We love traveling through the countryside to eat at Minnesota’s small town cafes, taverns, smoke houses, and pie palaces, if only to find out which of them serves the best sour cream raisin pie — a specialty of upper Midwest dairy country that is a balancing act of flaky crust, silky filling with the tang of sour cream and the compressed sweetness of raisins. In fact, pies of every kind are an expected treasure in the state’s cafes, even in taverns and truck stops. It’s also worth considering that Minnesota is rich with fish from Lake Superior — smoked, filleted and broiled, or fried; and wild rice dishes are a signature. Needless to say, the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul are a culinary siren song, highlights including colorful diners, cutting-edge donut shops, farm-to-table bistros, and artisan bakeries.
WITH THE EXCEPTION of the hot dog bun, there has never been an edible invention as useful as the ice cream cone. Eat it all and leave nothing behind...
On the western edge of Lake Superior, superlative natural ingredients reign supreme. Prolific orchards contribute ripe fruit for mouthwatering pies, and the pristine waters of the lake yield firm-fleshed...
If you have time for only one meal in Minneapolis or Duluth, we strongly urge you not to go to Hell’s Kitchen, which has a location in each city. It is...
We’ve never met a cooked potato we didn’t like. Baked with butter, salt-boiled, fire-roasted, puréed with cream, au gratin, dauphinois, frittered, and french fried—all are surefire transformations of the homely...
I doubt there is another restaurant like this anywhere in the Twin Cities  area," Grace Gibas says across an oilcloth-covered table in Carol's Calico Kitchen. "Carol serves the...
Pancakes make people happy. Arriving at the table in the form of short stacks or lofty towers, or fanned out like a haul of soft gold medallions, they are...
Before Ralph Nader, cars were fun. For generations of joyriders, a purring V-8 was a vehicle for play and pleasure. "Companion of carefree days" is how Chevy advertised itself...
As a matter of principle, we are committed to finding food with ample fat, from marbled steaks to chocolate cakes, but even we sometimes yearn for light fare. On...
Al's Breakfast, of Minneapolis, Minnesota, serves the best morning meal in town. Handsome half-moon omelets, creamy scrambled eggs, broad flapjacks made from buttermilk or whole-wheat batter, and crusty hashed...
Airport Food Food in airports is better than it used to be, but when we arrive by plane, we can't get out of the terminal fast enough. By rental car,...
Best Kringle in Wisconsin Only a few states have officially named a state pastry. Maine's is Whoopie Pie; Connecticut's is the snickerdoodle cookie; Texas has two: the sopaipilla and strudel....
Unique Regional Dishes After 40 years and 5 million miles spent on the road looking for America's best regional food, we've assembled a list of the quintessential, must-eat food in...
An awe-inspiring specialty of Midwest dairy country, sour cream raisin pie is a powerhouse that balances sweet custard and sour cream, flaky crust and silky filling, the concentrated intensity...
Not that there's anything wrong with a Jucy Lucy inside-out cheeseburger at Matt's Bar or a silver butterknife steak at Murray's, but when we think of Minneapolis, we think...
Why is brunch so wonderful? One, it almost always includes adult beverages. Two, it's far more bountiful than either breakfast or lunch. Three, there's no hurry to eat it:...
The term diner has come to mean almost any inexpensive cafe that serves breakfast. But true diners are an elite class of eatery. They are mid 20th century design...
For some passionate eaters, a great cafeteria can be a source of tremendous anxiety. How on earth can a person choose from among dozens and dozens of good-looking desserts,...
First, we apologize to the Stockholm Pie Company in Wisconsin, to Nick's Kitchen in Huntington, Indiana, to the Bang Bang Pie Shop in Chicago, and to Beardsley Cider Mill...
Every deli serves a roast beef sandwich, but a handful of U.S. restaurants make roast beef sandwiches that go beyond mere lunch meat on bread. The most memorable are...
One morning at the turn of the last century, Lemuel Benedict shuffled into New York's Waldorf Hotel looking for a dish to cure his hangover. He asked for poached...
Donut devotion as fervid as the commitment devotees have for barbecue. Everybody has a favorite kind. From robust cake sinkers to featherweight glazed, styles vary dramatically. In our experience,...
Every diner, town cafe, and truck stop sells a hot turkey sandwich. A precious few are memorable and as delicious as the best Thanksgiving leftovers. They include plenty of...
We Americans love our hamburgers, at home and on the road. From mischievous fried sliders to majestic beef pillows oozing juice over coals, burgers are a birthright coast to...
Huevos Rancheros, which means ranch-style eggs, once was an exotic dish that U.S. travelers found only in the southern border-state cafes. With the burgeoning popularity of Mexican food --...
Pancakes are especially appreciated by travelers in search of significant breakfast. While fair to middling ones are on the menu virtually everywhere, restaurants that serve four-star flapjacks are rare....
