How to Eat Your Way Around Minneapolis-St. Paul in a Weekend

Local specialties like the Juicy Lucy (or Jucy, if you're Matt's Bar) and James Beard award-winning restaurants may have put the metro area on the national map, but what makes the local food scene so special is its creativity and diversity. You’ll find plenty of restaurants putting a unique spin on cuisines from around the globe, including Indigenous, Hmong, Somali, Ethiopian, Mexican, Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Nordic fare. 

Although you could spend a lifetime eating your way around Minneapolis-St. Paul, here’s a delicious itinerary to get you started on a food-and-drink-fueled long weekend.

 

Friday

Savor a scoop of Pavoratti

Twin Cities ice cream shops serve up inventive scoops regardless of the season. Sebastian Joe’s has been a local favorite since 1984. 

Dozens of flavors rotate daily, but a handful of classics are always available — like Pavoratti. It’s named after the famous opera singer; he fell hard for the caramel, banana, and chocolate chip combo while performing in Minneapolis. 

Other beloved flavors include raspberry chocolate chip, Oreo, and salty caramel. Sebastian Joe’s has locations in Minneapolis’ Linden Hills, Lowry Hill and Kingfield neighborhoods, ensuring an excellent sundae or scoop is never far away.

 

Grab pizza in the North Loop 

Neapolitan, Sicilian, Detroit, New Haven, deep-dish — the local pizza scene boasts nearly every style you can imagine, topped with everything from pepperoni to vegan cheese to dill pickles (yes, that’s really a thing here). 

Black Sheep Pizza in Minneapolis’ hip North Loop neighborhood stands out for its coal-fired oven (the first in Minnesota), which cranks out pies with a distinctive smoky flavor and crisp, chewy crusts. Bold toppings are the name of the game here, with pies like the #7, loaded with oyster mushrooms, smoked mozzarella, rosemary, and garlic, and the #5, topped with fennel sausage, hot salami, and cracked green olives.

 

Sample the local craft beer scene 

The Twin Cities’ beer scene dates back to the mid-1800s, and traces of that storied history remain — like the iconic Grain Belt Beer sign on Minneapolis’ Nicollet Island. Today, you’ll find dozens of taprooms throughout the metro, but Northeast Minneapolis is a great place to start, thanks to the density of breweries. You can even walk or bike between some spots. 

Bauhaus Brew Labs serves German-style beers in a colorful taproom, plus there’s an expansive beer garden in the warmer months. Indeed Brewing Company offers a crowd-pleasing lineup of brews in a cozy, historic brick space, and they make a tasty non-alcoholic version of their flagship Pistachio Cream Ale. 

Other Northeast breweries to check out include the Irish-themed Padraigs Brewing, the “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives” destination HeadFlyer Brewing (thanks in part to its pizza truck, OG ZaZa), and the community-oriented coop Broken Clock. 

Not into hazy IPAs and heavy stouts? While Sociable Cider Werks crafts both beer and gluten-free cider, Earl Giles pairs its full-on food menu with cocktails made from its creative line of in-house liquor and bitters. 

 

Saturday

Order pastries from a Beard nominee

The Twin Cities are home to one of the largest Hmong-American communities in the United States, and at Diane’s Place, chef Diane Moua combines her flair for French pastry with comfort food inspired by her Hmong heritage. The picture-perfect coconut pandan croissant is a must, and the scallion danish proves that savory pastries can be just as alluring as their sugary counterparts.

If you want something heartier, add an order of Hmong pork sausage or try a towering stack of Thai tea French toast. It’s best to make a reservation, but seats at the snug bar are available on a walk-in basis.

Learn how to make Diane Moua's Thai tea French toast.

 

Head to Eat Street for pan dulce

The tricky thing about Marissa’s Bakery is choosing what to load onto your tray: the self-serve shelves are laden with Mexican specialties like fluffy conchas and pig-shaped gingerbread cookies, as well as doughnuts, muffins, croissants, and cake slices. You can’t go wrong; everything is fresh and budget-friendly.

Marissa’s Bakery is located on a stretch of Nicollet Avenue known as Eat Street, thanks to its plethora of German, Chinese, Vietnamese, Greek, Mexican, and Jamaican eateries, some of which have been neighborhood staples for decades. 

Check out Meet Minneapolis’ Eat Street guide.

 

Crush a plant-based burger

Minneapolis is famously the birthplace of the Juicy Lucy, with both Matt’s Bar and the 5-8 Club claiming inventorship of the cheese-stuffed burger. But there’s more to the local burger scene than the Juicy Lucy.

Francis Burger Joint may be one of the best examples of ongoing burger innovation. Their menu is completely plant-based and downright delicious, with options including the black-bean-based Garlic Girl and a vegan chorizo cheeseburger. 

