… Read More →
The Salty Tart Chef Michelle Gayer is a James Beard Award nominee many times over, including being a 2017 semifinalist for “Outstanding Baker.” Open since 2008, Gayer and her team at The Salty Tart make everything from scratch everyday—from pastry cream-filled brioche to flaky layered croissants and buttercream-topped cupcakes to banana cream pies. Her macaroons are… Read More →
Tilia Chef Steven Brown is one of Minneapolis’ greatest assets. At Tilia, he’s taken the concept of a comfortable neighborhood restaurant and perfected it—from the cozy atmosphere and kitchen counter seating, to the affordable, yet insanely delicious menu. It’s a place I can take my kid for breakfast, my wife for lunch and my lawyer… Read More →
The Anchor Fish & Chips Well before the influx of destination breweries and galleries re-energized Minneapolis’ artsy Northeast neighborhood, The Anchor Fish & Chips was battering Alaskan cod and frying hand cut chips for the locals. The narrow restaurant with tin ceilings and deep red walls lined with cozy booths has a real deal fish… Read More →
Szechuan Spice Of all the great regional Chinese cuisines, Sichuan food holds a special place in my heart. While we don’t have as many great Chinese restaurants as I would like in Minnesota, we do have a few that absolutely blow me away and Szechuan Spice in Uptown is one of them. It’s best to… Read More →
Alma: Cafe, Hotel & Restaurant After a major overhaul and grand re-opening, Alma is as gorgeous as ever, filling a hole we didn’t know we had in the Twin Cities dining scene. What was once solely a fantastic restaurant, owned and operated by James Beard award-winning chef Alex Roberts, is now an elegant, design-driven hotel,… Read More →
Lowry Hill Meats When Erik Sather opened Lowry Hill Meats in the fall of 2015, let’s just say I was excited. There are less than a handful of great, old-world butcher shops in the Twin Cities, and LHM’s standard for every product they sell—from meat to eggs, cheese, spices and coffee—is exceptionally high. I always… Read More →
Authentic Vietnamese Food at Quang Home to a vibrant Vietnamese community, the Twin Cities are a pho-lover’s paradise. Quang Restaurant is family owned-and-operated, always packed and serves some of the best traditional Vietnamese beef noodle soup in America. Don’t let the line out the door scare you away—even at their peak hour, the wait will… Read More →
Mucci’s Italian Owned by local restaurateur Tim Niver, Mucci’s Italian is one of the best new restaurants to come to the Twin Cities. In a tiny, unmarked brick building in St. Paul, you’ll find incredible food and service in a beautiful, yet unpretentious setting. With lacquered wood tabletops, black leather banquettes and chairs, the cozy… Read More →
Hola Arepa One of the most popular Latin American restaurants in the Twin Cities, Hola Arepa started out as a food truck, slinging their take on the satisfying Venezuelan sandwiches on the streets of Minneapolis. For those unfamiliar with their eponymous arepas, think hefty griddled cornmeal cakes stuffed with all sorts of ingredients, from Argentinian-style… Read More →
Punch Pizza There are plenty of great pizza places in the Twin Cities, but Punch will always have a special place in my heart. Now with eight locations across the metro, their first location, which opened back in 1996 in St. Paul’s Highland Park, is my favorite. Co-founders John Soranno, who grew up in Milan,… Read More →
Modern Scandinavian-Influenced Fare Located in a historic 19th-century brick-and-timber warehouse in Minneapolis’ North Loop neighborhood, The Bachelor Farmer celebrates Nordic-inspired cuisine made with ingredients sourced from local farmers or grown on the rooftop garden. They created small masterpieces on top of a humble piece of toast before it became a culinary craze, so order a few toasts as an… Read More →
Spoon and Stable After rising to chef stardom working for Daniel Boulud in NYC, Gavin Kaysen returned home in 2014 to open his first restaurant Spoon and Stable. Located in a beautifully renovated stable in the North Loop, it was the local restaurant opening of the decade. The hometown hero is one of the best… Read More →
San Francisco’s In Situ By Bob & Sue By offering the signature recipes of many of the world’s greatest chefs, Michelin 3-star chef Corey Lee of Benu and his executive chef Brandon Rodgers have made In Situ, located in the renovated Museum of Modern Art, one of the most unique dining experiences in the world. The… Read More →
Great Food Paired with Great Beer The folks behind Surly Brewing Co. are geniuses. Their new-ish destination brewery is an architectural stunner, with a wood and metal adorned taproom, glass-enclosed brewing facility, and a massive patio with fire pits and the occasional live music act. If I drank, I would be there all the time.… Read More →
The Best Thing I Ate Last Week This bay scallop ceviche with yuzu and sea urchin at Cut in Beverly Hills was a stunning example of why this steak house continues to serve simple delicious surprises at every turn on their menu. Fresh and bracing with deep bass tones from the urchin, it was the… Read More →
Authentic Americana Cuisine Tune in for Bizarre Foods: Route 66 on Tuesday, February 21 at 9|8c on Travel Channel. Stretching from Chicago to Los Angeles, Route 66 is the most historic road in the country, an emblem of the American Dream. The fabled highway, also known as “the mother road,” is not just a means… Read More →
The Best Thing I Ate Last Week One Fifth is a new concept in Houston owned by my pal Chris Shepherd. Housed in a teeny old church that became an adult film studio before facing the wrecking ball, Chris got a stay of execution and is now putting a new restaurant in the space each… Read More →
The Best Thing I Ate Last Week Lucky for me, last week’s press junket for the season premiere of Bizarre Foods included lunch at Balthazar in New York City. Did I spring for the Plateau de Mer for one??? Yes, yes I did. This restaurant is one of my favorites in New York, serving French… Read More →
The Best Thing I Ate Last Week By Andrew Zimmern Home to a vibrant Vietnamese community, the Twin Cities are a pho-lover’s paradise. Located on Eat Street, family owned-and-operated Quang Restaurant serves some of the best traditional Vietnamese food in America. And their dining room is always packed with loyal patrons. The barbecued pork broken rice salads are great… Read More →
Street Food at Its Best Tune in for Andrew Zimmern’s Driven by Food: Hyderabad on Thursday, September 22 at 4|3c. India’s fourth largest city, Hyderabad is home to a diverse mix of cultures and an extraordinary, complex cuisine. From dosas to biryani to 400-year-old recipes renewed, Hyderabadis pride themselves on their food. Whether you’re looking for… Read More →
Where to Eat Doner Kebabs & Burgers in Kreuzberg No neighborhood exemplifies a city transformed quite like Kreuzberg. Located in the heart of Berlin and formerly surrounded on three sides by the Berlin Wall, this area was once one of city’s poorest and known to attract artists, punks, squatters and immigrants. Today, it’s one of… Read More →
Caribbean Brilliance at Fish, Wings & Tings London is fast becoming one of the best restaurant cities in the world, and it’s not just because of Harrod’s Food Hall or stalwarts like Fergus Henderson’s St. John (although I can’t go to London without eating at both), there is culinary brilliance happening in unexpected places. If… Read More →
Central Asian Comfort Food in Chicago You’ve probably heard me say that you can understand the history of a country and its people by looking at its food. No where is this more true than the countries of Central Asia, where the Silk Road impacted all parts of culture. Dive into the meat-centric culinary traditions of… Read More →
