2025—what a year! Scads of new everything—new restaurants, new trends, new people, and new projects launched by old friends. Only problem: If you weren’t glued to the news cycle while haunting all the far corners of the internet and also all the brick-and-mortar pockets of our fair cities, you might not have a handle on what a year full of big changes 2025 really was. Fear not: We’ve got you! The best new restaurants of 2025, the best new pizzas, the best full-town transformations—they’re all here.
But first: A quick word on methodology. Just as there are fiscal and academic years and the NBA, NFL, and NHL have seasons that leap over New Year’s Eve, we, too, have put together our own calendar so that we can provide useful critical insight while also getting everything to the printer and to your coffee table in time. That’s why our 2025 Best New Restaurants list celebrates spots that opened anytime between September 2024 and September 2025. Those dates made sense because we try to give new restaurants six weeks of being open before we judge them, and this issue went to the printer in late October. (One caveat is pop-ups—though a few technically began slightly before our dates, we homed in on those that really “popped” this year and shaped the culinary conversation.)
What about restaurants opening in the last months of this year? Not to worry: They’ll be eligible for next year’s 2026 Best New Restaurants. What about the restaurants open longer than a year? Our MSP 50 Best Restaurants issue, which comes out in March 2026, is stronger than ever. We’re already working on naming the list of the metro’s best restaurants, period. To make life even fairer, we’ve decided that going forward, restaurants won’t be eligible for the MSP 50 Best Restaurants list until they age out of their first, brand-new year.
This fresh approach, we think, gives us a fun new way to look at our vibrant metropolitan area and a restaurant scene that’s made up of a class of buzzy draft picks as well as big stars, those bankable point guards or goalies. Consider this your yearbook: your who’s who and what’s what of the notable new. Now it’s up to you to go forth and taste for yourself and discover why 2025 really was the most surprising, clever, ingenious, sandwich-y, noodle-packed, cocktail-creative, pop-up-popping, pizza-perfect, terrific year ever.
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Pie in the Sky Pizza
If there’s one restaurant that has best captured the vibe of 2025’s new restaurants—fun, irreverent, never self-serious—it’s Mothership Pizza Paradise, the 50th & France pizzeria from chef Tommy Begnaud and the crew behind Mr. Paul’s Supper Club. Step inside, and you’ll feel like you’re being time-warped simultaneously back to the 1970s and forward to the 2070s—it’s half vintage (those glossy red barstools, an Elvis poster hovering above the corner booth, retro pendant lights), half ineffably futuristic. This is a fun future, to be clear, one with Aperol pink lemonade slushies and mozzarella sticks. The menu is built for unabashed pleasure: garlic knots dipped in hot honey, arancini served in the creamiest fontina fondue, funky cocktails with appropriate oomph, pizzas and pastas that hit all the right notes without any ounce of pretension. All the pies are named for the owners’ and staff’s mothers, so you’ll have to duke it out with your dining companions for the Karen (salumi with chèvre and leeks), the Patsy (white sauce with prosciutto and arugula), or the Brenda (all the meats with jalapeño and basil), etc. Other pizza notables we loved this year: the return of Moonflower Pizza, The French Hen’s nocturnal pizza pop-up on Selby Avenue, where you should start with the antipasti and follow with the oyster mushroom and pickled okra–studded Cajun Moon, and the Neapolitan pies at chef David Fhima’s new Excelsior outfit, Vagabondo. 5057 France Ave. S., Mpls.; 518 Selby Ave., St. Paul; 205 Water St., Excelsior —Justine Jones
Notable Noodles
