Become a featured partner

A small number of restaurants, bars, venues, and shops are featured at the top of their category each month. It is the only paid surface on the site. Clearly labeled, editorially controlled, capped per category.

600+spots covered

990events tracked

22venues

4×refreshed daily

Independent and locally run, updated daily. Ask for current monthly traffic and newsletter numbers and we'll share the real figures.

How it works

Top placement in a single category list (Cocktail Bars, Pizza, Hidden Gems, etc.) for the partnership term.
A small "Featured" mark on the listing, with a tooltip linking back to this page. Readers always know what is paid and what is editorial.
The editorial copy stays ours. We write the description, the neighborhood note, and the "why" the way we would for any place we covered. You can suggest, you can correct facts; we hold the pen.
One featured slot per category per month. So the list never becomes a stack of ads.
We reserve the right to decline. Places that do not fit the editorial register — chain operators, dental practices, MLMs — get a polite no, even if the check would clear.
No promises about traffic, rankings, or outcomes. We can tell you what the page got last month. We will not pretend to know what your booking calendar will do.

What Featured looks like

FeaturedYour category here

Your Business Name

The editorial copy stays ours — written the way we would write about any place we cover. Your listing moves to the top of its category list, gets this treatment, and carries an honest "Featured" mark.

Rendered above with the exact styling a featured listing gets on its category page.

Pricing

Starts at $200 / month per featured category. Quarterly and seasonal packages available. We try to match the rate to the business — a neighborhood bakery and a downtown hotel are not the same conversation.

If you run a Twin Cities venue, restaurant, or shop and the rate works, we want to talk. If the rate doesn't, tell us what does — small operators we already cover get genuine consideration.

Homepage takeover

For a festival, venue anniversary, or one-off event: the homepage feature banner plus a dedicated landing page on the site, date-windowed to your run. $350–500 / week, one at a time, same editorial rules, clearly labeled "Paid partner placement." Ask about it in the same email.

Cannabis brands

Minnesota dispensaries are largely shut out of advertising on Google and Meta. bestofmpls is a brand-safe, local, opt-in audience already deciding where to go and spend. Licensed operators can take a featured listing, a spot in the dispensary guide, or a newsletter sponsorship.

Same rules as everyone else: the placement is clearly labeled, and the editorial picks stay ours.

What we do not do

Banner ads, display ads, third-party trackers, retargeting pixels.
Sponsored content that pretends to be editorial.
Paid reviews. We do not review places; we pick places we like.
Affiliate links that go anywhere except OpenTable / Resy for actual reservations.
Native ad networks, programmatic anything, or "content amplification."

To start

Email hello@bestofmpls.com with: which category, a few sentences about the business, what month you want to start, and any timing around your own seasonality (a patio in May; a soup-and-bourbon room in January). We will write back within a week.

bestofmpls.com is an independent, locally-owned editorial guide. The site exists because the metro deserves a recommendation surface that is not owned by a publishing conglomerate or a tourism board. Featured partnerships are how it stays that way.