Penumbra Theatre
Founded in 1976 by Lou Bellamy, Penumbra is the country’s preeminent African American professional theater company. August Wilson developed work here. The programming has shaped American theater more than its size suggests it could.
The rest of St. Paul, including the East Side, Payne-Phalen, and other neighborhoods that did not slot neatly elsewhere on this site.
Founded in 1976 by Lou Bellamy, Penumbra is the country’s preeminent African American professional theater company. August Wilson developed work here. The programming has shaped American theater more than its size suggests it could.
A recurring drop-in program where University of Minnesota researchers and guests bring current science out of the lab and into the museum galleries for hands-on conversation. Themes rotate through topics like climate stories and the science of identity, and it is built for all ages and curiosity levels. The program itself is included with museum visit, so you take it in alongside the planetarium and exhibits.
Run by astrophysics grad students, this is casual astronomy in a bar: short, lively talks about black holes, exoplanets, and the universe, with plenty of beer and trivia mixed in. Events move around to different Twin Cities breweries and taprooms, so check their social channels for the next one. It is free, unpretentious, and a great low-key intro to real science from the people doing it.
A cozy January tradition at the Rondo Community Library inside the Hallie Q. Brown Community Center, spotlighting some of Minnesota's finest writers with new work out. Wednesday evenings, warm room, local voices, and a real sense of the St. Paul literary community in one place. Recordings go up afterward if you miss a night.
Open since 1969, Town House on University Avenue is the longest continuously-operating gay bar in Minnesota and one of the most historically important LGBTQ spaces in the upper Midwest. A neighborhood bar with a deep community legacy and consistently warm welcome.
Anna Morgan and Kevin Manley met at 112 Eatery (he was executive chef, she was general manager). Their tiny twenty-table St. Paul bistro is named after their son. Small plates, elevated bar food, a serious cocktail program. The Aperol Jell-O shots have become a thing.
A small, deeply seasonal restaurant on Cleveland Avenue in St. Paul that has earned some of the most serious praise in the metro since opening. The menu turns over constantly with whatever is at its peak, and the room is intimate enough that every plate feels considered. Dinner Wednesday through Saturday, and reservations are the move.
A White Bear Ave regular smoking ribs, rib tips, and a standout Korean fried chicken wing. Posts a steady lunch-into-evening schedule all week long. Come hungry, the wings go fast.
Billed simply as the best soul food in town, and the lunch line on Thomas Ave in Saint Paul backs it up. Open Thursday through Sunday afternoons. Comfort on a plate.
Minnesota barbecue made to order with a dry rub so good it never needs sauce. Catch it at the BBQ and Music nights down by the river in Saint Paul on Saturdays. Bring an appetite and skip the bottle.
Filipino and Chinese comfort food from a truck that parks on University Ave W in Saint Paul Friday through Sunday. A friendly weekend window for lumpia and noodles. Reliable hours, generous plates.
The tater tot specialists who turn a humble side dish into the main event. Go for the tater tot hotdish or the loaded nacho tots piled with cheese and toppings. They rove breweries and events all season and post up at the Minnesota State Fair every year.
Chef Kevin Huyck's mac-and-cheese truck builds creamy, over-the-top bowls and serves the St. Paul side and surrounding suburbs. The truck runs its season roughly mid-April through the end of October. Check the food truck calendar on their site to catch it.
A St. Paul cafe that is also a record store, which is the right idea. The coffee is good, the vinyl rotation is real, and the room sounds better than most coffee shops because it is staffed by people who care about how rooms sound.
A Hamline-Midway cafe, coffee bar, and bakery that recently expanded into a bigger corner space at Thomas and Hamline. Weekend brunch is the move, the in-house bakery carries the pastry case, and the room is built for lingering. A genuine neighborhood anchor on the St. Paul side.
A Payne Avenue pub on the East Side of St. Paul doing one of the best straightforward bar burgers in the metro. Smashed-style on a soft bun, no overengineering, draft list that goes deep on local. The kind of room where you arrive at six and leave at ten.
A St. Paul restaurant whose burger has quietly become one of the most-talked-about in the metro. Dry-aged blend, soft brioche, perfect cheese melt, almost annoyingly good fries. Order it at the bar with a martini.
Anna Morgan and Kevin Manley, who met working at 112 Eatery, run this tiny bistro out of the first floor of an apartment building, and the burger has a cult following to match the living-room feel. The fries are taken so seriously there is a dedicated potato chef. Small room, big burger.
The grand Victorian mansion in Irvine Park, dating to 1870, reopened in 2024 with a reimagined bar where the draw is the Irvine Park Burger, a blend of Wagyu, brisket, and chuck. White-tablecloth history with a serious burger at the bar.
Argentinian-style pizza, which means a thicker, chewier crust and a generous hand with the cheese. Order the fugazzeta if you have not had one. Add empanadas to round it out.
A wood-paneled University Avenue mainstay that locals send each other to. Pho, bun, hu tieu, and a few rice plates. Cash habits, no fuss, generous bowls.
A University Avenue go-to with a deep pho menu and reliable banh mi. The dining room is brighter and bigger than most of the block, which makes it a good group stop.
A University Avenue stalwart for pho, bun bo Hue, and grilled pork plates. The kitchen pays attention to broths, and regulars come for that. Service is quick and unpretentious.