What a year for noodles! In March of ’25, Cafe Yoto opened on the core Washington Avenue drag in Minneapolis’s North Loop. It’s the sister-in-spirit to haute Japanese Kado no Mise, but it offers everyday prices and lush Japanese noodles—don’t miss the kinoko udon, with earthy Japanese mushrooms, perfect for winter. In November of ’24, Jade Dynasty opened a giant, splashy, super-affordable spot on the corner of Lake and Lyndale as a collaboration between the last owner of Minneapolis’s dear departed legend Nankin and the longtime Hong Kong Noodles owner. The different wonton soups have been among the run-away hits—use your spoon to catch the pretty wontons, then delight in each floaty, tender, flippy butterfly of gossamer delicacy. In February of ’25, Travail reopened ie by Travail on Cedar Avenue near Lake Nokomis, and if you need comfort in your life, get yourself an order of the spiral swirls of the pasta called trottole, made creamy in the Roman style of cacio e pepe. The hand-pulled noodle spot Meet Up Noodle opened in August of ’25 on Eat Street across from Black Forest Inn with the bounciest, springiest Lanzhou beef noodle soup this town has ever seen. You get to pick your noodle: thick, extra-thick, thin, extra-thin, short and hand-shaved, or lots more options. When you do, lean over the bowl, slurp, slurp some more, and then ask yourself: “Is 2025 the year we start calling our metro area Noodleopolis?” —Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl
Food Halls
What were the Twin Cities’ first food halls? It’s a fun debate. Was it farmers’ markets, the Dayton’s Marketplace, Midtown Global Market, or just mall food courts? Whichever you pick, you can’t debate the outsize role that food halls played in 2025 food culture, acting as some of our most significant food business incubators and bringing many of our most exciting flavors.
The big news of the year was the avant-garde restaurant group Travail taking over North Loop’s Graze Food Hall, close to Target Field’s east end in the Cuzzy’s-to-Fulton part of town. Travail took Graze over in November of ’24, and different food stalls rolled out as the year progressed. Tixtli, February of ’25, is a can’t-miss. It’s the little sister to James Beard–nominated Oro, featuring the extravagantly bold, layered, and swoony flavors of chef Gustavo Romero at extravagantly reasonable prices. Don’t miss the great chef’s version of quesabirria or his squash tacos with cashew; both are profoundly flavorful and go awfully nice with the eye-popping skyline view on the patio. Caja Fried Chicken, also open in February of ’25 at Graze, is another ringer, and it’s by Alex Roberts, James Beard Award–winning chef of Alma and Brasa. Roberts brought big dad energy to the project, seemingly asking, “What would be healthy and delicious for 20-somethings drinking in the North Loop?” Answer: Incredibly real and tasty chicken fingers (for $3!), rib-sticking red beans and rice with beef sausage, and a five-star-restaurant-worthy toffee banana pudding (for $4.75!). Umami by Travail opened in Graze as well in January of ’25, bringing the loved pop-up back with egg rolls, fried rice, and pot stickers.
Meanwhile, The Market at Malcolm Yards—the hopping-est spot in Minneapolis’s Prospect Park neighborhood for work lunches, family dinners, birthday parties, and everything in between—made some major culinary moves this year. First things first, Kinsley’s Smokehouse Deli has upended the local sandwich scene with a towering, three-inch Reuben of epic proportions: Chef James Adams brines his brisket for seven days, smokes it over hickory and applewood, and slices it thin, East Coast–style, serving it alongside matzo ball soup, grilled wedge salads, and handmade cannoli. Chef Flip Koumalasy debuted his eponymous Eggflip/Sushiflip concepts (Korean egg sandwiches on airy milk toast; poke bowls and sushi rolls, respectively), plus the super-crispy, super-saucy Chick’n Flip (the latter a limited-time pop-up, so don’t dally). Last but not least are chefs Peter Bian and Linda Cao’s Saturday Dumpling Co., where you’ll find the duo’s über-popular scallion pancake wraps and dumpling poppers (a new hit—go for the crab rangoon), and chef Sameh Wadi’s classic World Street Kitchen, dishing up Yum Yum Rice Bowls and Bangkok Burritos at its new food hall outpost.
