Minnesota's James Beard Award-Winning Restaurants

James Beard Winners

112 Eatery

Category: Best Chef Midwest (Isaac Becker, 2011) 

Other accolades: Outstanding Chef (semifinalist, 2014) 

Isaac Becker and Nancy St. Pierre’s first North Loop restaurant opened in 2005. More than two decades later, it still endures as one of the city’s best restaurants. In a world of constantly rotating menus and finicky food trends, 112 is refreshingly consistent; several of the dishes have remained unchanged since its 2005 opening. 

But don’t mistake it for complacency: Becker’s commitment to precise technique and high-quality ingredients have kept locals coming back for steak tartare and stringozzi with lamb sugo, and the bar is often packed with regulars the staff regards by name. From the spiced nuts and olives that start every meal to the warm but extremely professional hospitality, 112 is a gift to the Twin Cities dining scene, and it’s one that keeps on giving. 

Becker and St. Pierre also own the outstanding Bar La Grassa and St. Pierre Food & Drink.

 

Bûcheron

Category: Best New Restaurant (2025) 

Other accolades: Best Restaurants in America (New York Times, 2025) 

Bûcheron chef/co-owner Adam Ritter takes French techniques on a trip around the Midwest, working in regional ingredients like foraged sumac or the acorns his family gathers at their own St. Cloud farm. The latter plays a supporting role in a subtle yet spectacular tortellini en brodo that will leave you wanting to lick the bowl. 

No one would judge you, either. While its service is world-class (Ritter's wife, Jeanie Janas Ritter, was a hospitality superstar before she helmed Bûcheron's front of house), this South Minneapolis smash prides itself on being relatively laid-back. 

In many ways, it's a welcome counterpoint to Ritter's previous roles alongside Michelin star mainstays like André Chiang (Restaurant André), Anthony Martin (Tru), Joël Robuchon (MGM Grand), Douglas Keane (Cyrus), and fellow Minnesotan Gavin Kaysen (Demi).

 

Hai Hai

Category: Best Chef Midwest (Christina Nyguen, also for Hola Arepa, 2024)

Other accolades: 18 Best New Restaurants in America (Eater, 2018), 13 Best New Restaurants (Thrillist, 2018) 

The Twin Cities has no shortage of incredible Southeast Asian food, but Hai Hai stands out for its focus on street foods and an inventive cocktail program. Chef Christina Nguyen includes a few common-to-American-restaurant dishes on the menu like spring rolls, beef larb and khao soi (all done to perfection), while dishes like the Vietnamese crepe with pork belly and shrimp taste like they were plucked right off the streets of Hanoi. For best results, grab a spot on the patio and a Mekong Manhattan before placing your order. 

A rare nomination for not one, but two restaurants, Nyguen’s 2024 win also encompassed her first property, Hola Arepa, which has been a Minneapolis favorite since 2014, slinging perfectly griddled pockets stuffed with tender, slow-cooked meats and a truly superlative margarita.

 

Myriel

Category: Best Chef Midwest (Karyn Tomlinson, 2025)

Other accolades: Best New Chefs in America (Food & Wine, 2024).

Myriel is tucked into a residential neighborhood of St. Paul, and it's so discreet that you might drive by it twice before stopping. In fact, the sign above the door still reads “BRIGADE,” the name of the previous restaurant to occupy the space. 

But step inside, and you’ll be transported into a world of romantic halogen splendor, reminiscent of the kind of restaurant you “just stumble upon” in Paris or Copenhagen. The space is diminutive, but well-designed — when you enter, you’ll be mere inches from the stylish regulars bellied up to the honed black marble bar — and the dining room is draped in Nordic shades of beige. 

It is perhaps a cliché to say that restaurants are “personal” for chefs. But eating at Myriel feels like a biographical exploration of Karyn Tomlinson, from the lard-based pie crust she learned to make from her grandmother to the razor-sharp technique she honed at Fäviken, Magnus Nilsson’s famed restaurant in rural Sweden. 

No menu is listed online (for either the a la carte or tasting menu options), but guests can expect a tight, well-edited offering of dishes that are both rustic and refined, from stewed lentils festooned with confit duck leg to rhubarb pie best paired with a Swedish egg coffee. 

Our tip? If there’s a dumpling of any kind on the menu, order it.

 

Owamni

Category: Best New Restaurant (2022)

Other accolades: Best Chef: Midwest (finalist, 2022), America’s Favorite Restaurants (New York Times, 2021), Best Restaurants of the Year (USA Today, 2024), Head of the Table Award (Bon Appétit, 2022).

