Restaurants...

Ole Piper is good. A couple other places to try...

• Babe's Music Bar in downtown Lakeville - I haven't had anything there that hasn't been good, and they have the best ribs south of the river


• Bourbon Butcher in Farmington - their smoked brisket is excellent. You also can't go wrong with their smoked gouda mac & cheese

Can't really help you with the taco hole. About the only Mexican restaurant we frequent is Teresa's

Thanks… I’ll put those two on the list when we don’t have the kids with us.

La Pineda in Plymouth. Also isn't there a fantastic Mexican place in Richfield?

For where he lives it’s closer to go to Nachos but both are a drive from the south metro.

There is a group on FB called Twin Cities Taco Enthusiasts that Zwak turned me onto. That might be a spot to check for ideas

Andale Taqueria. 77th and Nicollet. Good stuff.

Have you tried El Parian? Its off of Glasgow down there. I went there once after softball and enjoyed it. There's one near me in Eagan but I've never been to that one. I've heard good things about Mi Pueblo a couple miles north of Ole Piper.

Seconded.

El Parian is good. Los Tacos in Rosemount is also good. It's right by the Cub.

Sounds good… I’ll check the out.

I'm sure these have been mentioned in the previous 9,444...

South metro establishments between Rosemount and Randolph where in my in-laws live...

1) Quarterback Club (Northfield): Good chicken, burgers and milkshakes.

2) Meric's Woodfire Oven (Hampton): Great woodfire pizzas.

3) Little Oscar's (Hampton): Good Breakfast.

4) King's (Miesville): Name the burger and most likely it's on the menu.

5) House of Coates (Coates): Good burgers and specials.

6) Farmington Steak House (Farmington): I use frequent it years ago, but now it's more in my backyard.

The new Revival location in Saint Louis Park finally opens tomorrow.

I get the Axios newsletter emailed to me everyday. Today there was this note about a new sports bar coming to downtown Mpls. There was no article to link to so here is the text of it.

Tom's Watch Bar — a sports bar concept from Smashburger chain co-founder Tom Ryan — is opening a new location in downtown Minneapolis.

Driving the news: Tom's Watch Bar has signed a lease for about 12,000 square feet at the corner of Hennepin Avenue and Sixth Street — the space once occupied by Rosa Mexicano and Prime 6 in the recently renovated City Center.

• The bar will open in early 2022.

Details: The staple of Tom's Watch Bar — whose sixth location opened this week in Denver — is one massive stadium screen surrounded by hundreds of smaller screens. The idea is you have a good view of the game no matter where you're sitting.

Flashback: Five years ago, Ryan told Nick that he wanted to open one of his sports bars — then called Tom's Urban — near Target Field and Target Center.

• Ryan, whose company is based in Denver, lives part-time in the Kenwood neighborhood with his Minnesota-born wife.

Between the lines: The loss of downtown office workers has caused many restaurants in the area to close because of current businesses leaving and uncertainty about the effect of remote work.

• But Ryan told Nick that his bar concept is less reliant on office workers, as most of its business comes from sports fans eating and drinking before and after games, as well as during televised sporting events.

He better hope that he can draw crowds from those who live downtown. If he thinks he's going to draw suburban folks into downtown, he's flushing his money down the toilet.

I suspect the game-night traffic from Target Center/Target Field/USBank Stadium will be good, but I definitely question whether that's enough to be able to pay downtown rent. Because anyone not already downtown isn't going to come in just to watch a game.

Not until that light rail from Hopkins is built, TBH. Then I'd consider it.

I can’t remember even before COVID the last time I was downtown. North Loop certainly but even when I go to a Twins game I don’t go east of Target Center

I think the last time for me was for a Twins game that got rained out. Got there, waited for an hour or so, game was announced as a rain-out, left. Didn't pre-game or anything.

This is only a block south of Target Center, so, definitely in distance from Target Field/Center, for sure.