Minneapolis’s last big food hall news of 2025 was all at Eat Street Crossing, which changed hands and saw almost entirely new vendors. Go with friends, split one of the great $25-a-bottle wine picks, and try spectacular guacamole and birria from fine-dining-at-the-gas-station-famous El Sazon, which opened in March of ’25. House of Hue opened in October of ’24 as Minnesota’s first bun bo Hue specialist. (Bun bo Hue is, like pho, another core and key Vietnamese soup. It features a much richer broth and is just as delicious.) House of Hue also offers a sort of Vietnamese French dip, where you get a banh mi and a little cup of broth to dip the sandwich in—spectacular. Hikari Hand Roll by veteran sushi chef Jason Yeung opened in March of ’25, offering shockingly high-quality sushi for a place that never has a wait.
While 2025 was big in food halls in the core Cities, one of the most interesting bits of food hall news came from Apple Valley, where esteemed chef Thomas Boehmer, who co-founded Corner Table, In Bloom, and Revival, took over as culinary director of The Wondrous Collective, including its Revolve Hall. In July of ’25, Boehmer and Wondrous opened The Wanderer, inside Revolve, with lively, modern takes on tostones, Vietnamese crepes, and more, and gave a little glow-up to the existing restaurants at Revolve. (Folks suffering Revival-fried-chicken withdrawal should consider the latest Curiouser chicken sandwich, at Revolve.) Sure, you could quibble about whether Revolve is really a food hall or a single restaurant carved into different uses for different times of day, but quibbling about what is and isn’t a food hall has been part of the food hall experience since the jump.
The one thing you can’t argue about is whether food halls were a huge part of the energy in Twin Cities food life in 2025—they’re nothing short of thrumming dynamos of energy. —D.M.G. and J.J.
Dara’s Best New Restaurant of the Year: Small Hours
Small Hours is not just a restaurant; it’s my pick for the best of our new class of just-born restaurants because co-owners Sam Cassidy and Sarina Garibović have pulled off something like cold fusion, inventing a whole new model for restaurant economics, marvelous in its innovative simplicity, important to share from coast to coast. What a surprising journey for us all! Read More
Justine’s Best New Restaurant of the Year: Zao Bakery and Café
There’s no new restaurant that I loved more this year than Zao Bakery and Café, which opened on St. Paul’s University Avenue in late 2024. Co-owner William Ratsamy’s parents have spent many years in the food business—they opened the grocery store 88 Oriental Foods, also in Frogtown, in the early 2000s, and Basil Cafe (which Ratsamy’s sister now runs) in 2019. When the space next door to Basil went on the market, the family jumped at the opportunity and renovated it into a modern yet exquisitely homey café, all honeyed wood and sunlit tables with the kind of 20-foot triple-decker pastry case that dreams are made of. Read More
Family Restaurants on the Rise
Some of the restaurants we loved most this year were family affairs.
Khue’s Kitchen: Of all the Twin Cities restaurant legacies to be born into, beloved Vietnamese icon Quang, where chef Eric Pham grew up bussing bowls of bun bo Hue, has to be among the most titanic. Pham’s new pop-up-turned-restaurant, which opened in March of ’25, is named for his mother, Khue (pronounced “kway”) Pham, Quang’s leading chef. At first, Khue didn’t support her son’s dream to become a chef—having spent her whole life in the restaurant industry, her message was: Go to college; become a doctor, a lawyer, etc. They didn’t speak for a year, but eventually, with sticky jicama ribs, roast pork fried rice, and Thai tea tres leches on the table, she came around. Now a new branch of the Quang legacy blooms on Raymond Avenue in St. Paul’s MidCity Kitchen space. 693 Raymond Ave., St. Paul
Papá Chuy’s: This year, a three-generation pastry story unfolded on Lyndale Avenue at Papá Chuy’s, the Mexican bakery and café that opened in the former Vegan East space in February ’25. Jesus Alcocer Sr., who whips up sugar-crusted conchas and decadent chocoflans alongside his wife, Blanca Marquillo, grew up working alongside his father in the panaderías of Querétaro and Mexico City, which seeded his dream of one day opening his own bakery. While the duo helms the kitchen, their daughters run the shop, serving breakfast burritos, sweet empanadas, and chocolate-twisted brocas to neighbors who post up on the porch for breakfast. 2409 Lyndale Ave. S., Mpls.