Owamni calls itself the world’s “first decolonized restaurant,” eschewing ingredients that were introduced by white settlers, such as dairy and wheat. But, as The New York Times says, “The lofty ambitions do not preclude pleasure. Mr. Sherman’s cooking is as on-point as [The] Sioux Chef’s activism.” 

Think you’ll miss dairy? You won’t. Sherman has packed the menu with multi-layered savory stars like ancho-brined duck breast with a plum and sumac glaze and bean-and-lobster dip served with tostadas. The food at Owamni is celebratory, a true exploration of what is possible when you narrow the lens and let thoughtful souring shine. There are even cheeky plays on traditional dishes, like the “Indigenous Surf and Turf,” which pairs lobster with a T-bone steak cut from elk. 

In spring 2026, Owamni will move down the block from their original home in the Mill City Water Works Pavilion to a (much larger) riverfront space connected to the Guthrie Theater. This means tables are about to get less scarce, and more people will be able to experience Sean Sherman’s vision for new Native food systems. 

And there’s even more good food on the way; in 2025, Sherman’s nonprofit, NATIFS (North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems), purchased a large property in the Seward neighborhood, where a new restaurant, Šhotá Indigenous BBQ by Owamni, will serve up smoky elk, bison, and turkey alongside cornbread and Native baked beans. 

 

Pizzeria Lola

Category: Best Chef: Midwest (Ann Kim for Young Joni, 2019)

Other accolades: Favorite Restaurants in America (for Sooki & Mimi, New York Times, 2021).

Ann Kim, Minneapolis’ only successful-stage-actor-turned-chef, was the subject of a Chef’s Table: Pizza episode in 2022. Her work at Young Joni not only nabbed her a coveted Beard award but also landed a spot on the New York Times’ “Best Pizza in America” list. 

Young Joni (tragically) shuttered in 2025 due to an untenable rent increase (the story of so many wonderful independent restaurants), but Kim’s original pizza joint (Pizzeria Lola) remains a stalwart anchor of Southwest Minneapolis and serves many of the exact same pizzas that made Young Joni an awards darling, like the wild mushroom forager pizza with ooey-gooey taleggio. You can even get several of the side dishes made famous at Joni, including the meltingly tender Korean sweet potatoes with gochugaru and bonito.

Don’t expect trend-driven fanfare: Lola is an approachable, friendly neighborhood kinda place, and you’re just as likely to see families pouring in from soccer practice as you are a couple on a first date. After you indulge in a little olive-oil-topped soft serve, ask for a photobooth ticket to be added to your tab. Yes, photobooth; it hides in the back of the restaurant, and a Lola-branded black-and-white photo strip is the symbol du jour for many, many Minneapolis couples. 

 

Restaurant Alma

Category: Best Chef Midwest (Alexander Roberts, 2010)

Other accolades: Outstanding Restaurant (semifinalist, 2020, 2019, 2012), Outstanding Chef (semifinalist, 2018, 2014), Outstanding Service (semifinalist, 2015, 2014)

In 1999, after years of working in New York City’s top restaurants (Bouley and Union Square Cafe, to name a few), Alex Roberts moved back to his home state and opened Restaurant Alma, relying on his parents’ farm for fresh produce. In 2016, Alma bought their historic building and expanded, adding an (always packed) bakery and café and a chic boutique hotel.

The original restaurant remains best-in-class — just look at all those Outstanding Restaurant semifinalist nods — and executive chef Maggie Whelan has continued Alma’s tradition of unpretentious (but delicious) cooking with a strong emphasis on both seasonal, locally sourced ingredients and guest-centered hospitality. From the moment you step into the historic Marcy-Holmes building, it's clear that every detail of the dining experience has been thought of, from the locally made ceramics (by Guillermo Cuellar) to the seasonal flower arrangements tended by co-proprietor Margo Roberts. 

In the restaurant industry, high turnover is typical; however, Alma has retained Chef Whelan for 14 years, Director of Operations Lucas Rosenbrook (a former Chef de Cuisine) for 17, and Wine Director James Hirdler for a quarter of a century. Together, they’ve created the kind of legible, consistent excellence that only comes with time.

The team also operates Alma Provisions, an adorable takeout coffee and pastry shop in Southwest Minneapolis’ scenic East Harriet neighborhood, and Brasa, a casual rotisserie outpost with four metro locations.

