For the first two weeks of September, Molly went on her almost-two-year-delayed honeymoon, and I got to travel to Minneapolis to house-and-cat-sit for two weeks. (So… basically pretend I live in MN for two weeks.) I suppose I was doing her a favor, but I just got a fun two week vacation, living in a house with AC in 60-70 degrees MN, exploring the city and of course, eating a lot of food. I took photos of everything I tried, and of course I needed to post the roundup. So, in no particular order, here’s everything I ate and drank during two weeks in Minneapolis:
Stalk and Spade
Vegan chicken sandwich, two kinds of fries (because it’s important to try both, and I wanted leftovers for breakfast), and a vegan peanut butter shake/concrete mixer situation. 10/10. Delicious, satisfying, easy to pickup and take home. Slightly expensive but also…. so much more affordable than any vegan fast food you can get in LA.
St. Paul Bagelry
I got the Isaac Hayes breakfast sandwich (Fresh Fried Egg, Provolone, Buttered Bagel, Bacon) on an everything bagel, and took it over to Lake Harriet to enjoy on a bench with my coffee. I then walked around the lake to digest and drink my coffee, and then went on a run the other direction. Delicious bagel, excellent morning. My daily step count was considerably higher than it ever is in LA, mainly because of how much I enjoy just walking around the lakes.
Jones Coffee
Simple, tasty, matcha latte. Fuel for the 5pm-3am night shift I was on.
Bogart’s Donuts
Please don’t judge me for getting three donuts… I wanted to try a bunch and didn’t realize how massive they are. I didn’t eat them all in one go. They were some of the best donuts I’ve had in a while – Nutella stuffed, cardamom cinnamon roll, but particularly the brown butter glazed one. A real stand out donut!! And I have had quite a few!!
Five Watt Coffee
This coffee may look unremarkable, but it was actually amazing. Five Watt had a very cool and fun menu that made my decision much harder than I thought it would be walking in. I got the Busy Beaver with “Maple Syrup, Blackstrap Bitters, Espresso, Milk, Cinnamon, Molasses, Black Pepper,” and it was deliciously seasoned and tasted like fall without being pumpkin-spiced. 10/10. I want to try the rest of their drinks too.
Hola Arepa
Holy cow!!! Molly has mentioned this place before, so I knew it would be good, but did not expect it to be this good!! I got the classic pork arepa, side of Yucca fries, and the side brussel sprouts. All amazing. Really game changing. I will definitely be looking for an arepa spot in LA. And I want to go back next time I’m in Minneapolis.
Dairy Queen
I wanted to pack in as much Midwestern stuff as I could while doing my fantasy trial run of moving back to the midwest. Dairy Queen of course had to be on the list, as the closest DQ to me in LA is a 50 minute drive. (Culver’s should be on the list too, but I like Culver’s best on road trips to Wisconsin.) I looked up the oldest DQ in the area to find one that was ~classic~ like this, and it happened to be less than 10 minutes from the Bell Museum. The Bell Museum was a very fun natural history museum that focused a lot on MN-specific natural history, and was really well done and organized. A surprising standout from the trip! And I enjoyed my Reese’s blizzard outside the old DQ. I find it very difficult to describe how sitting on a bench next to a road and parking lot in MN on a sunny day feels fun and nostalgic and safe… but if I did the same thing in LA I would be miserable. Why are even parking lots and suburban roads in Minneapolis better than in LA? These are the things I pondered over my blizzard. I didn’t find my answer but I did enjoy my dessert.
Cafe Ceres
Cafe Ceres is just a quick 10 minute walk from Molly’s house, which is really a dream. (Having a coffee shop/breakfast spot in walking distance of home I mean.) I thoroughly enjoy their spiced vanilla latte (both hot and iced), and I’ve had this breakfast sandwich twice now. Delicious every time. I really enjoy that some places in MN have become familiar to me, just from going every time I’ve been there. It’s comforting. And makes me want to move there more.
Sea Salt Eatery
This was a fun day! Minnehaha State Park was so much bigger than I thought! I ended up going on a 6 mile hike that easily could have turned into 10 and I feel like I wouldn’t have covered even half the trails. (I didn’t actually look up how many trails there were, but from glancing at the map, it looks like it went on for ages). I wanted to keep exploring, but had work in the evening and hadn’t totally planned for a 6+ mile hike. Anyways, I went on a beautiful wooded hike, and then came back to Sea Salt Eatery near where I’d parked and had a fried catfish po-boy. I had never had catfish or a po-boy before, and it was really delicious and satisfying. Paired with a beer, sunny outdoor seating, and a book. An excellent day.