D’s Banh Mi: Who is D, you may ask? In fact, there are three: Dylan, Dyon, and Dustin, the three sons of Hilda Tov. In August of ’25, the family transformed the old Dave’s Popcorn stand at 38th Street and Longfellow Avenue into a banh mi hot spot, doling out cold cut–loaded, pâté-smeared sammies to firefighters on lunch break; Bancroft and Corcoran neighbors walking their dogs; and families swooping in for weeknight takeout. Even better, D’s is very friendly to gluten-free, vegan, and vegetarian folks, with noodle bowls and mock duck and curry tofu banh mi options. 1848 E. 38th St., Mpls.
Popping Pop-Ups
Our pop-up of the year is Jook Sing, which, with its modern Chinese American menu of char siu ribs, ginger amberjack crudo, milk tea panna cotta, and much more, was one of the most dynamic players in the entire Twin Cities restaurant scene in 2025. Jook sing is a Cantonese term for a person of Chinese descent who was raised in Western culture—it translates roughly to “bamboo,” reflecting the way that water, when poured in one end of a bamboo stalk, stays suspended in its compartments, just as Chinese American identity is suspended between two cultures. It’s a slang term, sometimes used pejoratively, but chefs Mike Yuen (who was raised on the South Side of Chicago, where he and his siblings were the only Asian kids in the neighborhood) and Tony Gao (who grew up doing his homework in a booth at Robbinsdale’s Canton Garden, which his parents owned) would tell you that they chose the name because it represents resilience, adaptability, and the power to forge one’s own identity while honoring one’s roots. The duo’s residency at Bar Brava on Washington Avenue wrapped up in mid-November, so we hope you were able to slip in a for a glass of pét-nat and a plate of herbed mussels steamed in Shaoxing wine or New York strip málà tartare served with crispy prawn chips. But stay tuned, because Jook Sing is on the hunt for a permanent space; there’s much more to come. jooksingmn.com —J.J.
Even More Pop-Ups
Pop and Son Grill: Father-son duo Roscoe Woulard and Kirk Munson took up residence this year in Cheers Pub on the East Side of St. Paul. Their exceptionally crispy catfish is their calling card, but it’s complemented by a whole menu of bar bites, plus weekly “Soul Food Sunday” menus (like oxtail over jerk pasta, stuffed turkey legs under dirty rice, etc.).
Sushi by Baaska: Baaska Tegshbileg’s “homakase” hustle bloomed into a series of fully fledged restaurant pop-ups this year, where we found some of the most pristine nigiri in the metro: rosy bluefin crowned with caviar, buttery yellowtail, uni wrapped in a neat band of nori, and the like.
Sandwich Club: Marcus and Kelsey Brandt’s Northside food truck found a pop-up home at North Market this summer, where the duo dished up fried shrimp banh mi, butter chicken meatball sandwiches, and classic chopped cheeses. Though their residency has ended, stay tuned for more (or order a sheet cake during their slower season).
Street Wheat: Uptown’s favorite front-porch bakery, run by Nikhil Saxena, popped off this year: Lines of strawberry-rhubarb croissant fiends and cinnamon roll lovers reliably stretched down Colfax Avenue every Sunday morning, rain or shine.
Cauldron Bagels: We can credit Cauldron Bagels owner Martha Durrett for boiling and baking up the witchiest breakfast treats in the metro: Beautifully malty, crackly bagels and bialys are sold for pickup from her south Minneapolis home.