 

Spoon & Stable

Category: Best Chef Midwest (Gavin Kaysen, 2018)

Other accolades: Rising Star Chef of the Year (winner, 2008), Best New Restaurant (nomination, 2018), Best Pastry Chef (for Diane Moua, 3x nominee, 3x semifinalist), Outstanding Restaurant (semifinalist, 2025), Outstanding Chef (semifinalist, 2020), Restaurant of the Year (Food & Wine, 2015), 40 Most Important Restaurants of the Last 40 Years (Food & Wine, 2018), Discovery List (The World’s 50 Best Restaurants)

It’s scene-y. It’s sexy. It’s Gavin Kaysen’s splashy first child, Spoon & Stable. From the moment reservations opened in 2014, Spoon has been the see-and-be-seen darling of the North Loop’s many buzzy restaurants. Filled to the brim every night for over 10 years, Spoon is often the reservation of choice for anniversary celebrations, business dinners, and diamond-ring-in-champagne-glass engagements. 

This kind of decade-long momentum doesn’t happen by accident. Executive chef Chris Nye and chef de cuisine Mason McDaniel keep a disciplined, refined menu of likable appetizers, mid-course pastas and entrees, including a cavatelli spiked with fiery ‘ndjua and cut with pickled puntarelle, and mushroom-stuffed pheasant breast served with a redolent, jewel-toned braised red cabbage. And yes, the French-y, chef-y take on Kaysen’s grandmother’s pot roast that has been on deck since opening night is still there, and still excellent. 

The restaurant’s pastry program, designed by the legendary Diane Moua, is now helmed by her protégé, Alexandra Motz, and it’s no here’s-a-slice-of-cheese-cake-if-I-must afterthought. Motz’s composed dessert plates shift with the seasons and reflect her fine art background, full of visual, textural, and flavor-packed layers that unfold like a glissando. You’ll want to save room for at least two — and we won’t judge if you order all six. 

In fact, come to Spoon on the later side — say 8 p.m. or after (yes, that’s late in this town) — and you’ll see a small crowd at the bar enjoying dessert and an apéritif after their dinner at a different restaurant.

James Beard Nominees

 

Demi

Category: Best New Restaurant (2020)

Other accolades: Relais and Chateaux member (4.8/5 stars), Best Chef: Midwest and Rising Star (for Gavin Kaysen, winner in 2018 and 2008) 

Demi is a magnum opus, the kind of restaurant you only get to open after you’ve won your first James Beard (in fact, by the time Kaysen announced Demi, he'd won two). Marked only by a subtle marble plaque set on black-painted cinderblock, Demi is set far enough back from the street that it’s easy to walk on by, not realizing that Minneapolis’ most ambitious restaurant is right there. 

But it’s that sort of subtlety that defines Demi, a jewel box, 20-seat tasting restaurant currently run by chef de cuisine Alan Hlebaen and general manager Nick Shaw. 

Demi's menu is a nine-course tasting experience (with optional wine or n/a pairings). Like many tasting menus, the portions are diminutive yet exceedingly thoughtful and artistic. On any given night, you can expect delicately plated, multi-layered dishes that reflect the type of fine dining one would find at a Michelin-starred property. 

 

Diane's Place 

Category: Best Chef Midwest (2025)

Other accolades: America’s Best Restaurants (New York Times, 2025), Restaurant of the Year (Food & Wine, 2025), Best Dishes (Bon Appétit, 2025)

Chef Diane Moua — the longtime leader (and multi-Beard nominee) of the pastry program at Spoon and Stable — opened Diane’s Place in 2024 to immediate fanfare. The deeply personal (quite literally: Moua’s traditional Hmong wedding dress is on display, dramatically shadowboxed in a pale wood frame, and both her children are on staff) all-day restaurant offers everything from croissants made with Thai tea, coconut pandan, and tropical fruit to dynamite composed dishes like beef laab carpaccio, sour pork short ribs, and house-made Hmong sausage. 

Not to mention a masterful egg sandwich rounded out by nori, chili crisp aioli and Minnesotan lunchmeat (Spam, glorious Spam!), and cutting-edge cocktails along the lines of the She-Eye 2.0 (rum, hibiscus, red apertivo, lemon), Double Dragon (vodka, jackfruit, papaya, Thai chili, fish sauce), and Tom Khallins (gin, sweetened condensed milk, lime leaf, coconut).

“The menu exalts the Hmong home cooking of her family gatherings with technical precision and a sense of cascading abundance — the pan-fried bean thread noodles her aunties and grandmas used to cook, the sheer-skinned steamed pork rolls just flickering with pepper,” says the New York Times in their review. 

Exacting. Contrasting. Homey. Diane’s Place is a case study in how to create a restaurant that feels entirely unique to one person and inviting to the entire world. 

