All You Can Eat

1. Michelle Gayer
The slanted “Oh, you’re just a pastry chef” sling doesn’t bruise Michelle Gayer. This year she was called out to the James Beard Awards as one of the top five pastry chefs in the nation. And have you tasted the sandwiches at her Salty Tart bakery? And did you hear she wants to get an ice cream truck going? And wouldn’t you die to get her Surly chocolate cake with honey sour cream filling and fudgy frosting for your birthday? Just a pastry chef, indeed. saltytart.com

2. The Wienery
Most people think of this place as a dive. And it’s a hot dog joint, so it’s a dog dive. But it’s a family-owned dog dive. In addition to honestly topped dogs (chili, cheese, sauerkraut, oh my!), it has the most satisfying portable breakfast in the city: the #7 Cadillac, a choice of brat, Polish, etc. topped with cheese, egg, and bacon, all wrapped snugly in a pancake. Served all day, homies. wienery.com

3. Minnesota Farmers Union: Foodies + Farmers
Doug Peterson knew it was time to get off the farm and into the spotlight. Instrumental in bringing farmers and restaurants together, specifically at the Minnesota Cooks stage at the State Fair, Peterson is ensuring that the public knows who grows their supper—and creating a future where farm names are as common as celebrity chefs. minnesotacooks.net

4. Neighborhood Sausage
On an unassuming block in Northeast Minneapolis lies an unassuming grocery store with a superb sausage maker. Eric Larson runs the meat department at Sentyrz Supermarket and is responsible for nearly 50 varieties of sausage. He blends all the flavors himself, from traditional skin-on wieners to the pineapple-teriyaki brats. Sure bet: the extra fancy Polish sausage with garlic. twitter.com/sentyrz

5. Izzy’s Ice Cream
Ice cream has one covenant: Thou shall eradicate sorrow. But what if you drive all the way to the ice cream shop and it has run out of Umeshu chocolate? Oh the sadness. Izzy’s has taken sorrow eradication to the next level with flavorup.izzysicecream.com, where the ice cream availability grid is updated every three minutes, so thou shall never suffer a Peppermint Oreo loss again.

6. Nick and Eddie’s Hi-Fi
Doug Anderson has had a lifelong obsession with music, so when Craig Oxford of High Emotion Audio wanted to install his speaker system at Nick and Eddie, Anderson could hardly refuse. The 354 speakers certainly deliver, and more than one customer has asked to have the volume turned up. Way up. Next time you get the yen to feel the sweet soul of Curtis Mayfield or the sonic boom of Faith No More, you know where to go and whom to ask. nickandeddie.com

7. Bundt Pans Rule
The Bundt pan deserves special recognition in the canon of great culinary inventions. St. Louis Park–based Nordic Ware first rolled out the iconic pan in 1950, but it wasn’t until the Tunnel of Fudge (Bundt) Cake won second place in a 1966 Pillsbury Bake-Off that it hit pay dirt. Bundt pans are now in nearly 60 million kitchens across the country, so raise a glass on November 15, National Bundt Cake Day. nordicware.com

8. High-Octane Proof
Local moonshiners take note: 45th Parallel Vodka is handcrafting its small- batch vodka with corn from a single farm in Wisconsin while pain-stakingly working on gin and whiskey recipes. Prairie Organic Vodka, from the Phillips family, is likewise making liquid lightning with local products, earning a Double Gold medal at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition and the title of Best New Vodka from Food & Wine. These spirits may be the highest compliment to corn. 45thparallelspirits.com, prairievodka.com

9. Basement Beer
Spend five minutes with the four guys from Fulton Beer and you’ll feel like they’re your best buds. They’re “ordinary guys brewing extraordinary beer,” and their brew is complex enough for beer nerds but approachable enough for the American lager palate. In the truest craft beer tradition, they started brewing in a basement in Minneapolis’s Fulton neighborhood and now can’t keep their beer in stock. Look for their red beer, The Libertine, to be released soon. fultonbeer.com

10. Batter Bowl @ Two 12 Pottery 

There’s something so intuitive about this batter bowl. It sits perfectly in the palm of your hand, with a lovely cradle for your thumb, allowing maximum grasp as you go to town whipping that batter. The local potter is also a crepe master, so he knows from whence he whisks. two12pottery.com