Mi’aawaa Bakery and Coffee Cart: Mi’aawaa means “sweet” in Oromo, your first clue to the delights of Chaltu Hassan’s blueberry shortcake lattes and vanilla chai cookies, which were a highlight at many markets and events this year.
Sundays Cà Phê: The best thing you can do Sunday mornings is sip a black sesame latte from Erica Dao’s Vietnamese coffee pop-up, a weekend feature at many restaurants and retail shops in 2025.
Cafecito House: Psawpaw Kasuh and Natalya Arevalo started hosting private café pop-ups out of their garage in the fall of ’24 while also teaming up with local businesses to serve Cafecito treats at community events. Their menu shifts every month, delving as much into seasonal flavors as into their own cultural heritages. Think: matcha sweetened with mango sticky rice syrup in August, espresso mixed with churro-mocha syrup in October.
Kisma Cafe: Bahja Salat, Sumaiya Kadir, and Najma Ali—all in their early 20s—launched their mobile beverage cart this year, which they wheel around the metro, sweetening things up with mango guava refreshers and vanilla cloud matchas.
Heating Up West Metro Eats
Blindfold a friend who isn’t Excelsior-immersed, drive them to the corner of Water and 2nd Streets for dinner, and remove the blindfold. Watch them shriek in surprise because—holy buckets! Our heritage lake town suddenly looks a lot like Scottsdale or Beverly Hills, with posh, sparkly restaurants facing off across the street amid unique boutiques. So, what’s new on Excelsior’s main drag, Water Street? First, Vagabondo, the newest restaurant from chef David Fhima—it’s the Fhima restaurant we’ve been waiting for all our lives. The chef behind Maison Margaux, Fhima’s, and Mother Dough Bakery has been a Twin Cities star for a generation, but Vagabondo, which opened August of ’25, is his first spot that leans hard into the glorious foods of Sicily, tapping that particular strain of the chef’s Moroccan, Spanish, and Sicilian ancestry. Don’t miss the sfincione, that buoyant, tender Sicilian cousin to pizza, famous on the streets of Palermo; it’s got a crust that’s a little thick and cakey, though ultra-crisp from life spent in a cast-iron skillet. Add a caper-tangy baked Sicilian fish and a plate of Sicilian mussels for the full island getaway. Or try Fhima’s takes on Italian crowd-pleasers like lasagna and tiramisu.
The second bit of big news in Excelsior is a whole complex of new spots on Water Street from Jester Concepts. Star of the lot? Mirabelle, which opened in July of ’25, from chef Mike “Parlour and P.S. Steak” DeCamp and Wyatt “Heirloom” Evans, is a remarkable effort of making an old-fashioned supper club menu both luxurious and modern. Think: prime rib and crab-stuffed walleye but also a full-blown relish tray with pickles and deviled eggs, and eggs Benedict at weekend brunch. Shiki, opened in June ’25, is sister to Mirabelle—same chefs; same owner, Jester Concepts; but much more noodle-y. Go for ramen and pot stickers, but don’t forget it’s also Excelsior’s newest cutting-edge cocktail spot—maybe a nonalcoholic, bright purple ube piña colada or something made with seaweed-infused sherry? The metro’s haute-burger-famous Parlour opened its newest location beside Shiki and Mirabelle in November of ’24, so now you can get Minnesota’s most famous Old Fashioned on the California side of Highway 169.
More big news from the west metro: Heather’s opened its second location in Minnetonka in October of ’24, dishing up the best steak and eggs in town for brunch and the best salmon BLT, too. In Hopkins, Hendrix and Siena opened in January of ’25 to offer elevated Italian for the new Negroni set. Split a dill pickle pizza, add the brown butter gnocchi, and finish with a French silk–filled cannoli? Excelsior got the world’s first brick-and-mortar retail version of Prince’s favorite cheesecake baker, Cheesecake Funk, in September of ’25. And finally, the folks out at Everly Farms (formerly Minnetonka Orchards) opened a half-rustic, half-swanky restaurant and tasting room, The Table, for all-season dining out at the Minnetrista apple orchard and vineyard. You’d have had to be blindfolded this year to miss all the big moves in the western suburbs! —D.M.G.
