A long stretch of St. Paul running from the Como Conservatory through the Midway. Fasika Ethiopian, the Turf Club, the Half Time Rec, Ax-Man Surplus, Lake Monster Brewing.
Minnesota's first Black-owned bookstore, on University Avenue in the Midway, centers writers of color and runs readings, book clubs, and its recurring Lit and Libations book fair. The events feel like community gatherings as much as bookstore programming, with collaborations around town and a clear point of view. A vital stop for anyone who cares about who gets to tell stories.
The first purpose-built soccer stadium in the upper Midwest, opened in 2019 in Saint Paul's Midway. The translucent ETFE skin glows from the inside on a night game. The supporters' section in the Wonderwall keeps the room loud through any weather.
A second-generation spot on Snelling with a long menu and a small, warm room. Bibimbap, soondubu, and bulgogi are the easy orders, and the banchan rotation is always interesting.
Steps from Mirror of Korea in St. Paul’s small Koreatown stretch. Dolsot bibimbap, jjigae, and kimbap, made with care and served in a quiet sit-down room.
The original Twin Cities Hmong marketplace, predating Hmong Village by about a decade. Smaller and rougher around the edges, but the food vendors here are the ones the older generation of Hmong elders eat at. Outdoor food stalls in summer are the move.
A St. Paul Cambodian restaurant on University Avenue, often grouped culturally with the Hmong food scene because the diasporas overlap heavily here. The amok and the lemongrass-grilled pork are the orders. Cash-friendly, family-run, and one of the most underrated rooms in the metro.
A St. Paul tandoor specialist with a menu built around the clay oven. The bread program is the standout, the kebabs are properly charred, and the goat curry is worth ordering on a cold night.
Chef-owner On Khumchaya runs a hundred-plus-item menu out of a small University Avenue room. Hard-to-find regional dishes share the page with the standards, and the kitchen treats both the same. The crispy garlic chicken alone has built a following.
A St. Paul taproom whose lager program is among the metro’s best. Long picnic tables, rotating food trucks, and a yard that catches just enough afternoon sun. The lakefront murals on the side of the building are part of the charm.
The downstairs Clown Lounge alone earns the Turf a place on this list. Upstairs, one of the better small live-music rooms in the metro. Tall boys, no pretense, a stage that has hosted everyone from Lucinda Williams to your friend’s nephew’s band.
A Como Avenue Irish bar with regulation bocce courts in the basement. Cheap pints, a long-standing staff, live trad music sessions on the right night. As neighborhood as a neighborhood bar gets.
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.
A 384-acre St. Paul park with a free zoo, the Marjorie McNeely Conservatory, an 18-hole public golf course, a swimming lake, and a Japanese garden. The kind of multi-purpose city park that almost does not exist in America anymore.
A St. Paul surplus store that has been selling government-surplus weirdness, taxidermied animals, lab equipment, military jackets, and miscellany since 1965. The kind of place where you go for nothing in particular and leave with a stuffed peacock. A genuinely weird, genuinely Twin Cities institution.
A century-old Victorian glasshouse on the grounds of Como Park. Free, open year-round, and on a February afternoon when the temperature is below zero outside, walking into the orchid room is a small miracle. Possibly the most underrated public space in the metro.
In the basement of the Turf Club. Painted clowns staring down at you, dim lighting, cheap drinks, and an absolute commitment to never explaining itself. One of the strangest, most-loved rooms in either city.
Over a hundred trees in the Ordway galleries adjacent to the main glasshouse, including one specimen over 450 years old. The largest public bonsai collection in the upper Midwest.