11. Minnesota Landscape Arboretum
Way out west on 1,000 acres, mysteries are revealed. As a bright-eyed kid (inner or outer), you can learn to tap a tree and magically create maple syrup. You can discover where chocolate truly comes from. You can meander through the greenhouse and come face to face with a coffee plant, an orange tree, a vanilla shrub. Don’t even get us started on the chef-led cooking classes in the garden. Just make the drive. arboretum.umn.edu

12. Beer List @ Blue Nile
They speak a different language over at the Blue Nile lounge, and it’s not Ethiopian. No, they’re throwing out words like tripel, Ommegang, hopslam, and barleywine. They speak beer, be it Belgian, English, Australian, American, Norwegian, or even Kenyan. The injera’s just a buffer.
bluenilempls.com

13. Public Cookbook Collection
A worthy escape (from humidity/ blizzard, take your pick) is the cookery section of the Minneapolis Central Library, nestled in a quiet corner of the second floor by the government documents. One of the five largest collections in the country, it has everything from first-edition James Beard to Ginette Mathiot’s best-selling cookbook in France, I Know How to Cook. A zen macrobiotic cookbook? A new look at microwave cooking? They’re here too, as are many titles that were probably on your mom’s shelves. All. For. Free. hclib.org

14. Fork the Fire
Maybe we shouldn’t be measuring our crème brûlées against others in bigger food towns, as we are wont to do. Maybe we should recalibrate and measure by Fork the Fire, the grassroots gathering of more than 80 metro-wide restaurants pledging a day’s profits to the burned- out Blackbird/Heidi’s. That should silence the comparisons. We’re unmatched.

15. Andrew ZImmern
Our own Andrew Zimmern has traveled a singular road to national media sensation and is now the Cities’ culinary ambassador to the world. But he’s very much the same cook we met back at café un deux trois—telling it like it is and advocating for the chefs and ideas that better our food scene, all the while remaining fiercely loyal to the Twin Cities as his home base.

16. Worthy Birds
Some culinarians believe that the truest test of a chef’s skills is a simple roasted chicken. Starting with Kadejan chickens might deliver the winning advantage. These natural, Glenwood, Minnesota–raised birds are known to be plump, healthy, and superior in flavor. Formerly only found on menus at places like Heartland and Brasa, they’re now at many grocers, from Lakewinds to Cub. kadejan.com

17. Loring’s Artichoke Ramekin
This recipe belongs in the Hall of Fame. Rumors once flew about its origin (was it from the side of a Hellmann’s mayonnaise jar?), but this much is true: The recipe was once taped to the wall in the basement of the old Loring Cafe with the words “TOP SECRET” written above in thick black Sharpie. Yet no one knows who whipped up that first batch, so the locally legendary dip remains shrouded in mystery. One thing is for sure, though: It is ramekin-a-licious. loringpastabar.com

18. Piccolo
Did chef-owner Doug Flicker have a Jerry Maguire moment, waking up in the middle of a recession chanting “better food, smaller portions”? What kind of guts does it take to spit in the face of the burger trendsters and put out polished, focused, highly crafted, flavor-centered small plates? Big guts, smart guts, risk-taking guts of splendor. piccolompls.com

19. Tracy Singleton: Local Foods Poster Girl
It may be politically incorrect to say, but Tracy Singleton, poster girl for PC eating, is hot. A winsome, Sheryl Crow look-alike, Singleton has resurrected Seward School’s Peace Garden, co-sponsored screenings of Fresh to sell-out crowds, and organized Crop Mobs to help local growers plant and weed. Her tiny Birchwood Café slings great-tasting, sustainable, local fare that nurtures community and fuels change. birchwoodcafe.com

20. Market Madness
It may not be as tenured as the local Granpappy markets, and it may not be as flashy as Mill City, and there’s the inevitable confusion with the nearby Global Market, but Midtown Farmers Market has finally really come into its own. Head for the Real Bread booth, buy from Gardens of Eagan, or get a slice of Olive Pizza. What’s not to love? midtownfarmersmarket.org

21. A Cream Cheese Legacy
Leeann Chin came to this country as an immigrant, built a restaurant empire, managed to raise five kids, and gave us the cream cheese wonton along the way. Even if you hate it now, you most likely loved this uniquely regional fusion gift at one point, when the creamy inside covered by crispy wonton tasted like something an exotic grandma would make. leeannchin.com

