A Southwest Minneapolis neighborhood with a tight Main-Street feel: Wild Rumpus, Birchbark Books, Sebastian Joe's, Saint Genevieve, Tilia, Martina. Walk the whole thing in 20 minutes and find a reason to come back.
Daniel del Prado’s Linden Hills restaurant blending Italian pasta technique with Argentinian wood-fire cooking. The pastas are the headline but the wood-grilled meats are equally serious. The room is small and the bar is the move for walk-ins.
The South Minneapolis bakery that brought serious French viennoiserie to the Twin Cities. The almond croissant is the introduction. The kouign-amann is what you keep coming back for. The cafe lunch is a separate good reason to be there.
A Linden Hills bakery with one of the most respected bread programs in the country. The miches and ciabattas are the everyday miracles, and the small pastry case usually has whatever you did not think to want. Get there early on weekends.
A small Linden Hills pastry shop using saffron, rose, pistachio, and orange blossom in ways that read different than every other bakery in town. The saffron rice pudding is the standout. Pair with a Persian tea.
A Linden Hills bakery that built one of the city’s most respected bread programs and then put the bread to the obvious use. Rotating lunch sandwiches built on their own sourdough, miches, and ciabatta. Get there before the bread runs out.
The South Minneapolis bakery that brought serious French viennoiserie to the metro also runs a tight lunch sandwich program. Croque-monsieur on house-baked bread, baguette sandwiches with proper jambon, soup that takes itself seriously. Worth the drive south.
Ann Kim opened Lola in 2010 and it still feels like the place that changed what people expected from pizza here. The Lady ZaZa, with kimchi and serrano-spiked tomato sauce, is the one to order. Reservations open a month ahead and tend to vanish by the weekend.
A small Linden Hills room that nails the family-restaurant register without ever feeling phoned in. The Bacon Cheeseburger pie reads like a gimmick and tastes like the kind of thing you order on the way home from a long week.
Steven Brown’s neighborhood spot has been quietly excellent for over a decade. Brunch is small, focused, and very dialed in. The fried egg sandwich is the kind of thing you start craving on Wednesday.
A Linden Hills institution making small-batch ice cream on the premises since 1984. The Pavarotti, with caramel and banana, is the order. Stronger flavors, real cream, lines around the corner all summer.
Late-night happy hour starting at 9pm, with half-off pizzas and discounted wines by the glass. A different ritual than the early-evening play, somehow even better. The Lady ZaZa at 10pm with a glass of red is its own genre of dinner.
A children’s bookstore with actual chickens roaming the floor, a cat or two, and a child-sized purple door cut into the front. The selection is genuinely strong and the staff knows what they are doing. Worth a trip even if you do not have kids.
A Linden Hills institution making small-batch ice cream on the premises since 1984. The Pavarotti, with caramel and banana, is the order. Stronger flavors, real cream, lines around the corner all summer.