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Photographs by Kevin J. Miyazaki
Chef Gavin Kaysen with his signature cotton candy at Spoon and Stable
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photo by Kevin J Miyazaki
Birchwood Cafe in Seward
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Photographs by Kevin J. Miyazaki
Skewered Korean street food at Cook St. Paul
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Photographs by Kevin J. Miyazaki
A brunch spread at Hola Arepa.
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Photographs by Kevin J. Miyazaki
Pressed sushi (Suzuki Oshizushi) at Kyatchi.
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Photographs by Kevin J. Miyazaki
A full spread at Lyn 65.
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Photographs by Kevin J. Miyazaki
Egg in a Nest (leeks, wheatberries, and parmesan) at Birdie.
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Photographs by Kevin J. Miyazaki
Sicillian pizza and Korean Cowboy meatball sub at Hello Pizza.
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Photographs by Kevin J. Miyazaki
Rabbit Hole owners Kat and Thomas Kim with their daughter, Kyu Jin.
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Photographs by Kevin J. Miyazaki
Sprouted grain dish with cabbage dashi at Surly.
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Photographs by Kevin J. Miyazaki
Terzo’s new menu items include tajarin pasta with butter, sage, and porcini ragu.
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Photographs by Kevin J. Miyazaki
Upton 43’s brunch of Milk & Cereal (with quince, apples, and honey) is a stunner.
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Photographs by Kevin J. Miyazaki
Milkjam’s Jam Bun with Grandma’s Blueberry Crumble ice cream, honeycomb candy, and Szechuan berry sauce sandwiched inside a sliced Glam Doll glazed donut.
If there’s one constant about the Twin Cities dining scene, it’s that it is never static. From high-profile closings to stellar openings, all served with a few sides of cook shortages and wage politics, local restaurants are still killing it across the board. Included in this year’s 50 best list are 12 pacesetters, places that are helping redefine our local dining culture.
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Photo by Caitlin Abrams
112 Eatery
That 112 Eatery has only been open since 2005 hardly makes sense. How could such an icon, which ushered Minneapolis out of adolescence and into being a confident, mature food city, be so young? Many of the dishes here are essential to our local food culture: the lamb scottadito, the knee-weakeningly tender foie gras meatballs, and, of course, the burger. If you haven’t been in a while, go. “Icon” may be an overused word, but when there’s one right here, we should pay attention.
Great Plate: Reintroduce yourself to the classic bacon, egg, and harissa sandwich.
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Photo by Caitlin Abrams
Bar La Grassa
Year after year, this James Beard Award–winning spot known for being a solid night out has been putting up plates of dry, filled, and fresh pastas like none other. Chef/owner Isaac Becker and his wife, Nancy St. Pierre, haven’t messed with what they know people want, namely pillowy gnocchi with cauliflower served by an expertly trained staff in a dark clubhouse that sets the tone for the North Loop.
Great Plate: So elemental, the signature smoked spaghetti alla chitarra with brown butter and lobster reminds us why we keep coming back.
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photo by Kevin J Miyazaki
Birchwood Cafe
Pacesetter
Tracy Singleton founded the iconic Birchwood Cafe on the principle of supporting her community in a sustainable way. That’s why she’s always worked with farmers. But this principle extends beyond the plate. Did you know about the yoga subsidy? That’s what Birchwood offers to employees who want to take a class across the street. “It’s a way for us to encourage people to do some practice that benefits them,” Singleton says. “It’s a stressful industry!” There’s also a bike benefit for employees who cycle to work, free meals for people in the kitchen, health insurance subsidies and retirement fund benefits, a standard five-day work week with two days off in a row (not the norm in the industry), and career coaching, which has resulted in Birchwood paying for everything from nutrition and life coaches to employees working in other restaurants to learn new skills. None of this is standard, so why do it? For one, Birchwood retains employees—some for as many as 15 years. Over the last few years, as other restaurants have fought for line cooks, Birchwood never had trouble finding staff. “Loyalty is a huge thing,” Singleton says. “People really care about Birchwood, everyone here always pitches in when we need help, people feel like it’s their family. I always wanted an environment where employees feel appreciated and valued. I like to think we created it.”
