Soo Visual Arts Center
A small Lyn-Lake gallery that has been showing emerging Minnesota artists for over twenty years. Always free, always changing, the kind of place where you accidentally find a piece you want on your wall.
The CC Club, Bryant Lake Bowl, Mortimer's, Khâluna, and a stretch of Lyndale Avenue that still anchors a lot of Minneapolis nightlife. Less polished than it was, more interesting in some ways.
A small Lyn-Lake gallery that has been showing emerging Minnesota artists for over twenty years. Always free, always changing, the kind of place where you accidentally find a piece you want on your wall.
A printmaking studio and gallery that is both a working production space and a public-facing exhibition program. Free shows, the press equipment is visible through the gallery, and the prints are a great gift if you want something local that is not a t-shirt.
Minneapolis's largest independent bookstore runs a steady stream of author readings and signings in its Uptown space. The events skew toward strong fiction and nonfiction, often with a Q&A and signing line after. Open late and easy to fold into an evening on Hennepin, it is a reliable spot to catch a touring author.
Kim Bartmann turned her Café Wyrd coffee shop into this French brasserie in 2001 and it has anchored the corner of Lake and Irving ever since, a few blocks off the lake. The steak frites and the mussels are the long-running orders, the wine list is honest, and the all-day room slides from morning coffee to late-night with the same ease. Weekend brunch is an Uptown ritual. Sibling to Bryant Lake Bowl, and the kind of place that feels like it has always been here.
A tiny tasting-menu room in the old Piccolo space on Bryant, serving a seasonal six-course menu that changes constantly and costs less than the ambition suggests. No tipping, prices include everything but tax, and the kitchen is right there in front of you. Counter seats are the move for solo diners. One of the best-value serious meals in the city.
Ann Ahmed’s upscale Laotian restaurant at 40th and Lyndale, designed to feel like a tropical resort dropped into south Minneapolis. The food is bright and herbal, built on the Lao and Southeast Asian flavors Ahmed grew up with, and the cocktails match the room’s vacation energy. The crispy rice salad and the curries are the orders. One of three restaurants in her growing group, and the most ambitious.
Open since 1991 and open late, which is the whole point. The dirty chai and the chocolate cake are the standing order, and the basement is full of arcade machines and the kind of regulars who have been coming for twenty years. This is where you go when everything else has closed.
A small Hennepin Avenue bakery in Uptown with a careful European pastry program. The kouign-amann is in the conversation for the metro’s best, and the rotating cake menu is always a temptation. Walk-in and take a number.
A small Kingfield deli that opened with one mission: do the slow-roasted meats well, build the bread program around them, and let the menu stay tight. The result is one of the most exciting lunch counters in the metro. Order whatever the chalkboard tells you to.
Ann Ahmed’s modern Lao restaurant runs a lunch banh mi that is unlike any other in the city. Lemongrass pork, pickled vegetables, and bread the kitchen actually pays attention to. Worth dropping in even on a weekday lunch hour.
Sameh Wadi’s casual Lyn-Lake spot pulling from Mediterranean, Korean, and Mexican street-food traditions. The Yum Yum Bowls get the headlines but the lamb shawarma sandwich and the Korean BBQ pork are the sleeper picks. Quick service, big flavors.
The Kingfield neighborhood bar that took over the Petite León space, and it kept the predecessor’s caramelized-onion burger on the menu. Two smash patties, white American, pickles. On Tuesdays the burger comes with waffle fries and a tap cocktail, beer, or NA for one price.
Ann Ahmed’s modern Lao restaurant runs a brunch service that looks nothing like anyone else’s. Khao soi, sticky rice, grilled mango, and a room you remember after you leave.
A traditional Mexican ice cream and snack shop on Lyndale just north of the Lyn-Lake intersection. Nieves and paletas, plus the loaded chip cups and tostilocos built on Doritos, Tostitos, and Takis that have a serious local following. The kind of warm-weather stop you walk to and then circle back for.
Tabletop grills, a long list of marinated meats, and a generous spread of banchan. The room runs late, which has made it a regular stop for the after-work and pre-show crowds.
The Uptown outpost of the global Korean fried chicken chain, on West Lake Street. The double-fried chicken comes glazed in soy garlic or the gochujang-based secret sauce, and it holds up to the hype that brought the chain stateside. Good for a group, better with beer.
A neighborhood sushi spot with a baseball-card streak and a focus on responsibly sourced fish. The yakisoba dog is a longtime regular, and the daily specials are usually where the kitchen has the most fun.
The first sake brewery outside Japan when it opened, and still a Lyn-Lake landmark. Ramen, steamed buns, and a sake list pulled straight from their own tanks. The upstairs deck is a summer favorite.
A small Nicollet Avenue shop built around long-simmered tonkotsu, the rich pork-bone broth that defines the style. The bowls are the whole point and the room is tiny, so expect a wait. One of the few places in town doing ramen as the main event rather than a side.
A Hennepin Avenue Uptown standby running the standards in a sit-down room. Reliable green curry, dependable service, the kind of place locals send out-of-town colleagues without thinking twice.
A Lyn-Lake room from Paul Wu and Eric Zeng built around dim sum, fresh seafood, hot pot, and a Peking roasted duck that is the signature order. A more ambitious sit-down Cantonese option than the corridor strip-malls, and a rare dim sum address on the Minneapolis side of the river.