My thoughts exactly. In a normal season there are 41 Wolves, 81 Twins and 18 Lynx home games for a total of 140 games which is about 38% of a calendar year. Pre/post game traffic might account for a total of 3 hours of business on each of those nights. That leaves a large part of those dates and the other 62% of the year to account for, Not sure how much business they would draw on concert/theater nights

"• But Ryan told Nick that his bar concept is less reliant on office workers, as most of its business comes from sports fans eating and drinking before and after games, as well as during televised sporting events."

This is the weird part. If your big crowd is serving people before and after games, then you don't need a movie screen and shit loads of other TVs because the game won't be playing while most of your customers are there. And I agree that you won't likely get people to drive in from the burbs to watch a game at a bar downtown.

That said, there has been a lot of people who have moved into all of those new condos/apartments so maybe they do have a customer base. It's a gamble.

I certainly wish them good luck, and the somewhat recent influx of residents downtown may help, but I get the feeling that the people moving downtown may not quite be the crowd this kind of bar attracts.

I'm sure the before/after game crowds will be fine, it's the rest of the year I question.

Tried Mi Pueblo (Rosemount) last night. I'll put it behind EL Azteca (Apple Valley) and ahead of Taco Chon (Burnsville). Though I would put Taco Bell ahead of Taco Chon. Next will have to be Los Tacos (Rosemount). Even my sister and bro-in-law who live in Apple Valley recommend that Los Tacos.

I would imagine they thought about that.

Went to breakfast at Keys Cafe this morning (my favorite breakfast place). Sounds like they make a lot more business now than pre Covid due to the addition of Door Dash orders. The kitchen gets slammed.

For a business that announced an impending closure twice….awesome to hear.

Lived downtown since Aug. of ‘94. And I always rated living downtown somewhere between a 7 to 10 depending on what was going on. Though after last Memorial Day m, I rate downtown as a 1 to 3, maybe a 4. So fortunate for me I got married and moved out to the southern suburbs. I really have no reason to go to downtown Minneapolis until things get better and I’ll leave it at that.

Haven’t been there downtime for any reason other than Twins game. Haven’t been to a bar or restaurant any really but there are some worth checking out.

It’s still super annoying that many Chipotle restaurants are online only. I hate ordering online because they make the worst burritos/bowls possible. I’m sure they’re short staffed, but at least let me come in and have them make the bowl in front of me.

Until Chipotle uses anti-biotics, I will not order from them. That is all I will say on the subject, due to board policies. I've said my piece.

You mean Chipotle should hand out antibiotics with their meals?

BBQ always drives a lot of opinions and emotion but I enjoy these types of articles simply because they are good for different options around town.

https://discoverthecities.com/best-bbq-minneapolis-st-paul-twin-cities/?fbclid=IwAR2EqDNQzYWMlL7AIMH5Q0QHoYv4El-6sdPWCbqiBclzGY-JIyz2WluwSlM

I have a friend who swears by Animales. We will have to check a few of these out

Animales has some hype behind it, I'm also curious.

Smokey's, East Bethel. Shhhh. I still swear by it.

I've heard good things about Buddy Boy BBQ in Minnetrista as well as Big Bore BBQ in Hanover, although obviously I can't personally vouch.

I don't like Chipotle, but the rest of my family does. I refuse to even pick up food from Chipotle for them because it takes 45+ minutes to get our order.

The last time I went, I ordered online. I went to a lobby full of people waiting for their orders. Nothing was on the "To Go" shelf. After waiting another 10-15 minutes past my pick up time I see there is another shelf behind the counter. But no employee would come to the counter to announce the name on the bags or to allow me to ask if my bag was back there. Another 5-10 minutes went by before anyone come out form the kitchen area to help... and they only came out because I walked behind the counter to try to read the name on the bags.

Even before COVID the line at this restaurant was 30 minute long- often extending outside. The cashier was always the rate limiting step. Yet somehow they never considered.....TWO cashiers to speed up the process! :crazy: So many times I walked away because the wait was too long.