 

Kado No Mise

Category: Best Chef Midwest (Shigeyuki Furukawa, 2025)

Other accolades: Best New Restaurants (Bon Appétit, 2018)

Kado No Mise is Shigeyuki Furukawa's ode to his hometown of Tokyo. The menu changes regularly, and the bar is stocked with sake, Japanese whisky and shochu. For a truly memorable night, book a multi-course omakase menu at Furukawa's chef's counter or opt for an exemplary kaiseki experience that includes a seasonal sashimi assortment and a parade of small plates that feature a wealth of items and ingredients you won't find elsewhere. 

Slightly more casual but no less impressive is Kado No Mise's sister restaurant Sanjusan, a Daniel del Prado collaboration that delivers a deft combination of Italian and Japanese food on the first floor.

 

Khâluna

Category: Best Chef Midwest (Ann Ahmed, 2024)

Other accolades: America’s Best Restaurants (for Gai Noi, New York Times, 2023).

The weather is always tropical in Ann Ahmed’s lush dining room. But it’s not just the vibes that keep Khâluna booked with well-heeled locals night after night. The ambitious, skillful menu is packed with rich, complex dishes that celebrate Ahmed’s Laotian heritage. Confit duck leg fried rice, Lao sausage-stuffed quail, and a red snapper crudo delicately garnished with finger lime and pungent, bolted cilantro are just a few of the highlights on Ahmed’s menu. 

Didn’t make a reservation in time?  You’re in luck. Ahmed’s Gai Noi, in the historic Loring Park neighborhood, is walk-in only (and feels like Khâluna’s slightly party-forward younger sibling).

 

Oro by Nixta

Category: Best New Restaurant (2024)

Other accolades: America's Best Restaurants (New York Times, 2024), Best New Restaurants (Bon Appétit, 2024). 

“Corn is a shape-shifter at Oro by Nixta,” says Bon Appétit. “It may blend into a burnt orange molote, a masa-based fried dumpling made of sweet potato and hibiscus, or be nixtamalized for a steely indigo tortilla that cradles celery root batons cut thick like steak fries. Whatever the hue and final form, the corn — an array of colorful heirloom varieties sourced from Mexico — simultaneously satisfies and excites.” 

Chefs Gustavo and Kate Romero first launched their business as a love letter to masa during the pandemic — one that was expressed through pop-ups, weekly takeout dinners and some of the country's most complex heirloom corn tortillas. That mission now extends to a dine-in menu designed for sharing and devouring. While it changes frequently, the menu features dishes that range from a suckling pig terrine to a quesabirria with rich, comforting consommé. 

 

Paris Dining Club

Category: Best Chef: Midwest (Jamie Malone, for Grand Café, 2x nominee and 3x semifinalist — including a Rising Star award — from 2013-2020)

Other accolades: Restaurants of the Year (for Grand Café, Food & Wine, 2018), Best New Chefs (Food & Wine, 2013). 

When Jamie Malone closed Grand Café, Minneapolitans mourned. After all, Grand was a true pearl of a neighborhood restaurant — a modern take on French cuisine that felt neither stuffy nor excessively try-hard — and a showcase of a young chef’s exceptional prowess. 

Lucky for us, Jamie Malone didn’t say goodbye to the Twin Cities. She simply shifted the format with Paris Dining Club, an unusual concept restaurant (can we call it a restaurant, Jamie?) that offers sit-down, private dining and take-home boxes that include optional courses and “hosting kits.” Every limited-run menu reflects Jamie’s elegant, yet inventive cooking, with recent editions offering black truffle-stuffed roast chicken, curried deviled eggs, and beef tartare with tomato agrodolce. 

You can tell your guests that you made it yourself, but they may not believe you. Especially when you whip out the little pats of butter in the shape of madeleines. 

Prefer to dine out? The Paris Dining Club space, a white-washed warehouse conversion in the oh-so-trendy North Loop, is available for event bookings — no reheating instructions required.

 

Rustica 

Category: Best Pastry Chef (Shawn McKenzie, for Café Ceres, 2023)

Other accolades: Best Pastry Chef (Steve Horton, semifinalist, 2014)

We will shout it from every rooftop we can: the Twin Cities are laden with industry-leading bakeries. If you think about it for even a second, it makes sense: after all, Minneapolis was once the world’s leading producer of flour, which earned it the moniker “The Mill City.” 

Founded by Steve Horton in 2004, Rustica began in a teeny-tiny Southwest Minneapolis space (now the home of Alma Provisions), selling a modest selection of buttery French pastries and (as their name would imply) rustic loaves of sourdough. The city quickly caught on, and in 2009, Rustica moved into a much, much bigger location near Bde Maka Ska. 

Now, there are four metro locations, all of which are overseen by the supernaturally talented Shawn McKenzie, who has managed to both steward Horton’s original vision and put her own stamp on the bakery’s offerings. 