A tiny shop turning out flavors that swing from nostalgic to slightly weird. The lineup rotates often, the burgers from the same kitchen are quietly excellent, and the room stays open later than most.
Sameh Wadi’s ice cream concept, leaning hard into bold base flavors and unusual mix-ins. Black is the signature, a charcoal-colored coconut number that has outlasted the trend.
A south Minneapolis shop quietly making ice cream from Minnesota dairy and seasonal ingredients. The flavor list is short on any given day and reads like a farmers market summary.
Open until 2am with the kitchen cooking until 11. A workable late stop if your group still wants to grill meat at the table after most other rooms have started flipping chairs.
A genuine speakeasy hidden behind an unmarked alley door in Lyn-Lake. Reservations through their cryptic email, classic cocktails done by people who care, and a room that takes itself just seriously enough to be fun. Worth the discovery process.
Paul Westerberg drank here. The Replacements wrote about it. The vinyl jukebox is real and the cheeseburgers are better than they should be. Come early on weekends or come on a Tuesday.
A bar that has resisted every wave of gentrification by stubbornly being itself. Cheap pitchers, a kitchen that takes the basket food seriously, and the kind of regulars who treat their barstool like an assigned seat.
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.
The Uptown outpost of the metro's reliable burger standard. Tuesday through Friday from two to 5:30: seven-dollar taps and wine, eight-dollar cocktails including the Espresso Martini, and the eighteen-dollar Adult Happy Meal that bundles a cheeseburger, small fry, and a classic cocktail. One of the better bar deals in the neighborhood.
Happy hour twice a day: Monday through Friday from three to six, and again Monday through Thursday after ten until close. Five-dollar select taps and two dollars off apps both windows. Sunday industry night starts at nine. Tuesday is Tap Tuesday with five-dollar select taps running all day. The late-night window is the one to know.
Day-by-day specials rather than a timed window: Monday is a dollar off all draft, Tuesday is a dollar off Minnesota beer on tap, Wednesday is three-dollar domestic tallboys, Thursday is ten-cent tokens all night, Friday the first hundred guests get twenty free tokens plus two-dollar slices until eight. Saturday is two-for-one tokens until nine. The Thursday token deal is the one worth planning around.
Bowling, a theater, and a full bar under one roof since forever. Monday through Friday from three to six there are a dollar off taps, wines, and cocktails plus discounted bar apps. Monday night adds Cheap Date Night: two entrees, a bottle of wine or beers, and bowling for twenty-eight dollars a couple. One of the stranger and more enjoyable happy hours in the city.
The largest independent bookstore in the Upper Midwest, with a serious used-book program in the back. Strong staff picks, consistent author events, and one of the better magazine racks in the city. A reliable Saturday afternoon.
A deep, crate-digger’s record store on Nicollet that has been moving used and rare vinyl since 1987. Knowledgeable staff, fair prices, and the kind of bins you lose an hour in. A Record Store Day fixture every April.
A record store tucked next to Jon Clifford’s leopard-print rock-and-roll hair salon on Hennepin. Get a cut and flip through vinyl in the same visit. Small, tightly chosen selection that leans rock, punk, and soul. One of the more genuinely Minneapolis rooms in the city.
A small, colorful vintage shop on West 38th Street with carefully curated clothing, purses, housewares, and one-of-a-kind finds from the 50s through the 90s. The owner has an eye, and the selection turns over fast enough to reward a regular drop-in.
The largest independent bookstore in the Upper Midwest, with a deep used-book program crowding the back half of the store. Strong staff picks, a steady calendar of author events, and one of the better magazine racks in the city. The default Saturday afternoon on Hennepin.
A mystery specialist since 1987, packed with new, reprinted, and used crime fiction from pulp paperbacks to signed first editions. The owners host a steady stream of crime-writer signings, and if you read the genre at all, the staff will out-recommend any algorithm. A basement-level den for people who like a body in chapter one.
A volunteer-run radical bookstore powered by a collective of 30-some people, leaning hard into leftist politics, organizing, and movement history. After more than a decade in Seward it moved back near where it started, just east of the Wedge. Come for the politics section, stay for the zines and the reading-group calendar.
A small Reformer-Pilates studio above Black Walnut Bakery in South Uptown. Megan Cairns founded it in 2015 and runs it tight: small classes on Peak PPS Reformers, a Cadillac, a Wunda Chair, and the kind of personal instruction the chains do not deliver. Private sessions and group classes both available.
The bowling alley side of Bryant-Lake Bowl, after the kitchen is technically closed but the bartender is still pouring. Sticky floor, working PBR taps, and the actual best small bowling experience in the metro. Bring quarters for the jukebox.
A tiny doughnut counter that punches well above its size. Brioche dough, careful glazes, and small-batch flavors that rotate weekly. The maple long johns are one of the best dollar-fifty things in the city.
Miguel Hernandez built a cult following for griddled L.A.-style breakfast burritos at the original Lito’s in Richfield, and the Lake Street outpost brings them to the heart of the city. Hand-sized, foil-wrapped, the right answer to almost any morning. The breakfast burrito is the whole point.
A 1910 domed chapel lined with ten million hand-cut tesserae of marble, gold, and silver, modeled on Hagia Sophia. Frequently called the finest Byzantine mosaic interior in the country, and it is on Hennepin Avenue.