A newcomers' guide to eating and drinking like a Minnesotan
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"Careful! The cheese can burn you," the server at Matt's warned as he served my Jucy Lucy. Photo: Kyle Stokes/Axios
If you are among the thousands of people who move to Minnesota each year: Welcome! Now, it's time to learn to eat like a Minnesotan.
We made a starter pack of food and drink places and experiences for Twin Cities newcomers to check out, picked with the help of Axios readers.
Why it matters: These recommendations can help spark deeper explorations of our region's vibrant — and award-winning — food scene.
Things you've gotta try (at least) once
If you're a newbie in town, here's a checklist of Twin Cities food and drink experiences to earn your bona fides as a Minnesotan.
1. 🍔 Smash a Jucy Lucy. A burger with molten cheese inside the patty is Minnesota's signature food innovation.
- Matt's Bar and 5-8 Club — the latter of which prefers the "Juicy Lucy" spelling — both stake a claim to creating the burger.
- Don't sleep on St. Paul's take, the Nookie, or the variants at Blue Door Pub or Groveland Tap.
2. 🥩 Dine at a supper club. These Upper Midwest staples are hard to define — laid-back, but still fancy; sometimes with lounge music; often serving dishes like steak, prime rib, popovers and walleye.
- In the metro, Axios readers recommend you start somewhere like J.D. Hoyt's, Crooners and Mancini's.
- Newer establishments like Creekside and Apostle offer fresh takes on the genre.
- Some would argue the purest supper club ambience is found outside the cities proper, so consider Jensen's in Eagan or Wiederholt's near Hastings.
3. ⛵️ Grab a bite by the water. There are Minneapolis park favorites like Painted Turtle, Bread & Pickle, and Bde Maka Ska's newish pavilion spot, Pimento.
- Head to Lake Minnetonka faves like Lord Fletcher's or Maynards to Charlie's on Prior Lake, or to Lakeville's Chart House.
4. 🌏 Hit up an international market. Grab a bite, shop various wares, maybe even buy fresh produce, and get outside your own cultural bubble.
- Check out HmongTown Marketplace, Hmong Village, Plaza Mexico, Karmel Mall, Asia Mall or Midtown Global Market.
5. 🥘 Bake yourself some hot dish and leave your "casserole" days behind.
- For an easy win, start with a classic recipe: tater tot hot dish.
- Our congressional delegation's annual hot-dish cookoff features more intricate recipes.
6. 🎟️ Try a new Minnesota State Fair food. Block off the dozen days before Labor Day and celebrate our state's favorite — and most off-the-wall — flavors.
7. 🫒 Down a Midwest Martini. Maybe it's just a State Fair thing, but certain Minnesotans will tell you the old-school move is to plop an olive, a pickle, or even simply a dash of salt into your light beer. (Preferably Michelob Golden.)
- We can't vouch for the drink being available just anywhere, but these watering holes fit the vibe: Palmer's, Bulls Horn, CC Club, The Spot, Spring Street Tavern.
For bonus points: 🇳🇴 Attend a lutefisk dinner. Don't ask us why, but it's a thing to gather in Lutheran church basements and eat dried cod soaked in lye. Mmmmmmmmmmm!
- P.S. Our Scandinavian forebears loved lots of foods — like meatballs, or lefse with butter and brown sugar — that were actually edible.
Start building your food map
There are too many award-winning chefs and life-changing restaurants in the Twin Cities for a single newsletter.
But we did make this list of places to help you get started.
Special splurges: "A newcomer looking for the best steak has to go to Murray's," writes reader Gregg P. "Nothing else compares."
- Also: Bûcheron, Baldamar, Owamni, W.A. Frost & Co.
Unique vibe: El Sazon slings tacos and Latin American comfort foods from a window inside an Eagan gas station, though they also recently opened their own standalone space.
Take it to go: "Hai Hai is my absolute favorite food spot in town," says Betsy B. — though we must stress the dine-in experience and cocktail menu are just as good as their takeout.
Vegetarian-friendly: Francis offers a vegan version of the Jucy Lucy, available with either an Impossible patty or as a bean burger.
- Also: Hard Times, Herbie Butcher's, J. Selby's, Reverie
Breakfast: "Hope Breakfast Bar and Colossal Cafe are big hits" with Austin O. and his wife.
- Also: Café Cerés, Fat Nat's, Hi-Lo Diner, Lito's Burritos
Coffee shops: Milkweed's ginger-twisted mocha, The Mississippi Queen, is one of my favorite specialty drinks.
Booze: Zane H. recommends the cocktails — and the hot dogs — at Meteor, a bar that was a James Beard Award semifinalist this year.
Brewery spaces: The rooftop patio at LynLake Brewery is Saskia V.'s favorite in town.
- Also: BlackStack, Forgotten Star, La Doña Cerveceria, Pryes, Wild Mind
Thanks to Axios readers Jerry B., Widnie D., Zane H., Ashley L., Josh R., Sharon H., and Don N., Joanne M. for some of the suggestions on this list.