22. Granny Class
In case you never had a granny, or yours was too busy trading bonds to teach you the lost arts of Scandinavian cooking, Ingebretsen’s is stepping up with lefse classes. Grab a ball of potato dough, sock up your rolling pin, and get down to your roots. You’ll be rewarded with a buttery, sugary memory. ingebretsens.com

23. Matt’s Bar
Maybe nothing more needs to be said of the Jucy Lucy before we engrave it on our state quarter. But whether or not Matt’s is the Lucy in your heart, you can’t deny the miracle of a corner dive bar that, while remaining unshticky and truly itself for more than 60 years, still manages to draw around-the-block lines, national media attention, and, most importantly, hipster cred. mattsbar.com

24. Lenny Russo
Visionary. There, we said it. Years ago, when Russo opened an ahead-of-its-time store called Blackberry Creek Market, he failed. He moved on to create Heartland, and succeeded. Now he’s taken his successful farm-to-table restaurant and blown it up, moving it to a bigger space closer to the St. Paul Farmers Market, adding an on-site butchery and an updated version of his original market. Crazy? Or crazy like a fox? heartlandrestaurant.com

25. Stardom for the Home Cook
One little recipe, one little winner, is the difference between anonymity and grocery aisle fame for the next home pickler. Since 1991, Gedney’s State Fair Pickles have been turning house fraus into gastronomic celebrities by selling jars of winners’ blue ribbon recipes adorned with their names and faces. Score one for the home cook. gedneypickle.com

26. Weekend Noodles
Stop by Grand Szechuan for its special menu of noodle dishes, and you’ll feel like you’re in Chengdu. The Cold Spicy Noodles, cut thick, cooked to order, and spiked with the best chili oil in the Midwest, might be the most delicious dish on the whole menu. grandszechuan.net

27. Booya: Our Stone Soup
What spring is to fish fries, fall is to booya. Not just a call to awesomeness, booya is a huge kettle of communal soup, usually cooked over an open fire, that legend says began in ’Sconnie (with Walloon Belgians). Now local VFWs, churches, and firehouses bring people together in the crisp fall air for some serious festing and fundraising. Try it for yourself at South St. Paul’s 28th annual booya championship in October. southstpaul.org

28. Scallion-Caper Cheese Curds @ Town Talk Diner
Yes, they’re popping up on appetizer lists all over town and seen atop fancy stacks of poutine. But outside of The Great Minnesota Get-Together, nobody but Town Talk Diner achieves nirvana: perfectly light crispness leading to the ultimate chewy, gooey inner peace. towntalkdiner.com

29. Food Freaks 2.0
Instead of rejecting the past, the next generation of food freaks seems to be embracing it with relish. If you’re into urban farming, home butchery, crafting beer in your basement, filming yourself making maple syrup, or throwing a progressive collective dinner in your backyard, you are one of them. Sites such as heavytable.com and theperennialplate.com are helping to cultivate and document the strong and growing community of future foodists.

30. Totino’s Pizza Rolls
They’re probably not part of a “wellness diet,” but you can’t deny the power of the pizza roll. Many a mother across this fine country has been faced with a pack of ravenous roving teens that can only be kept at bay with an ovenload of Totino’s. Stoners and teenagers rule! totinos.com

31. Murray’s Façade
Very little is left of the pre-1970 era of Twin Cities restaurants. Most of the legendary names are gone (Charlie’s, we miss you), and the ones that remain are quite evolved (see Forum). But Murray’s painted metal and neon façade is a comforting reminder of a time when a sizzling steak and a middling bottle of French red was all it took to impress anyone and everyone—when eating out was an event you got dressed up for, and a meal wasn’t over until the cigarette girl came by. Here’s lookin’ at you, kid. murraysrestaurant.com

32. 2010 East Hennepin Ave.
Rumored to be the site where Lester Borchardt and his crew invented Cheerios back in 1941, 2010 East remains a hotbed of food innovation. From this old brick building, BT McElrath took his leap into chocolatiering, Bramblewood Cottage baked early shortbreads, and Deco Catering, B&W Specialty Coffee, and She Royal Coffee are all currently working on their next big things.