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Borough/Parlor
There have been odes written to the Parlour burger, the thin-pattied double cheese sensation that kicked off the local burger trend. For a long time, it was only available during the evening in Parlour, but now (maybe in an attempt to hold onto that coveted burger crown) the burger has became even more accessible, as it’s available upstairs at Borough during lunch. Glory be.
Great Plate: Don’t forget that Borough has an entire menu of great dishes like butternut soup with duck prosciutto and the cavatelli with braised lamb.
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Photo by Katherine Harris
Brasa Rotisserie
When he started having kids, chef Alex Roberts opened Brasa to be a place healthy-minded families could get real food any time. Almost 10 years and two locations later, a pickup rotisserie chicken with a quart of rice and peas is about the happiest thing a parent can get at 6 p.m., when homework’s piled up and bedtime looms. Eating-in at Brasa is an everyday luxury made simple for families with kids in tow—its meals have options for fresh-squeezed orange juice and warm cornbread. Real food is much talked about, but rarely done better.
Great Plate: You can’t lose with lively guacamole or the creamy pulled chicken in gravy.
Other location: 777 Grand Ave., St. Paul, 651-224-1302, brasa.us
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Photo by Eliesa Johnson
Cook St. Paul
Pacesetter
Eddie Wu took the run-down Serlin’s Café on Payne Avenue and gave it a Pinterest-worthy makeover that brightened the breakfast and lunch spot without making it an odd duck on the block. He worked as hard to re-establish the spot with the locals as he did to attract new brunchers. It worked, and by cooking solidly hearty American diner fare, his pancakes and Monte Cristo pedigree has been verified and celebrated by the eaters. But here’s the thing, it felt like there was always this sorta side agenda, one that you could see from the bibimbap and other Korean influences played out quietly among pancakes and wild rice soup on the menu. Then there was the house hot sauce that showed up, a brilliant nearly-nuclear zing that fit as well on hashbrowns as on Korean pancakes. What’s happening here is called baby steps, and it’s brilliant! Wu is feeding the old-school with good ol’ American classics, and courting the new-school with inventive Korean and Asian dishes. On Friday nights, he occasionally opens up the usually closed-for-dinner spot, throwing pop-up dinners with either his own Korean street-food dishes or interesting food from other cooks. Lola Rosa, a kitchen team cooking Filipino food, has found a following here, as have a few cooks just testing out their far-flung food on the locals. Cook St. Paul has become rooted to our city, and slowly begun to give us wings.
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Cossetta
In 1905, the Minnesota state capitol was built. In 1911, Cossetta’s opened. And in 1915, the Cathedral of St. Paul was completed. There’s a good argument to be made that those are the three cornerstones that define St. Paul to this day. The connection? The Italian stonemasons who built the capitol and cathedral needed somewhere to eat, and so Cossetta’s began. St. Paul has always valued substance over style, value over flash, tradition over glitz, and you see this nowhere as much as here. Want to taste the essence of St. Paul? Pop in for a bite, like everyone in town has for a century.
Great Plate: The big-as-your-face pizza slices are a steal—the crust soft and chewy, the sauce zesty and wholesome, the cheese a generous quilt of plenty.
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Gardens of Salonica
Who cares enough to make gyros from scratch? Chef/owner Anna Christopherides, that’s who. Every month she stacks a spit with carefully marinated meats—one month it might be milk-fed capons (young chickens) another month, it’s slices of lamb, then duck gyros, then pork gyros. Who does that? Christopherides does. And you’ve never really had gyros until you’ve tasted them made from scratch. The rest of the menu matches in sensibility, resulting in spectacular flavors.
Great Plate: The blood orange portokalopita cake is pretty enough to make the most cynical veteran of fast-food gyros swoon with joy.
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Grand Szechuan
Grand Szechuan
Rare are the restaurants where you can find something new to love 52 weekends a year. But you can at this crimson strip mall palace where 200 solidly great dishes are on the menu with a handful of compelling, ever-changing specials (plus a few standard Chinese-American options for the timid). The kung pao lotus roots are pretty as lace, and dan dan noodles in soup are a slurpy, slithery wonder. That’s just one divine lunch—and enough to get you dreaming for next time.