The Que Viet family’s upscale Grand Avenue spinoff. Familiar dishes get a little more polish, the room is dim and date-friendly, and the cocktail list is genuinely worth ordering from.
Eric Pham grew up inside Quang on Eat Street, the restaurant his grandmother founded in 1989 and his mother Khue now runs. He named this one for her. After a fire destroyed his first space, he reopened on Raymond Avenue in March 2025 and the Star Tribune named it the best new restaurant of the year. Order the fried chicken sandwich with chili crunch.
A massive 100,000-square-foot Hmong marketplace on St. Paul’s East Side. The food court alone is worth a Saturday: papaya salad pounded to order, larb laced with toasted rice powder, fresh-cut sausage from a dozen vendors. Bring cash and an empty stomach.
A small St. Paul restaurant doing Lao and Hmong dishes with a focus on the staples: papaya salad, sausage, jeow dipping sauces, and sticky rice. The kind of place where the menu is short and the kitchen does what it does without fuss.
A St. Paul family restaurant that takes its time, with a broad menu that reaches across regional Ethiopian cooking. The injera is made fresh daily and the kitfo is the order if you want to go beyond doro wat.
A St. Paul Ethiopian restaurant doing both the traditional menu and a few modernized dishes that bring the food to a slightly broader audience. The vegetarian platter is an especially good introduction.
A St. Paul family restaurant doing reliable Ethiopian without much fanfare. The shiro is the order on a cold night, and the staff treats first-timers with the patience to walk you through the menu.
A small St. Paul restaurant that delivers exactly what the name suggests. The chicken tikka masala and the saag paneer are reliable, the breads are made to order, and the room is small enough to feel personal.
A Frogtown stalwart on University Avenue with one of the deepest Thai menus in the metro. The boat noodle is the move, the khao soi runs a close second, and the regional dishes most places skip are cooked here without explanation. Cash-and-counter feel, lines at noon, worth them.
A casual sit-down spot two doors from Bangkok Thai Deli, offering a quieter room and a friendlier-paced version of the same University Avenue Thai energy. Pad Thai, drunken noodles, basil chicken, all done with care.
A University Avenue room running both Thai and Vietnamese, with weekday lunch specials that are some of the cheapest sit-down plates on the corridor. Closed Wednesdays. The kind of unfussy neighborhood spot that the office crowd keeps in heavy rotation.
A University Avenue storefront a few blocks down from Bangkok Thai Deli, doing the standards in a quiet room with a loyal following. Closed Mondays. Dependable curries and noodle plates, the kind of place that rewards the regulars who skip the bigger names nearby.
Hand-pulled noodles made in view of the dining room on the University Avenue corridor. Biang biang, knife-cut, beef noodle soup, and a deep dumpling list. The kind of place you walk in skeptical and walk out a regular.
A University Avenue Cantonese room that has been doing it the same way since 1991. Salt-and-pepper preparations, clay pots, the kind of menu that rewards ordering the things on the special board. A quiet local following that does not need the metro to discover it.
The original Plymouth room and a Suburban Avenue sibling on the east side of St. Paul, both running the same Sichuan-leaning menu. Cumin lamb, dan dan noodles, dry-fried green beans. Office-park location belies the kitchen.
A hot-pot focused offshoot of the long-running Little Szechuan, with rolling broth pots and an extensive add-in list. Bring three friends and an appetite for a long table.
A Grand Avenue institution running for more than three decades. House-made waffle cones, a deep flavor list rotating through the case, and a back patio for the warm months.
Minnesota’s first Black-owned bookstore, started from a viral 2020 tweet and now a permanent Midway storefront near the Green Line. The shelves center books by Black, Indigenous, and other authors of color, and the room functions as much as a community space as a store. New ownership took over in 2024 and kept the mission intact.
Open since 1965, with thousands of used and rare hardcovers and paperbacks and what the store calls the largest art-book selection in the Midwest. There is a serious vintage comics and magazine trade in here too. A proper old-school dig where the rarities reward patience.
A St. Paul men’s shop carrying contemporary designer labels with a buy that leans Japanese, Belgian, and small-batch American. The room is small and minimal, the staff have opinions, and the inventory rotates with intention. Worth checking on a quiet weekday.
A St. Paul independent dispensary with a focus on hemp-derived THC products and a community-anchored shop experience. Worth checking for product diversity outside of just the standard flower-and-cartridges menu.
A small St. Paul healing-arts space focused on bodywork, energy work, and a quieter wellness register than the bigger spas. Personal, unhurried, and less of a production.
Thirty-six thousand square feet of red sandstone built in 1891 by the railroad baron who connected St. Paul to Seattle. The original art gallery, the pipe organ, and the family quarters are all intact and tourable.
A German beer hall in the basement of the State Capitol with 29 painted German mottoes, repainted over during World War I anti-German hysteria, then uncovered in the 1990s with scalpels and tweezers. The cafe operates only during legislative sessions; the room is always there to see.
Six Dakota burial mounds on a limestone bluff over the Mississippi. The only mounds remaining inside the Twin Cities urban core. The oldest were constructed around 2,500 years ago. The park has been renamed and reinterpreted with Dakota community leadership over the past decade.