33. Maverick’s Real Roast Beef
Dear Mr. Maverick’s Real Roast Beef,
What can we do to get you to open in the skyway? It can be any location—an old shoeshine place, a former taco shop, a hallway. All you need to do is bring your lusciously soft and perfect roast beef sandwiches, and we’ll bring the homage. We promise patience and weekly visits. Please help save us from depressing lunch.
Sincerely,
Downtown Minneapolis

34. Minnesota Porchetta
Porchetta may be hot and trendy right now, but it’s certainly not new: Long ago, when Italian immigrants from the Marche region settled on the Iron Range, they brought it with them. Traditionally, it was a suckling pig stuffed with fennel and garlic, tied and slow-roasted over a wood fire. Today’s version is a boneless pork shoulder rubbed and stuffed with herbs and seasoning and roasted to a crispy outside and juicy interior. Locally, Tino and Tomasso makes a tasty version—and even has a Facebook page.

35. David Shea
Curious to know what the next hot dining concept is going to be? Ask David Shea. Since 1978, his Shea, Inc., has been the go-to design firm for restaurateurs locally, nationally, and internationally. His more than 400 collaborations reach from the award-winning La Belle Vie to Big Bowl Express, from Pizza Luce to Sea Change. Chances are, if ambience is factoring into your enjoyable night, Shea and his team had a hand in designing it. shealink.com

36. U of M Apple Index
1888: Year that the apple breeding program began at the U of M
150: Number of varieties initially imported from Russia
5,000: Approximate number of seedlings started each year
0: Number of seedlings, other than Honeycrisp, that evolved from the 1960 batch
50-50: Chances that the apple gurus are working on something wicked tasty right now

37. Dairy Trifecta
Yeah, we know Wisconsin is technically the Dairy State, churning out millions of tonnage of creamy goodness a year, but we’ll happily accept our next-door-neighbor status if we can just keep old-school churned butter from Hope Creamery, the beautiful grassy cheese from Pastureland, and the snowy pureness of Cedar Summit cream in our midst.

38. HauteDish
A few restaurants in town are being helmed by the next generation of brave young chefs. What’s different about HauteDish is that chef Landon Schoenefeld not only cooks with care and imagination but does so with a level of sophistication and perspective that is lacking in his peer group. From his Duck in a Can homage to Montreal’s Martin Picard to his General Tso’s sweetbreads with foie fried rice, this young chef is someone to keep your eye on. haute-dish.com

39. Blake’s Brew Habit
Once upon a time, Blake Richardson began brewing beer at The Herkimer. Then he set his sights on sake at moto-i. Does craft-brewing have no limit to this mad scientist? Clearly not, since his next brew is an amped-up drink called Triple Caf, a neon (who-cares-what-flavor) energy drink on tap at the Herk, available soon in a growler. Giddyup. theherkimer.com

40. Ugly Is Good
If you can stomach the eelpout’s revolting looks and bizarre behavior, it’s a great tasting fish. This freshwater cod draws more than 10,000 merry-makers to Walker, Minnesota, in mid-February for the annual Eelpout Festival and ice fishing contest. But watch out: The eelpout is known to slither backward out of the ice hole and wrap its eel-like tail around the fisherman’s arm (and hot toddy). eelpoutfestival.com

41. Pho
In the changing landscape of local ethnicity, Vietnamese noodle soup has reached icon status: walleye, Juicy Lucys, and pho. What makes for a standout pho? The quality of meat and the variety of toppings are important, but it’s really about the broth. Pho 79’s stock is rich, clear, fragrant, hearty, piping hot, and probably the main reason for the Eat Street café’s enduring popularity. pho79mpls.com

42. Shopping at Shuang Hur Market
Longevity sweetened condensed milk, Vietnam; Bullhead barbecue sauce, Taiwan; Garlic flavored peanuts, China; Head-on roast duck, deli case; Rice cooking wine, China; Fried chicken batter mix, Thailand; Ginger candy, Indonesia; Superior pickle sauce, Shanghai; Clay soup pot; Malta Guinness energy drink, Ghana; Cuttlefish peanut crackers, Thailand; Green peas snack, Malaysia. 