Great Plate: Lamb in Szechuan chili broth is a fiery cauldron that will numb your mouth so intensely you’ll find new spiritual depths.
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Photo by Eliesa Johnson
Hola Arepa
Pacesetter
Christina Nguyen is the chef behind this wildly creative ode to that South American griddled sandwich, the arepa. What started as a food truck has blossomed into a tropical-bright, always-bumping brick-and-mortar destination with the best Latin American cocktails in town. (Try the Oaxacan Manhattan, by bartender, co-owner, and Nguyen’s husband, Birk Grudem.) Hola has long been the sort of place where hipster thrill-seekers sit side-by-side with value-oriented spice-fearers in Norwegian sweaters, while everyone raves about how great it all tastes. Nguyen’s cooking has always been fearless and deft—her chorizo arepa is a story made rich with deep spice and fresh, crunchy vegetables—but lately she has started to push into surprising territory. Like with her Vietnamese arepa, where lemongrass meatballs meet banh mi vegetables including pickled daikon and carrots, or her Korean arepa, made with kimchi and slow-cooked marinated pork. Los Angeles chef Roy Choi became famous blending tacos with Korean cuisine—is Nguyen going to be the Roy Choi of Minneapolis, bringing our significant southeast Asian food heritage to modern flower through her mastery of arepas? “No,” she laughs. “We’re just having fun. A lot of what we’re doing now is just making the drinks more awesome and fun, keeping the dining room cozy and fun, getting a parking lot party going for our [two-year] anniversary.” Of course, fun and important can go hand in hand in restaurants, so keep your eyes on Hola.
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Photo by Katherine Harris
Icehouse
The reservations-only, 10-course, $40 dinner at Icehouse has got to be the best bargain in the state for great food. This is where chef Matthew Bickford, co-owner and former La Belle Vie cook, shows off his considerable culinary skills with signature dishes like Laphroaig smoked oysters, beets with parmesan soufflé, and a series of other inventive items. And, yes, that’s only $4 a course. You’re welcome.
Great Plate: Don’t forget to come back for brunch and sink into a steak and eggs with harissa aioli, pancetta, and caramelized onions.
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The Kenwood
Every neighborhood needs a clubhouse like The Kenwood. In tumultuous times, it’s like a haven of comforting plaid. Serving daily brunch doesn’t hurt either, especially when it includes pancakes with black walnut butter. Tucked in the Isles neighborhood, chef Don Saunders has created a place that is both accessible and adventurous, making you feel like you are to-the-manner born and part of the people at the same time.
Great Plate: Huevos rancheros with braised pork define luxurious afternoons.
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Photo by Caitlin Abrams
Kyatchi
Pacesetter
The most authentic and interesting sushi in the Twin Cities right now is the pressed, cured mackerel at Kyatchi. This special Japanese mackerel is imported by chef Hide Tozawa, who has developed a unique multi-stage quick cure that takes less than two hours. After letting it rest overnight, Tozawa presses the fish into a special rectangular mold with rice, a technique made common in Osaka during the 1800s. Before serving, Tozawa covers the block of fish with a gossamer white kombu (seaweed) cooked with sugar and vinegar, then slices the whole thing into bite sizes. The process makes the dish riveting, all meaty, sexy fish, just-sweet and quite mineral seaweed, on tender vinegared rice that is nutty and creamy. Just as Roman pizza is different from New York–style pizza, this Osaka sushi is distinctly different from more popular Tokyo-style sushi and from the current craze of mayo-crunch sushi. Tozawa’s sushi is everything sushi should be: pure, surprising, and providing a connection to the sea and the world across. Close your eyes when you take a bite: You’re not in this trendy town anymore, that’s Osaka you taste.
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Manny's Steak House
The price of beef has only increased in recent years, which makes going out for a big steak a treasured and rare experience for many. For what it can cost, the night should be special, and Manny’s will be the place where, even when choosing the lowest priced dish on the menu, you will be treated like royalty. There is no “lower class” at Manny’s. And the smart single diner knows there is nothing quite like the old-school love you get from the gents at the bar.
