Warning! You’re Not Minnesotan Until You’ve Put These 50 Things In Your Mouth
By Becky Lang
1. The Breakfast Old Fashioned at Eat Street Social. Or any of their breakfast cocktails.
2. Izzy’s ice cream in St. Paul. Do this over and over until you go up a pant size.
3. A Juicy Lucy. Try Matt’s Bar or Blue Door Pub.
4. Prairie Organic vodka for when you want to drink upscale-style. Try the cucumber vodka in a cocktail or bloody mary.
5. Icicles. They’re like a winter lollipop. Just don’t let them fall through your skull.
6. Arepas and basically anything on the menu at Hola Arepa.
7. Bacon at The Triple Rock. Also their insanely spicy bloody. You WILL get a buzz.
8. Daytripper Pale Ale by INDEED Brewing. Go straight to the taproom in Northeast for the full experience.
9. The Chart Topper peanut butter and Sriracha or bacon apple fritter donut at Glam Doll Donuts.
10. Dogwood Coffee, for when you wanna feel fancy.
11. Anything from the dairy building at the State Fair. Show those Wisconsinites we know dairy too.
12. Angie’s Popcorn. The caramel & cheddar mix will become a staple in your kitchen.
13. The Bigger, Better Burger Bloody Mary at Kent Hrbek’s Pub during a baseball game at Target Field.
14. Fat, fluffy pancakes at The Bad Waitress.
15. Grain Belt beer. Duh.
16. Chancing getting in a fight with college students to get Mesa Pizza at 3 a.m. in Dinkytown.
17. A tongue piercing at Saint Sabrina’s.
18. Wisconsin imports: Cheese curds and New Glarus beer. Cuz Wisconsin does some things best.
19. A Big Ginger cocktail with Two Gingers whiskey at The Local.
20. Lobster rolls at Smack Shack in the North Loop. Or the fried green tomato sandwich for those who don’t eat sea creatures.
21. Affordable and delicious Banh Mi sandwiches at Quang’s on Eat Street.
22. Sake from Moto-I, the first sake brewpub outside of Japan.
23. The steak at Café Lurcat in Loring Park for whenever you’re eating on the company dime.
24. Sweet Martha’s cookies and unlimited milk at The State Fair.
25. A karaoke tune at Nye’s Polonaise, Otter’s Saloon, The Moose, Vegas Lounge or any of Northeast’s wonderful karaoke establishments.
26. The Hello Rita at Hello Pizza in Edina or the Korean BBQ pizza at their sister restaurant, Pizzeria Lola.
27. Travaille for when you want an 18-course meal served by guys with beards who will make you lick your own hand to get an appetizer.
28. Anything at all while sneaking away for lunch at Sonora in the Midtown Global Market.
29. Yum Yum Bowls at World Street Kitchen in Uptown. Try the salted caramel ice cream too.
30. The Diamond Dog™ eating contest every fourth of July at First Avenue’s The Depot tavern.
31. The bloody mary bar at The Happy Gnome on weekends. Fancy olives FTW!
32. Summit EPA or any Summit beer really.
33. Fish & Chips at The Anchor in Northeast.
34. A mojito to go with gastropub wonderfood at Pat’s Tap in South Minneapolis. Make sure you play some skeeball.
35. Liftbridge Farm Girl Saison beer, straight out of Stillwater. Also try the shandy version of this beer at The Lowbrow in South Minneapolis. Try really hard not to order another.
36. Exquisite tiny sandwiches at Amsterdam in St. Paul. You may also find music in your mouth as you sing along with live bands.
37. The Seco de Pollo at Chimorazo in Northeast.
38. A lick from a butter head sculpture at the State Fair.
39. Drunken Banana French toast at Hazel’s in Northeast. Just make sure you arrive early. There’s always a wait.
40. The Wrangler at Pizza Lucé, which has both barbecue sauce and banana peppers. Hit up downtown’s location if you want a killer bloody mary bar on weekends.
41. Sociable Cider at their taproom in Northeast.
42. Bogart’s Doughnuts, if you can get your hands on them.
43. The best airport food you could hope for at Surdyk’s in the Minneapolis St. Paul airport. Cheese plate anyone?
44. Margaritas to block out the noise of people drunker than you at Barrio. But still good ones.
45. Pizza at Psycho Suzi’s Motor Lounge in Northeast.
46. Chinese food at Shuang Cheng in Dinkytown. Fun fact: Shuang Cheng means Twin Cities!
47. Cheap ass bloody marys and mimosas during weekend games at Stanley’s in Northeast.
48. Tater tots at Grumpy’s in the midst of the Zombie Pub Crawl.
49. The chicken fingers at Liquor Lyle’s, arguably the funnest place to drink in Minnesota.
50. Hot dish and bars, made by a Minnesota mom! Did you think we weren’t going to say that? Of course we did, dontchaknow?