89°F today. The patios are open and the city is outside. Here is where the metro spends a day like this.
A living best-of, shaped by the people who actually go. No paid placements.
Ranked by real saves and check-ins, weighted to right now. Your taps count too.
Minnesota State Fair is on right now. Twelve days ending Labor Day. The largest state fair by daily attendance.
A Billy Joel State of Mind with Mick Sterling at Crooners Supper Club, Main Stage Showroom, 5:00 PM.
A note, while it matters
A lot of what makes this a real food city is immigrant-run, and right now many of those places, especially along Lake Street and on the East Side, are having a hard time. Some have gone quiet, some have cut back to takeout, some are just working to keep the lights on. If you have a favorite, this is the season to show up: order the pickup, leave the good review, bring a friend, go. We will keep the listings here as honest as we can about who’s open. Showing up is the whole point.
Live music, art openings, lectures, and screenings, refreshed daily from the venues themselves.
See the full calendar →A grounded weekly horoscope. Mood pieces, more than predictions. Written for people who live here.
Read all twelve →A coincidence that turns out to mean something. You meet someone twice in one day, in two different rooms.
LibraA flower in a window catches you off guard and you stop to look. You are recognized, deservedly, in a way that sticks.
AquariusA connection between two old ideas finally clicks into place. You meet someone doing something you are interested in.
The institutions, stages, screens, and rooms that make this a city worth living in.
Forty places that quietly explain why this city is a cultural one.
Read the list →The buildings that hold the creative life of the city.
Read the list →Twelve venues that have shaped what this city sounds like.
Read the list →Twelve theaters that make this the most theater-dense city in America after New York.
Read the list →The single-screen rooms and repertory houses keeping film alive in the Twin Cities.
Read the list →Where the city goes to learn something.
Read the list →The bars, clubs, and rooms that make the Twin Cities one of the most LGBTQ-welcoming cities in the country.
Read the list →The teams, the venues, the rituals that the metro plans around.
Read the list →A real food town in fifteen directions at once. Restaurants worth a reservation, sushi, banh mi, tacos, sandwiches, late-night slices, ice cream by the lake, and the burger Minneapolis invented.
Where to make a reservation when the night matters.
Read the list →When the table cannot agree, the food hall solves it.
Read the list →The roving kitchens worth chasing, and how to find them today.
Read the list →Twelve places to read, work, meet someone, or stay too long.
Read the list →Where the croissants are laminated properly and the doughnuts are worth the diversion.
Read the list →Twelve sandwiches we plan our day around.
Read the list →Including the burger Minneapolis invented and is willing to fight you about.
Read the list →Where to go for pizza in the Twin Cities.
Read the list →Twelve places worth setting a Sunday alarm for.
Read the list →From masa-forward modern places to West Side institutions to taco trucks parked behind gas stations.
Read the list →Pho, banh mi, and the family-run rooms that built the scene.
Read the list →Tabletop BBQ, banchan, and the small Saint Paul Koreatown stretch.
Read the list →Sushi, izakaya, and the city’s only proper omakase counter.
Read the list →St. Paul has the largest Hmong population of any American city. The food reflects it.
Read the list →Injera, doro wat, and one of the strongest Ethiopian dining scenes in the country.
Read the list →Where to eat your way across the subcontinent in the Twin Cities.
Read the list →Boat noodle, khao soi, and the rooms the metro returns to.
Read the list →Eat Street, the University Avenue corridor, and a few suburban rooms worth the drive.
Read the list →The scoop shops worth a summer detour.
Read the list →Where to go when the kitchens have started closing.
Read the list →Cocktail bars, breweries, neighborhood bars, summer patios, and the happy hours we plan around.
For when the wine bar is not enough and the dive bar is not the move.
Read the list →Twelve taprooms that prove this is one of the best brewing towns in America.
Read the list →Twelve places where the lighting is forgiving and the bartender remembers your face.
Read the list →The patios that make the long winters feel worth it.
Read the list →The best happy hours in the Twin Cities, by neighborhood.
Read the list →The independent shops where the buying has a point of view and the people who run them are usually behind the counter.
Twelve places to buy something good from someone who actually owns the store.
Read the list →Where to lose an hour and leave with a stack.
Read the list →The shops that have built actual men’s style culture in the Twin Cities.
Read the list →Independent boutiques where the buying has a point of view.
Read the list →Minnesota legalized recreational cannabis in 2023. Here is the short list.
Read the list →Where to sleep, what to do with a day, and the places people who live here take guests when they arrive.
Twelve hotels worth booking even when your relatives offer the guest room.
Read the list →Bikes, boats, lakes, paths, and what to do with a day in the metro.
Read the list →Where to soak, sweat, and reset.
Read the list →The places people who live here take visitors that visitors do not know to ask about.
Read the list →The strange, the secret, and the historical-but-overlooked corners of the metro.
Read the list →The annual calendar that organizes the year. Sixteen things to put on yours.
See the year ahead →