Great Plate: Neuske’s bacon chop is a side that eats like a gloriously porky, fatty, unctuous meal.
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Maya Cuisine
It can be tricky to pick a taco at the freshest, most friendly family-run Mexican joint in Minneapolis: Should your taco be filled with pollo enchipotlado, a smoky stew of tender chicken in a chili sauce? Or do you go for the rich, all-day roasted tender barbacoa? Or any of the other half-a-dozen dazzling options? Our advice? Set a schedule, and work through them all.
Great Plate: Visit on Sundays for the all-you-can-eat buffet, with the hot pans of great stews and Jell-O cups.
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Meritage
Can we all agree that Meritage is something special? It’s the reigning French restaurant of the Twin Cities, and it manages to be both plucky and refined. The burger arrives without pretention alongside a cassoulet that would make you forget long winters. Owners Russell and Desta Klein are sewn into the fabric of St. Paul and wouldn’t be given up without a revolution.
Great Plate: Oysters, dozens of them, should be ordered in the bar while sipping sparkling rosé or a cocktail.
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Monello/Constantine
As Paleo, the Whole 30, and gluten-free foods have been ascending, pasta lovers may have felt the need to keep quiet about their love for great noodles. But they can sing high the praises at Monello, where chef Mike DeCamp makes exquisite pastas such as squiggly little torchio and chewy tangles of bucatini. At Constantine, the bar downstairs, things get funky, with a thin cheeseburger, baskets of tots, and wildly inventive drinks.
Great Plate: Plump purses of cappelletti filled with buttercup squash and served with brown butter and foie gras are both elegant and warmly satisfying.
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Ngon Vietnamese Bistro
The pho battle is real. There are those who would spend hours hotly debating whose pho is superior in broth, in meatball, in noodle, and herb. Might we suggest you let them debate, and instead spend your time tucked into a bowl at Ngon’s bar? Slurp deeply of the lemongrass-scented broth and feel good about the locally raised meat on your spoon. Plus, there are cocktails for the win.
Great Plate: For a perfect sip with your pho slurping, order the barrel-aged Bistro Bijou Jewel with gin and chartreuse.
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Nighthawks
Pacesetter
Chef Landon Schoenefeld might have truly hit on the perfect new restaurant paradigm for generations to come. He first opened Nighthawks in Kingfield, a modern diner celebrating the simple beauty of a reimagined classic. Sit at the kitchen counter at brunch and watch the man make pancakes. He makes it looks so easy, but consider the hours that preceded the sizzle on the griddle, the time spent behind the scenes perfecting just the right recipe that culminates in a stack of airy, tangy cakes riddled with bacon and kimchi. And the burger, which is a sexy decadence of dripping cheese over beef, is so planned and constructed to illicit a sigh when you first see it. Schoenefeld created Nighthawks to feed your soul, and then he opened Birdie to feed your brain. Next door to Nighthawks, in a small room that essentially is a prep kitchen with two long tables and a record player, Schoenefeld and his cadre of cooks throw a 10-course dinner party for 12. Ticketed seats win you plate after plate of stunning food that will nearly leave you speechless (if you weren’t having so much fun). Carrots turned into pasta, potatoes delivered in ways you’ve never seen, bits of pork smoked in a hotbox a few feet away. This is the inventive space where Schoenefeld plays with his creative powers and lets his team stretch their skills. It’s fine dining redefined, and it’s a full evening’s worth for $100. This yin-yang joint is the one-two punch that is best poised to win hearts and minds.
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On's Kitchen
This University Avenue super-authentic Thai spot might not be much to look at, but the food is nothing but gorgeous. The nam thok, similar to a steak salad, sizzles more sunnily with fresh lime and more perky with chili. The kaou jub rice noodle soup is a glorious concoction of rice noodles rolled up like little croissants, chewy in the middle and silky at the edges.
Great Plate: The tom ka soup is clearer, lighter, and brighter than others, like a note played on a flute versus one spoken plainly.
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