View Full Version : visiting Minneapolis...
I was wondering if anybody could recommend good places to eat/see in Minneapolis/St. Paul? I'm going there for a couple days in a few weeks to tour a college and am dying to finally see a vegan restaurant and the co-op grocery stores that you all talk about. Or any local vegan boutiques? As I said we'll only be there a few days but i need to pack them full of fun before I go back to middle of nowhere, North Dakota. Thanks for any and all info!
Cafe Brenda Vegetarian-friendly Upscale/Casual New American L, D $$
Chef Brenda Langton entices visitors to Minneapolis' Warehouse District with her very veg-friendly menu, emphasizing whole foods and organics. Don't miss the Organic Warm Mock Duck Salad--glazed ginger and garlic mock duck on a bed of mixed greens, Chinese noodles and veggies in a peanut lemongrass dressing.
300 First Ave. N., Minneapolis, MN 55401; 612) 342-9230; www.cafebrenda.com
St. Martin's Table Vegetarian Casual Eclectic/International L $$
Organic produce and hormone-free dairy products are transformed into simple, delicious fare by an all-volunteer staff affiliated with the Christian Community of St. Martin. Fresh baked goods, sandwiches and soups are the main draw, in addition to the cafe's relaxed, inviting ambience. If you go, leave a generous tip: All gratuities go to charity.
2001 Riverside Ave., Minneapolis, MN 55454; (612) 339-3920
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0820/is_2000_Jan/ai_58614434
http://twincities.citysearch.com/profile/11582528
http://www.happycow.net/north_america/usa/minnesota/minneapolis/
http://www.10best.com/Minneapolis/Restaurants/Vegetarian/
http://www.vegetarian-restaurants.net/usa/MinnMinnopolis.htm
http://www.twincitiesdiningguide.com/pages/vegetarian_cuisine_restaurants_twin_cities.asp
http://www.vegsource.com/travel/namerica/messages/8523.html
Triple Rock Social Club (629 Cedar Ave., http://www.triplerocksocialclub.com/) - After a major renovation that tripled its performance space, it is clear that Triple Rock Social Club is not just any old dive where your shoes stick to the floor. The crowd comes from the University of Minnesota and beyond. It still has all the things loyalists come back for - an old-fashioned jukebox, pinball machine, punk rock music, and junk food with a vegan twist. This is a punk rock palace with class and loyal customers. With a space addition that triples its size and allows live music, expect more of the same great place.
Pizza Luce (119 N. Fourth St. & 3200 Lyndale Ave. S., http://www.pizzaluce.com/) - Everyone needs a good pizza joint to visit in a new city. Pizza Luce would hardly be considered a "joint", but they do boast some damn fine pizza. If you like to pile it on, somewhere around 25-35 toppings and many cheeses are available here. Hoagies, salads, and pastas fill out the extensive, tasty menu. Vegetarian and vegan-friendly? Oh, yes, all the way from appetizers to desserts. Luce also keeps late hours (open until 3:30 am on the weekends) to accommodate the roving bar crowd and partiers who got stuck with chips and dip.
http://www.indie-music.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=4174
Heavenly Soles
615 W. Lake St., Minneapolis, MN 55408
(612) 822-2169
E-mail: shoes@ibm.net
Website: http://www.heavenlysoles.com/
Heavenly Soles offers shoes from Vegetarian Shoes.
http://www.vegguide.org/location/view.html?sort_order=ASC&page=5&order_by=Name&location_id=13
JasonSt
10-10-2005, 08:39 PM
Pizza Luce. They've got great vegan pizza and some vegan spaghetti.
Galactic Pizza. They make a vegan pizza with the vegan gourmet cheese. It's pretty good stuff.
Ecopolitan. This is a raw foods, all vegan, mostly organic restaurant, thus it's a bit pricy. My good friend Kristen is a server there.
Seward Cafe. A cooperative with great vegan breakfast. They close at 2pm daily, I think. On thursday, friday and saturday nights, Spokes Pizza runs out of there. They only deliver on bicycles!
The Bryant Lake bowl has some vegan stuff but mostly, that is just a cool place to drink beer and do some bowling, limited to the 21+ crowd.
PM me, if you'd like, when you are getting closer to the visit and I can give you directions around town and such. Have fun!
JasonSt
10-10-2005, 08:40 PM
Oh, I failed to mention that all those places are in Minneapolis. St. Paul is a crappy, non-vegan friendly town. Stay out of there, if possible. Which schools are you going to check out?