Patisserie 46
I think the Geipels have a genetic thing where when we walk into a bakery, we cannot get just one item. I justified this by saying I needed to try multiple things to get a full idea of the place, but really I just couldn’t make up my mind. I got a brownie, carrot cake, and and almond croissant. All delicious, of course. (even a day or two old). The location was cute and I should have brought a book or something to enjoy while I was there!
Milk Jam Creamery
Milk Jam is another place I’ve now been to numerous times in MN, but it definitely has not gotten old. This time around I got the Milkjam (caramelized goat’s, cow’s and sweetened condensed milks) and Corn Roast flavors (tasted like cornbread). They paired excellent together, and I can always get behind a corn dessert!!
Asa Bakery
This was a very solid bagel, and it looked like they had some really nice bread options that I would have gotten had it not been just me to consume it. I also had a pretty funny Classic Midwest moment happen here. I was walking into the bakery and passed by a woman with a stroller finishing up out side and did the classic Midwestern smile-and-nod. I get my bagel, and drive over to Lake Nokomis near by. I then head over to a coffee shop nearby to complete my breakfast, and I walked by the woman again and she made a comment about us following each other around. I later saw her turn onto the same path I was walking of the lake. This is maybe a very unremarkable and boring story, but to me it was very refreshing because I sometimes forget strangers can be nice!
Anyways, if you’re sensing a theme to my trip, it’s that I often got coffee and walked around the different lakes. I went to four different lakes to do this.
Naughty Greek
Another place I’ve been pretty often in MN! Molly used to live about this location, and I wanted to do a walk-around/drive by to the U of M campus just because higher-higher education has unfortunately started seeming less and less off the table for me. I made it a quick trip, and then ended up back at Naughty Greek and going to a record store down the street. 
Bebe Zito
I don’t know why Molly took so long to introduce us to Bebe Zito because it may be my favorite ice cream shop. They had their fall flavors in rotation, and I simply could not resist. I have forgotten the name, but there was cinnamon in the ice cream and butterscotch sauce on top. It was brisk outside. I was in heaven.
Manny’s Tortas
I found this place after some snooping for a sandwich spot, and didn’t realize it was inside the Midtown Global Market. There’s probably a lot more places to scope out in there, but I was there for the tortas. This successfully made the trip back home, and I enjoyed it in Molly’s backyard with a book and a beer. Excellent sandwich, excellent vibes. I should also look for a tortas spot in LA, because this was amazing.
Isles Buns and Coffee
I don’t say this lightly when I say this was the best cinnamon roll of my life. I have high standards. But this was thick and fluffy and warm and had a fantastic frosting ratio, did not skimp on the cinnamon filling. Did I mention it was warm? Did I mention I (surprise-surprise) ate it next to a lake at 8 in the morning? I sat there watching a bunch of runners go by, and I started dreaming up an ideal hooky day in MN. It would start with a long run around the chain of lakes (6-7 miles), and then that run would be followed up by one of these bad boys. Then the day could really go anywhere, but that would be the start. (I say hooky day only because I think this plan would work best on a weekday, because the line was out the door of this place on this Sunday morning.)
Bandshell at Lake Harriett
You will never guess what I did.
I went on a run around Lake Harriet. Then I walked around it again and halfway through stopped at the bandshell for a sandwich and coffee. Slightly expensive, not crazy exciting or groundbreaking, but loved the vibes. Enjoyed my book. Enjoyed the view. Basked in the calmness, 
Sebastian Joe’s
I am randomly so obsessed with Sebastian Joe’s Pavarotti flavor. It’s “caramel, bananas, and vanilla ice cream with chocolate chips” and I usually don’t go for banana desserts but…. this one lives, as the youths say, rent free in my head. I paired it with salted caramel this time around but really it holds up on its own. That’s all I have to say on the matter.
Crisp & Green
I need to start an official collection of all the restaurants I’ve seen that follow the “____ & _____” format. They are almost always great. But it’s just becoming silly how many there are.
Crisp & Green is always excellent though. Another place we go almost every time we’re in Minneapolis. This time I got a smoothie for lunch and a salad to take home for dinner. I was sipping this smoothie on my stroll around Lake Bde Maka Ska and it started lightly drizzling. Anyone who saw me probably thought I was a bit crazy, sipping a cold smoothie on a rainy and cold day while walking and grinning at nothing. But I was just so excited it was raining!!!