If you need to try a Juicy Lucy, that’s on the menu, too.

 

Experience decolonized Indigenous cuisine

Owamni has gained national acclaim for its decolonized approach to Indigenous cuisine, earning the James Beard Award for Best New Restaurant in 2022. Everything on the menu is made solely with ingredients indigenous to North America, such as squash, corn, bison, and wild rice.

Be sure to order the venison tartare with duck egg aioli, and don’t skip the cricket popcorn — you’ll never look at insects the same way again.

If you can’t get a dinner reservation, seating at the spacious bar is first-come, first-served, or you can check out the weekend brunch menu, which features game sausage benedict and corn cakes with maple and blackberries.

 

Raise a glass to regional craft spirits

At Brother Justus Whiskey Company, each sip of whiskey is a taste of Minnesota’s distinctive terroir. It’s distilled on-site from water sourced from the Mississippi River and locally malted barley, then aged in barrels made from Minnesota white oak and infused with Minnesota peat.

The cocktail room serves a menu of classic whiskey cocktails and seasonal signature drinks; you can never go wrong with an Old Fashioned. Brother Justus’ home base is currently undergoing a renovation and remodel, but its bottle shop is open on select afternoons. Check out the company’s latest updates on its Instagram or mailing list.

In addition to Brother Justus, the Twin Cities metro boasts over a dozen distilleries with on-site cocktail rooms. Other great options include Minneapolis’ Norseman Distillery, which produces over 20 spirits and makes its own bitters from hand-foraged botanicals, and Dampfwerk Distilling in St. Louis Park, which specializes in flavorful fruit brandies and herbal liqueurs.

Check out some of the Twin Cities' top cocktail bars.

 

Sunday

Savor a Nordic breakfast

The local NFL team is called the Minnesota Vikings for good reason: Minnesota is home to more Nordic-Americans than any other state, including people with Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, Danish, and Icelandic heritage.

For a sampling of Nordic cuisine, check out the Finnish Bistro in St. Paul. The menu includes lefse (Norwegian potato flatbread) and French toast made with pulla (Finnish cardamom bread), plus there’s a bakery case filled with Nordic-style pastries.

If you’re dining with a group, go all out with the Finnish breakfast, a shareable spread of smoked salmon, pickled herring, reindeer sausage, and rye bread served with homemade dill sauce.

 

Sip coffee in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s footsteps

Housed in the historic Blair Arcade in St. Paul’s Cathedral Hill, Nina’s Coffee Cafe is a charming coffee shop in author F. Scott Fitzgerald’s old neighborhood (his mother Molly even lived in the Blair Arcade for a time).

Nina’s has an eclectic Victorian-inspired interior and cozy nooks for conversation, with a menu of drinks ranging from a classic cappuccino to a colorful iced strawberry matcha. Grab the loft armchairs overlooking the main seating area if they’re available.

 

Bite into a bánh mì

Founded in 1997, iPho by Saigon is beloved for their bánh mì, especially “The Regular Sandwich,” a crusty baguette loaded with roast pork, pâté, and mayo. Vegetarian-friendly vegetable and tofu sandwiches are available too, or if you’re especially hungry you can challenge yourself to a jumbo-sized 10-pound bowl of pho.

iPho by Saigon is a staple of St. Paul’s Frogtown neighborhood. The area serves as a hub for the city’s immigrant communities and is a food lover’s paradise to explore: you’ll find East African markets catering to Somali and Ethiopian communities; restaurants serving Burmese, Cambodian, Thai, Mexican, Ethiopian, and Chinese cuisine; and the Hmongtown Marketplace, a mall and cultural center with 125-plus retail and food vendors.

 

Stock up on edible souvenirs

Peruse the shelves at Golden Fig Fine Foods for a tasty memento of your time in the Twin Cities. Located on St. Paul’s Grand Avenue, a pedestrian-friendly street with dozens of eateries and shops, the Golden Fig stocks gourmet foods from across the country, as well as Minnesota-made items like chocolate bonbons and spiced nuts.

The shop also crafts its own line of spice blends, salts, and sugars — try the Scandinavian sugar infused with cardamom and vanilla.

 

Feast on injera and doro wat

Thanks to the Twin Cities’ vibrant Ethiopian-American community, there are dozens of Ethiopian restaurants scattered across the metro. Bolé Ethiopian Cuisine stands out for the nuanced spice blends that flavor each dish and its cozy, welcoming atmosphere.

Go with a combo platter to try as many dishes as possible — the meat combo features doro wat (chicken stew), sega wat (beef stew), and yebeg alicha (lamb stew), or there’s a vegetarian version with lentil, chickpea, and potato dishes.

Wash down your meal with a refreshing cup of tea and congratulate yourself on eating your way around Minneapolis and St. Paul!

Read about the best restaurants in Minneapolis and St. Paul.