43. Spread the Love
It’s time for a new paradigm, in which the sad square of flimsy cheeseburger cheese is banished to the plastic universe from whence it came. Enter Parkers Farm Cheddar Spread (or the Port Wine variety if you’re classy), which should be righteously spread on all expectant buns. Righteously. parkersfarm.com

44. Untapped Resource: Local Crayfish
They’re ugly, they’re invasive, they’re damaging our local ecosystem, and yet they’re so tasty. Why won’t the DNR license someone to harvest and sell the six different species of crayfish so we can eat the little bastards? Think of the crawdad boil we could have in support of our waters.

45. Diamond Crystal Salt
This is one thing from Cargill that most chefs can agree on. The coarse kosher salt has the perfect texture and a worthy flake, so it sticks well and enhances flavors. You can find the red boxes on the line in most metro restos. diamondcrystalsalt.com

46. Dueling Doyennes of Fresh, Local Foodstuff
Ann Yin and Laurie McCann Crowell have totally different styles, but they are one in their diehard commitment to local food products and producers. Yin, owner of the North Loop’s Local D’Lish, plays the friendly neighborhood grocer who sells Callister chickens, Snappy Dog salsa, and picked-that-day romaine. McCann Crowell’s Golden Fig on Grand Avenue, meanwhile, has a boutique-y, fine foods vibe à la Barefoot Contessa, stocking fresh Rustica breads, hand-pressed blended juices, and a goodly selection of farmstead cheeses and meats. Hands down, these two are the current experts in who’s making what locally. localdlish.com, goldenfig.com

47. Minnesota Fudge Cake
The recipe first appeared in the Central Presbyterian Church Cookbook circa 1830. Like a good church recipe, it gained a cultish loyalty with home cooks for being a rich, dense, and easily crafted layered beauty. Evolution is inevitable in the hands of each generation’s cooks, and Shirl Chouinard was a top finisher at last year’s State Fair with her Minnesota Dark Chocolate Cake recipe. Find the classic at mspmag.com/dining/recipes.

48. Shepherd’s Way Farms Cheese
When Steve and Jodi Read lost their barn and lamb nursery to arson, they didn’t turn in their paddles. Like true artisans, they got creative, launching a CSA to help support their business and raising money through grassroots efforts such as Slow Money. Along the way they still managed to put out some amazing sheep’s milk cheese, including Big Woods Blue, which has twice won top honors from the American Cheese Society. shepherdswayfarms.com

49. Wood from the ’Hood
Does your cutting board come with a zip code? It does if it’s a smooth and gorgeous maple board from the greenies at Wood from the Hood, who reclaim fallen and unwanted trees from all over the metro (they may be the only people in town who get excited by tornado warnings). woodfromthehood.com

50. Chefs Abroad
When it comes to chefs, we seem to welcome immigrators—the intrepid Andrew Zimmern, Vincent Francoual, and Russell Klein all migrated from other states (or countries). But what about our own wayfarers? The great Minnesota cooking diaspora might surprise you. These locally grown cooks have gone on to greatness elsewhere: David Guerwitz Sous-chef, Lark, Seattle; Larkin Young Chef de cuisine, Tilth, Seattle; Todd MacDonald Executive chef, Cru, New York City; Ty Hatfield Sous-chef, Momofuku, New York City; Becky Brooks Macris Pastry chef, Rose Water, New York City; Gavin Kaysen Chef de cuisine, Cafe Boulud, New York City; Brian Malarkey Top Chef finalist, owner of Searsucker, San Diego; Earl Hook Executive chef, Meriwether’s, Portland, Oregon

51. Pierogi Project
Jeff Lohaus is collecting funds so that he can erect a 17-foot-tall bronze statue of a pierogi on a fork in Nordeast. There are naysayers aplenty, but why not a pierogi? Is it any worse than those beloved giant muskie and walleye roadside monuments? He could engrave it with “I thought that I should never see, a thing as lovely as a piero-gi.” People thought the Eiffel Tower was ugly at first, too. lohaus.com
52. Streetza Pizza
The trucks are coming! Thanks to foodie-powered pressure (read: hungry folk), the Minneapolis City Council legalized mobile food trucks, which hit the streets in July. There will be sandwich trucks and taco trucks, but did you ever dare to dream of Nate Lane’s wood-fired pizza truck, fashioned from an old fire engine? thymetoentertain.com