That means you can find Horton’s cult-favorite bittersweet chocolate cookies next to McKenzie’s savory-edged garam masala molasses version, a pairing that feels so seamless, it’s as if it’s been this way forever. 

Oh, and Horton hasn’t gone anywhere. Called to the city’s original beginnings, he now runs Baker’s Field, one of the nation’s only independent and locally-driven stone-milled flour producers.

 

Tilia

Category: Best Chef: Midwest (Steven Brown, 6x nominee from 2012-2020)

Don’t be fooled by the always a bridesmaid, never a bride of Steven Brown’s six Beard nominations. Tilia, which opened in 2011, is the kind of quiet, charming, remarkably consistent restaurant every neighborhood wishes for. 

Tucked into the picturesque, village-like Linden Hills, they serve dinner and weekend brunch, and are perhaps the only restaurant on this list to openly and proudly list a kid’s menu online (the super-popular kid’s bookstore, Wild Rumpus, is just next door). 

But that’s who Steven Brown is; he cares about his guests, not prestige, and he wants his restaurants to be a regular gathering place, not a once-in-a-while luxury. 

Brown's other restaurants include the charming French bistro St. Genevieve and Giulia, the likable, upscale Italian spot at the Hotel Emery.

 

Vinai

Category: Best Chef: Midwest (Yia Vang for Union Hmong Kitchen, 2022)

Other accolades: Best Restaurants in America (New York Times, 2024; the paper also gave it two stars), Best New Restaurants (Bon Appétit, 2025), World’s 100 Best Places (TIME Magazine, 2025) 

When Vinai opened in 2022, it was perhaps the most anticipated restaurant in Minneapolis history. The first fine-dining concept from Yia Vang, whose Union Hmong Kitchen concept put him on the map, Vinai is named for the Ban Vinai refugee camp in Thailand, where Vang was born. 

Vinai is a restaurant primarily concerned with abundance. The sharing portions are large. The flavors are unapologetically bold (spicy is spicy, sour is sour, rich is fantastically rich). The dining room is large and airy, with an unusually generous amount of space between two-tops (no risk of bumping elbows here).

Everything about it feels welcoming and celebratory, including the pronunciation guides on the menu, which educate guests and make them feel like insiders. After all, very few Minnesotans would naturally pronounce “Zaub” as “Zhaow.” 

But you don’t go to Vinai for a language lesson. That’s just one of the (many) thoughtful details. You go for the food, which the New York Times called “opulent.”

The kitchen is centered around a wood-fired grill, which serves up piled-high platters of Hilltribe grilled chicken thighs and eye-popping whole fish, as well as a charred cabbage set on a carrot puree so velvety that it could have a second life as parlor room drapery. 

Whatever you do, don’t skip the hot sauce; we recommend trying all four, which vary in spice level and flavor profile but stun in equal measure. Just don’t ask for the recipe for the “Mama Vang,” which is, as the title implies, made by Vang’s mother, and kept so secret that the Chef himself doesn’t even know how to replicate it.

Semifinalists

These longlisted restaurants are also worth a trip out of your way. 

Best Chef Midwest: Mateo Mackbee, Krewe; Abraham Gessesse, Hyacinth; Doug Flicker, Piccolo (now of Bull’s Horn); Sameh Wadi, Saffron (now of World Street Kitchen); Russell Klein, Meritage

Outstanding Hospitality: Mucci’s Italian

Outstanding Chef: Daniel DelPrado for Martina, Colita and Porzana

Outstanding Pastry Chef: Marc Heu, Marc Heu Pâtisserie Paris; John Kraus, Pâtisserie 46/Rose Street Pâtisserie

Outstanding Bar: Meteor 

 

Beard America's Classics Award

The America’s Classics Award honors family-owned restaurants that have been in operation for over a decade. Three Minnesota institutions have been recognized as America's classics: Al’s Breakfast, a diner famous for their pancakes and beloved by celebrity clientele (Molly Baz declared her Al’s omelet “the best she’s ever had”), The Pickwick, a Duluth pub that’s been slinging charbroiled steaks since 1914, and Kramarczuk’s, the famed Minneapolis sausage company that serves eastern European classics at their throwback deli counter.

 

One Final Note

We'd like to take a moment to recognize the iconic restaurants that are no longer with us and won a James Beard Award back in their day, including The Bachelor Farmer (Best Chef: Midwest, Paul Berglund, 2016), La Belle Vie (Best Chef: Midwest, Tim McKee, 2009) and Lucia’s (Best Chef: Midwest, Lucia Watson, 2006). 

Take a closer look at Minnesota's vibrant food and drink scene.