Cooler mornings, prairies buzzing with bugs, that first red leaf you pick out in the canopy. These are the signs that life is about to change, you’re about to be obsessed with pumpkin again, but: not yet. First we have to foil some ’90s with one more inner-tube bob, hit a pizza patio in the sun, and of course, get together greatly en masse. See you on the other side.
NEWS
\ By this time next week I will have sipped my way through all 65ish new bevvies and eaten alllll the official and bonus new foods at the State Fair. This, and the ridiculous amount of time and money I’ve spent at the GMGT over the last decade+, should mean that I have an enormous amount of tips and tricks to share with all y’all. Should I just text you?
\ I love this story that Dara wrote about Muddy Tiger, Fare Game, and the food truck culture in this town.
\ It feels like news to report that there’s now a turkey sandwich called Gigi at Marty’s Deli.
OPENS
+ Actually, maybe State Fair time is a good time to open! Daniel del Prado is launching Porzana and Flora Room, his Argentinian steakhouse, in the former Bachelor Farmer space this Sunday. They have opened up the space, from street to kitchen, and are fully using that sneaky alleyway patio that will be a hot commodity until the snow flies. Check out the Sneak Peek.
+ I missed that the new Ethiopian restaurant, Erte Ale, opened in Lowertown this spring. Owner Amy Abebe Tsegaye cooks traditional dishes such as doro wat chicken in berbere sauce and derek tibs beef in Ethiopian herbal butter, but maybe just grab some pals and order the Erte Ale Special platter that feeds 4-5 and comes with samples of many good things.
CHANGE
— Late last Friday, I talked to Ann Kim about saying goodbye to Sooki & Mimi, what it means to cook for your parents, and what she wants from the new restaurant she’s launching in the Uptown space.
COMING SOON
>> King Coil Spirits is just across the yard from sibling Lake Monster Brewing, and when they open next month there will be two cocktail bars and a full kitchen in the historic former mattress factory. There is also a serious Roman-style pizza game coming from the four-deck oven, and GREAT NEWS the pizza menu launches today at 3pm (order at Lake Monster). Those beauties are made with local Baker’s Field Flour and wowza that’s a good crust.
>> The new restaurants taking over the Hotel Ivy spaces formerly known at Monello and Constantine are, drumroll please: Breva will be a neighborhood bar and grill on the main level, serving approachable food and drinks; and Masa & Agave hopes to woo us downstairs for regionally-inspired Mexican food in a speakeasy-style cantina, with lots of agave spirits on hand. The hotel lobby bar is also set to be recast as a European all-day bar which just means day-drinking-with-a-hotel-above-you level of smart.
>> MOA has let us know that it’s all cakes and ladies these days. An outpost of Nothing Bundt Cake is opening soon, and there’s a Malibu Barbie Cafe pop-up coming for a few months this fall.
AGENDA
// Happy 2nd birthday to O’Shaughnessy Distilling! The terrific twofer is celebrating at the distillery tonight with tons of great music, $10 Old Fashioneds and whiskey root beer floats, but shockingly no bouncy house. Hmmm.
// Kramarczuk’s Kielbasa Fest is back at Utepils this year. Kick it Doctor Kielbasa-style tonight with a free meat raffle, then get back tomorrow for more folk bands, impossibly more sausage, and all the right beers to light your polka game on fire.
// The Renaissance Fest opens for the season this weekend, and everyone wants to know how that parking stich is going to go down. Get a pass or park and ride, me ladies. New this year they’ve got a daily Wine & Wits with Nick & Dill (a wine tasting with laughs, sign me up), and a few new eat & drink vendors like Mermosa Bar, Dragon’s Landing Tavern, Smoked BBQ, and Castle Creamery.
// It’s Corn Fest at Valley Fair for the next few weekends until Labor Day. “Mayor Shucks and the Corn Fest Committee are ready to show off all the a-maize-ing corn dishes and fun they’ve planned for you.” Ten points for Ravenclaw on that one. There’s live local bands, line dancing, two corn eating contests per day, and a-maize-ing corn dishes like rainbow elote, All-American corn ribs, and caramel corn funnel fries.
// OR you can hop it over to the 20th Annual Corn + Brat Feed at Northeast Farmers Market on Saturday for a level up. Local roasted sweet corn, Kramarczuk’s brats, a fundraiser for the community market, its like all the good things in one place!
// And find me still digging a parking lot party like the one this Saturday at bakehouse in SLP. Anyone who pulls up a smoker and promises pulled pork sammies, Sweet Science ice cream, and cookies of various sorts, is gonna see me.
// The Asian Street Food Night Market is back, this time at the Capitol. Head over on Saturday and Sunday when they’ll have food trucks, food tents, and tons of vendors selling all the good snacks. Plus look for the talent contest, lion dancers, and many things on a stick.
// This is the correct use of museum after hours access: Brewsology Beer Fest at the Science Museum is this Saturday. I mean, come on, you get to walk around with fellow bev nerds and sample more than 150 beers while you get unfettered access (read: NO KIDS) to cool science demos and exhibits.
// Tilia’s Augtoberfest is back on Sunday in Linden Hills after a too-long break since 2019. The legendary block party has awesome bands like Private Oates and The Shackletons, the food and drinks are always better than average, you can partake in a stein holding contest to kick off your stein holding season, and it’s fam friendly.
// It’s also Cedar-Riverside Open Streets on Sunday. So many good eats in that area: Dilla Ethiopian, Red Sea, The Wienery, the back open Acadia Grill, and of course you should grab a Hamm’s at Palmers.
// And not to freak you out, but the Home of the Honeycrisp opens for the season next Thursday.
// Just a heads up to go Celebrate Little Mekong next Sat., Aug. 26 along University Ave!