The World of Minneapolis

Wide-ranging flavours and good-time vibes make Minnesota’s largest city a delicious diversion.

That Minneapolis is home to Prince, Mary Tyler Moore and U.S. Governor Tim Walz should telegraph some salient points about the place. Wholesome comes to mind, with an edge. Also kind, smart and ready to party (like it’s 1999). The food-and-drink scene is equally noteworthy and diverse, due to the metropolis’s cultural mix. Based on a recent visit, here are some options.

Opened this summer, Vinai is chef Yia Vang’s ode to his folks and their roots. The Hmong are an indigenous people in Southeast Asia — about 300,000 live in the U.S, having fled post–Vietnam War persecution. “Hmong food is shared,” says Vang, “and is always made up of a rice, protein, vegetable and sauce.” The food is boldly flavoured, colourful and generous. A curry rice ball with blue crab and garlic cream cheese is a delightfully light first bite. Chunky cucumber melon salad is dressed in a jumpy sesame-ginger vinaigrette. Crabby fried rice, with crab fat and a fried duck egg, is rich and delicious. Dorade is double marinated — one side in green empress sauce, the other in red dragon sauce — then charred. Cocktails are a strength — a cardamom-and-cinnamon-scented “new fashioned” is velvety smooth — a nod, says the chef, to pho spices.

Diane’s Place offers another take on Hmong cuisine, built around the pastry skills of Le Cordon Bleu–trained owner Diane Moua. Opened in 2023, her breakfast-and-brunch spot attracts the morning grab-and-go crowd for pastries and coffee and the noon lingering-lunch crowd for cocktails, wine and dishes of substance. Moua grew up working on her parents’ farm, which she sources for ingredients. Her Hmong sausage with sticky rice and D’s Hot Sauce is deftly seasoned fine-ground pork, deep-fried for a crispy coating. Bean thread noodles are delicately pan-fried and garnished with vegetables and wood-ear mushrooms. The green-scallion Danish is a buttery garlic delight, sweet and savoury with just the right touch of fresh onion — divine all on its own.

At Hai Hai you’ll want to kick back at the bar for happy hour with some tiki-esque drinks and snack on salt-and-pepper tofu, coconut shrimp toast or wanton nachos while deciding whether to go for a full meal. Hai Hai is chef Christina Nguyen’s seven-year-old celebration of beachfront vibes, ’80s music and Asian flavours. She’s decidedly not dogmatic about just what the latter means. “I cook what I love to cook,” she says, her inspiration coming from her Vietnamese heritage and excursions in Southeast Asia, where exploring the street food has become her passion. She brings those vibrant flavours and lots of chili heat and citrus-and-herb zing to dishes that range far and wide, such as pork ribs tocino (Filipino style) and lemongrass chopped-clam “salad.” Her bánh xèo is street-food elevated. Diners are directed to dismantle a crispy crepe filled with pork belly and shrimp; stuff it, along with vegetables and herbs, into lettuce wraps; then slather it with nuoc cham and enjoy.

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↗ Mex not Tex

Jorge Guzmán opened Chilango earlier this year as a fun-and-frisky Mex Tex eatery. But the Yucatán-born chef quickly ditched the “Tex” from the concept, fully embracing chili-based slow-cooking techniques and deeply seasoned dishes that have won him a loyal clientele. Sikil p’ak is a Mayan-inspired take on hummus — a smoky pumpkin-seed dip zapped with epazote and chilis and served with chili-dusted pork rinds. Deeply flavoured cochinita pibil is slow-cooked adobo pork served with achiote barbecue sauce, black-bean purée and chiltomate (tomato-chili sauce). Staff properly describe and serve interesting mezcals from mainly small-batch spirits.

↗ Food decolonized

Owamni was named the James Beard Best New Restaurant in the U.S. for 2022. Sean Sherman, who is Oglala Lakota Sioux, declares on the menu that no wheat flour, dairy, cane sugar or black pepper will be served. Ingredients are sourced, when possible, from Indigenous producers. He also runs a food lab and consults with Indigenous people in other states on their food projects. Dishes are farm-to-table familiar — carrot tartare, corn chowder, wild rice — and “game,” a loose category that includes smoked trout, a bison taco and oysters. Seasoning and finesse were somewhat wanting on a recent visit, but the vision and intent is bang on.

↗ Cocktails

It’s all bespoke cocktails at Public Domain, where owner Stefan Van Voorst demonstrates excellent technique with his take on a Sidecar. His Southern Cross is an on-point blend of cognac, Cointreau and lemon spiked with aged rum.

The vegetation is verdant at Flora Room, a speakeasy-esque back-alley date joint behind sister restaurant Porzana, Buenos Aires–born chef Daniel del Prado’s steakhouse. Flora’s mantra is “exploration, whimsy and mild escapism,” aptly expressed in the Flor de Verano, made hefty with a base of Trakal, the Patagonian pear-and-crabapple spirit.

For pinball and 10-dollar drinks, bar Meteor deserves all the accolades it attracts. Stay till closing, when a local couple often pops in to hawk homemade tacos and enchiladas.

The Green Room attracts neighbourhood residents for open-mic jams and no-cover entertainment, as well as the smash burgers from Parlour, a local mini-chain. Drinks menus are contained in old CD cases — mine: coveted Kenny Loggins — and cocktails are served in cups recycled on the spot.

↗ Where to stay

The Elliot Park Hotel is a well-located, hygge-themed downtown boutique hotel, a short cab or mid-level walk to several essential places, including Prince’s favourite record store, The Electric Fetus; the iconic Mary Tyler Moore statue; and the Walker Art Center for modern art.

– By Dick Snyder