Bryant Lake Bowl
A rooftop patio above one of the city’s most beloved bowling-alley-and-actual-theaters. Strong cocktails, a brunch menu that holds up on the deck, a Lyn-Lake view that hits different at golden hour.
Read full entry →Minnesotans have a complicated relationship with summer. Three months of full-throttle compensation for the year’s remaining nine. The patio is the temple of that compensation. These are the ones we end up at as soon as it cracks fifty.
A rooftop patio above one of the city’s most beloved bowling-alley-and-actual-theaters. Strong cocktails, a brunch menu that holds up on the deck, a Lyn-Lake view that hits different at golden hour.
Read full entry →A full city block of patio in the heart of Northeast’s brewery district. Live music most weekends, a rotating cast of food trucks, dogs welcome, and a public-square feeling that beer halls in this country mostly fail to pull off.
Read full entry →A seasonal pavilion next to Minnehaha Falls. The lobster rolls are real, the lines are real, the picnic-table patio is one of the metro’s best public spaces. May through October.
Read full entry →The dog-friendliest patio in the city, attached to a cider house that takes hops as seriously as fruit. Big communal tables, weekend live music, a fenced yard that turns into a four-legged social hour by 4pm.
Read full entry →The destination brewery to end all of them. Half-ringed by the brewery’s glass facade, half open to a green that fills the moment the temperature breaks. The pizza is shockingly good, by the way.
Read full entry →On the southwest side of Nokomis, with sand a few feet from the patio. Burgers, brats, fish tacos, and a kids-and-dogs-and-strollers chaos that is the whole point. Seasonal, no reservations, just go.
Read full entry →A St. Paul taproom whose patio quietly out-vibes most Minneapolis breweries. Long picnic tables, rotating food trucks, a yard that catches just enough afternoon sun. Lager program is among the best in the metro.
Read full entry →A St. Paul brewery that lucked into a perfect patio location. Walking distance to CHS Field, around the corner from Mears Park, on a corner that catches afternoon sun. Pre-Saints-game patios do not come better.
Read full entry →A 200-boat dock and a wraparound deck on Lake Minnetonka’s most-watched stretch. Worth the drive on a summer afternoon, especially if you can find someone with a pontoon. The Wharf burger is the order.
Read full entry →A neighborhood restaurant with a patio just steps from the Mississippi. Comfortable, unfussy, the right place for a long Wednesday dinner that stretches well into golden hour. Order the mussels.
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