JasonSt
10-10-2005, 09:28 PM
Incidentally, I too will be visiting Minneapolis - for a couple days at the end of next week, and again at the beginning of December.
JasonSt
10-10-2005, 09:34 PM
Check this eating out in Minneapolis (http://www.veganrepresent.com/forums/showthread.php?t=64&highlight=minneapolis) thread out for more reviews of the above restaurants.
St. Paul is a crappy, non-vegan friendly town. Stay out of there, if possible.
lol, i think that's exactly where my college is. I want to visit St. Kates, but also the other schools like Macalaster and Hamline since they're in the consortium too. I really appreciate the info, i'm excited for my trip now!
Thank you all for the help! :daisy:
attackferret
10-12-2005, 10:34 PM
If you go by Macalester, there's a super yummy ethiopian restaurant a few blocks away. I can't remember the name, but they had a great veggie sampler. The name is in the little restaurant guide they have in the building with the cafeteria. Sorry that's so vague.. I've only been there once. Good luck!
JasonSt
10-13-2005, 09:44 AM
lol, i think that's exactly where my college is. I want to visit St. Kates, but also the other schools like Macalaster and Hamline since they're in the consortium too. I really appreciate the info, i'm excited for my trip now!
Thank you all for the help! :daisy:
I lived and worked in that area of St. Paul for about eight months. So long as you have transportation (i.e. a bicycle ;)) or friends with transportation (for giving you a ride on their handlebars or pegs), you'll be fine in STP.
The wierd thing about the twin cities is that there is the Springfield vs. Shelbyville relationship. Few of my Minneapolis friends wanted to come to St. Paul, and when they did, we would just go hang out in Minneapolis. The few times that I invited any of my STP coworkers to go with me to Minneapolis, they refused, saying they "don't go to Minneapolis."
Enjoy the excellent vegan fare!
JasonSt
10-13-2005, 09:45 AM
If you go by Macalester, there's a super yummy ethiopian restaurant a few blocks away. I can't remember the name, but they had a great veggie sampler. The name is in the little restaurant guide they have in the building with the cafeteria. Sorry that's so vague.. I've only been there once. Good luck!
Hmm, I've not been. I think that is the same place my friend Kristen has tried to get me to go to, but just didn't work out. Maybe I'll try it next week. :)
LegalVegan
10-13-2005, 10:17 AM
I was just in Minneapolis for my yearly inline skate marathon and vegan food fest. I highly recommend Pizza Luce if you've never been (and for those in MN, you have to go to Duluth sometime to visit the Luce there, which is an awesome new brunch menu that none of the Twin Cities locations have). This time around I went to two places that I'd never been to before, namely Galactic Pizza (good stuff!) and Evergreen Chinese Restaurant (excellent!). Both are omni restaurants that cater to vegetarians and vegans, as are most places in the twin cities.
Interestingly, I am also originally from North Dakota and went to the Twin Cities for college. I hope you'll consider the U of MN as an option. In my opinion, it's the best school for the buck, and probably the best school period, in the cities. On the plus side, it's grown considerably vegan friendly since I attended back in the mid nineties. I have friends who went to most of the smaller liberal arts colleges in the area and I am quite happy about my decision to be a Golden Gopher.
JasonSt
10-13-2005, 10:41 AM
I was just in Minneapolis for my yearly inline skate marathon and vegan food fest. I highly recommend Pizza Luce if you've never been (and for those in MN, you have to go to Duluth sometime to visit the Luce there, which is an awesome new brunch menu that none of the Twin Cities locations have).
I've been to the Duluth location. I bike up to Duluth and back (well, I guess I did when I lived in the twin cities) periodically. Last time, when I got there, the weather was so bad that I sat in the Duluth Pizza Luce bar and read two or three Charles Bukowski novels while drinking beer and eating vegan cheese toast. Good memories! :)
update:
I just got back from the cities and although my sister got really freaked out and refused to drive anywhere but to the motel, I thank you all for the suggestions that I will DEFINATELY utilize when i go to college there!
Are there a bunch of food co-ops within the cities? I visited the Mississippi Market co-op down on Randolph street in St. Paul and I was REALLY excited. (My first trip to a co-op ever; i'm used to going to supervalue due to the lack of anthing else in the area) It's $90 for a lifetime membership, how does this compare to other co-ops? I'm off to research the topic, just wanted to say thanks!!!