I can't imagine how much business they loose due to poor service and resulting long wait times. They obviously have tons of people who like their food, but they can't get their heads out of their butts to complete the sales.

I’m not a huge fan either. Their food is nothing special and is very overpriced. A couple times during covid our work has ordered lunch from chipotle; I’ve notice they’ve severely skimped on the amount of food (in the salad/bowls anyway) Without anyone standing there watching them prepare, I suppose they can get away with it.

Chipotle is the Krispy Kreme of Mexican food.

Accurate post.

Discussed elsewhere - if you had to choose a final meal of 4 courses + 1 beverage. This was my first stab although I suspect if you asked me the same question next week I'd have a few different choices:

-A dozen oysters from Oceanaire, pass on the Groth sauvignon blanc for my choice below

-Kuay Teow Reua from Dusit in Bangkok

-The filet oscar from Capital Grille

-Dry Aged burger from Red Hook in Brooklyn

-Aberfeldy 20-year-old exceptional cask single malt

Hard to pass on a half-dozen double jalapenos from White Castle.

It’s been a long time since I’ve been to Minneapolis and and even longer time since I’ve driven down Washington through the warehouse district. I was pleasantly surprised this weekend to see so many restaurants in the area after hearing reports of the demise of the businesses.

We also went to the MPLS Farmers Market on Sat morning and I was happy to see it’s even better than it was Pre-COVID. We had breakfast burritos and coffee and listened to a band play some great music. But I could see coming later in the morning for street corn and the beer garden. It’s a great place to have breakfast or lunch and stroll around.

I was happy to get refreshed on Red Ron’s Garden Relish!

We went to Borough for dinner and there were a lot of people milling around. It was nice to see

Seconded.

As far as a four course....in general:

Garden Salad w/raspberry vinaigrette

Risotto.

22 oz porterhouse, med rare

Cheesecake (fluffy, not dense style, although I like both) with a raspberry drizzle

Drink: since we're wishing, Macallan 72.

I struggle with this because my favorite dishes don’t go well together. But this is my list.

“The salad” from tequilaberries (now closed)

My family recipe Thanksgiving stuffing

Pepper steak from the Double Musky in Girdwood, AK

Cheesecake from Tavola in NYC

Whiskey Old Fashioned (not Wisconsin style)

Here is your list of the new State Fair foods coming this year

https://www.mnstatefair.org/new-this-year/food/

We may have jumped the shark. Nothing on this list sounds great to me. It seems with each dish, the vendor adds some odd ingredient that screws it up. And with several of them they just go full on add more ingredients until it's so gross, people have to talk about it.

They put cotton candy on top of a fruit pie that is infused with vodka. People over the age of 7 don't eat cotton candy....because it's gross. Maybe this is meant for the Carnies.

The Esquites sounds awesome. During the summer you can get a version this at a stand in El Burrito Mercado's parking lot, they roast the corn and serve it on the cob. It is really good and grab A LOT of napkins!

Elote (Mexican street corn) is awesome. I have even made it at home. The Esquites looks like it corn that is swimming in mayo. I like Mayo, but :puke:

imho nothing wrong with the banh minn, bison bites, the tipsy pies, banana pudding, choriz on a stick, greek ravioli, kati roll, naughty biscuit, pizza lucy, tuna tacos and the paneer. I wouldn't eat most of it just because, but those look like normal fair food void of anything too outrageous.

Thanks....could not remember its name. It does look a little mayo heavy but I will still give it a try.

Yeah, this doesn't look more or less outrageous that any other year to me. Some look good, some look bad. I usually try one maybe two new things when I go (sharing with wife) and stick to my favorites. If enough people are raving about something I might try it.

I’m probably not going to the Fair because we will be in Utah for 2 weeks and just getting back near the end. There are a few things though here if we go that is absolutely try