JasonSt
10-22-2005, 10:27 PM
Nice, I too just got back. I went to Pizza Luce Wednesday, Thursday and Firday nights for dinner (I had a different dish each time :)). I had lunch once at the raw foods restaurant and once at the Seward Cafe.
There are many coops, vegan lamb. Mississippi Market has two locations, there's the Seward Coop, The Wedge (the highest volume coop in the country) and many others. I'm not sure how one membership compares to the next.
So, you didn't get out at all?
bluedawg
10-22-2005, 10:32 PM
glad you had fun, vegan lamb!
as far as comparison shopping: the co-op i belong to is $200 for a "full share" (i.e., lifetime membership), but you can pay it off in $25 increments (per year) if you want.
i joined last year (right around the time i went vegan) for $25, and then this year when it came time to renew, i just said screw it and paid off the rest. it's not like i'm going to stop going there next year or anything. ;) but it's nice that they have such flexibility, if i had wanted to go that route.
So, you didn't get out at all?
nope. My sister freaked out on our way into town (we missed our first turn off and took 35 past Hamline University) so I stayed overnight at the college and they ventured to stay at a motel somewhere. I sooo wanted to see Pizza Luce, Ecopolitan, and others, but it'll have to be next time when I'M the damn driver. I'm still swooning though, i'm SO excited to step up next year and live life in a progressive city that embraces vegan culture and activism.
bluedawg[B] , i don't remember where you're from, are you a member of a twin cities coop? I was looking around and found memberships to range from 45 to 90 dollars, just wondering if i was missing a really good one.
[B]jasonst , you seem to be a really good rep for the area, so i was also wondering if they have a good parks system there... I read that it was a highly rated city for bicyclists, does that mean there are alot of trails and paths around the city? (i need to keep active next year to avoid the freshman 15 :confused: )
thanks for everythin'!
bluedawg
10-23-2005, 12:45 AM
bluedawg, i don't remember where you're from, are you a member of a twin cities coop? I was looking around and found memberships to range from 45 to 90 dollars, just wondering if i was missing a really good one.no, i'm sorry if that was confusing! i thought you were just asking about co-ops in general; that's why i chimed in. :) i'm from milwaukee.
bluedawg , how is the vegan scene in Milwaukee? I guess I was just wondering about coops in general but then became confused at the price difference. :P Thanks for chiming in, i'm such a dork, still excited whenever anybody replies to my thread. :silly:
OutsidersDream
10-23-2005, 02:16 PM
update:
Are there a bunch of food co-ops within the cities? I visited the Mississippi Market co-op down on Randolph street in St. Paul and I was REALLY excited. (My first trip to a co-op ever; i'm used to going to supervalue due to the lack of anthing else in the area) It's $90 for a lifetime membership, how does this compare to other co-ops? I'm off to research the topic, just wanted to say thanks!!!
Hey Vegan Lamb, I have a membership to the Mississippi Market from when I lived in the cities, but I live an hour and a half south near St. Peter now. The nice thing is that a lot of Co-ops will recognize your membership to other co-ops in some way. Now we often go to the St. Peter Co-op and they type in a code for the Mississippi Market for us. I'm sure this isn't a national thing, but it is something to keep in mind. Unfortunately, I don't know all the details or even if this code that they enter does anything but you should maybe inquire about that if you decide to join.
The two co-ops that I'm most familiar with are the Mississippi Market in St. Paul that you mentioned (my sister-in-law works there) and the Wedge which is on Lyndale Ave in uptown Mpls.
The nice thing is that a lot of Co-ops will recognize your membership to other co-ops in some way. Now we often go to the St. Peter Co-op and they type in a code for the Mississippi Market for us
awesome! Thanks for the info, i think i read something about this too i think... like the coops are supposed to cooperate with each other and i think the ones within the cities may do this too. How do you find Mississippi Market to compare with the ones you've visited? This is the only one i've seen and i'm almost vibrating off my seat with excitement to finally move to the cities and partake in the action; i think i'd go into cardiac arrest if i found one that was bigger or even more amazing! :D
thanks!
bluedawg
10-23-2005, 03:53 PM
bluedawg , how is the vegan scene in Milwaukee? I guess I was just wondering about coops in general but then became confused at the price difference. :P Thanks for chiming in, i'm such a dork, still excited whenever anybody replies to my thread. :silly:you're not a dork; i get excited about stuff like that too. ;)
the vegan scene in milwaukee is, hmmm. well, it's not as good as austin (where i lived before i moved back here), but it's entirely doable. there aren't many veg-only restaurants here, but there are plenty of places that are veg-friendly. i live on the east side, which is kind of the student/hipster side of town, so i'm right in the midst of all the good grocery stores, markets, and restaurants. i luck out in that regard. i'm 2 minutes from my main co-op and 5-10 minutes from two others. within a year there will also be a giant whole foods here, about 5-10 minutes away from me. all in all i'd say it's pretty easy to be vegan here, even though it's the heart of cheese & ice cream country. ;)
OutsidersDream
10-23-2005, 04:08 PM
How do you find Mississippi Market to compare with the ones you've visited?
thanks!
The Mississippi market on Selby is the one I've frequented the most in the cities when I was living in St. Paul and now when i visit my bro/sis-in-laws. I'm plenty pleased with it. I like the Wedge quite a lot too. Both are bigger than the one here in St. Peter, but I'm plenty happy with my local one too.
Aside from the cost of a membership, I'd maybe just find out which one is closest to you and that fits you the best. The Wedge is probably the biggest, as JasonST pointed out, it's supposedly the highest volume co-op in the country. I'm not familiar with the Seward Coop so JasonST will need to chime in about that.
I don't think you can really go wrong with either one. I've yet to find a co-op I didn't like!
hey all, i'm finally gonna get to spend some time in the cities this next weekend! I'm really excited about being able to order vegan fare with ease, but I really don't want to sound like a stupid tourist so i'm wondering how to pronounce some of these places, like:
Is the Seward Co-op prounouced Sooward or Seeward?
And is Pizza Luce prounounced LooChay?
Thanks! (please don't laugh at me :P)
Has anybody visited the "Fast and the Furless" vegan boutique in Saint Paul? I'm planning on emptying my entire bank account there- vegan shoes!!
just asking for opinions :)
coldbringer
02-14-2006, 03:57 PM
Has anybody visited the "Fast and the Furless" vegan boutique in Saint Paul? I'm planning on emptying my entire bank account there- vegan shoes!!
just asking for opinions :)
I have been there a few times and have only picked up a book. They are small so I understand the limited money and shelf space as far as inventory goes, but I was a little disappointed.
They appeared to have a large stock of cosmetics though if you are into that sort of thing and the shoe selection was not bad but i would check out Heavenly Soles near Lake and Lyndale in Mpls.
Oh and its Soo-ward and Loo-chay. Oh and in uptown there is also Galactic Pizza and Ecopolitan, both on Lyndale.
At Seward I recomend the biscuits and grave and the red earth for breakfast. Not all that far away is the Hardtimes cafe and Triple Rock (I think they serve food for all ages or at least 18+ from 4 to 6 or 7 but you might wanna check a head.
I finally went to the cities!!! Amtrak was ten hours late so i missed out on a lot of sightseeing, but still managed to make it to a few coops, pizza luce, and fast and the furless! As i'd heard, fast the the furless is rather expensive which i kinda expected since the guy's just starting up, but jon was so nice and so helpful, I ended up with a cool checkbook holder and wallet. Can't say as i get overly excited about makeup, but it was fun to browse through everything. Plus, pizza luce was AWESOME!! Had a pizza with rinotta and artichoke hearts, absolutely to die for! So thanks to you all for your help and pointers, i can't wait to go back and see more places; jasonst tells me that ecopolitan is worth the trip. :)
Oh and its Soo-ward and Loo-chay. Oh and in uptown there is also Galactic Pizza and Ecopolitan, both on Lyndale.
At Seward I recomend the biscuits and grave and the red earth for breakfast. Not all that far away is the Hardtimes cafe and Triple Rock (I think they serve food for all ages or at least 18+ from 4 to 6 or 7 but you might wanna check a head.
Hey, i noticed you edited your post to include my questions, thanks a bunch! When i thought i was getting to the cities at seven a.m. before the ten hour delay i was actually planning to visit the seward for a yummo vegan breakfast, but i guess that'll be next time. :( I'll have to put hardtimes and tirple rock on my list, thanks!
coldbringer
02-15-2006, 12:48 AM
Sounds like you had my favorite pizza at Luce.
As far as co-ops go there is the group of paid membership ones(mississipi market, the wedge etc) and there are two voulenteer co-ops (North country in Minneapolis and Raymond park in St Paul) where you pick up some shifts doing something in the store and get a discount based on the hours you put in. When I had more time I did this it was nice and the discount was great.
vBulletin® v3.8.3, Copyright ©2000-2010, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.