Breakfast
We have never had such a year for new coffee, bakery, and breakfast options. One way of looking at the coffee boom is that entrepreneurs are starting safe, low-capital projects, and as work-from-home stays strong, folks want spots for coffee and breakfast get-togethers in residential neighborhoods, far from core downtown. Another way of looking at it is that we’re just very lucky, and there’s never been a better time to rise and shine.
Stonegarden opened in November of ’24 halfway between Lake Nokomis and Pearl Park, led by an Air Force veteran turned chef with a clear mission: deluxe, early-to-late brunch daily and a ritzy event space for special dinners and parties in the evenings. Mission beautifully accomplished. The can’t-miss dish is a new take on the venerable Minnesota commercial sandwich, with house-smoked chicken and house-made gravy paired with good brioche toast and potatoes—if you are a biscuit-and-gravy fan, you have to try this (better?) Northern version.
Brim opened an Edina location in September of ’25. If one of its breakfast hashes alongside a ginger turmeric smoothie can’t cure what ails you, you might need a real vacation. Cabana Anna’s opened on Lake Minnetonka in the Shoreline Hotel in May—take a sunrise boat trip with a French toast destination, or in winter, maybe snowshoe in across the frozen lake?
Shepherds Table opened in September of ’25 none too far from the Mississippi River on 34th Street. It’s run by a son of Minnesota’s most renowned cheesemaking family, the sheep dairying stars of Nerstrand-based Shepherd’s Way, and serves as their first brick-and-mortar anchor. They’ve paired with local grain luminaries Laune Bread for breads and sweeter treats. At lunch don’t miss sandwiches (made with great cheese!) but breakfast is the real move: Meet a friend, bring your own travel cup to fill up with locally imported coffee and top with fresh sheep’s milk, get a French toast or a local cheese toastie, and munch in your car or at the picnic tables out front before heading down to walk along the river paths and marvel that we live in the most beautiful place on earth—and it tastes exactly like Shepherds Table.
The last big news in the universe of rise-and-shine was Razava Bread Co., open in December of ’24 on Grand Avenue off Dale, as a collaboration between the family that founded local Baldinger Bakery (born 1888) and the baker Omri Zin-Tamir. Everyone in the Twin Cities is now obsessed with their Eastern European classics (wow, that challah; wow, that porridge bread!) and also their Jerusalem bagels. Meet a friend for breakfast at Razava, then go for a walk down the pretty-in-every-season Summit Avenue? When you do, discuss among yourselves: Has there ever been a year giving so many reasons to get up and at ’em and be happily surrounded by treats? Probably not. This has been a year when mornings became spectacular. —D.M.G.
Coffee Galore!
The 2025 coffee boom was gargantuan and global—every neighborhood, every sort of coffee. Have we entered a new era in local coffee culture? Find out for yourself at:
Qahwah House, open in Northeast on Central near 18th in April of ’25; Haraz (soon to LynLake); and Qamaria Yemeni Coffee Co. (many) were three big bits of similar news, with national Yemeni coffee chains coming here. Qahwah is particularly interesting, with a coffee-farm-to-table ethos and pastries like the classic Middle Eastern coffee cake basbousa.
Mawadah Cafe is the passion project of two Somali sisters who opened the charming spot on Lake Street in July of ’25, with weaving workshops, story hours, waffles on sticks, fragrant chai, and a perfect Lake Street moment in a cup of a Somali mangonada.
Arya Café opened in August of ’25 as a great coffee destination for winter walking to Minnehaha Falls. Report to the corner of Nokomis Avenue and 46th Street for Oromian-inflected flavors like a clove-and-date matcha or a terrifically pretty classic latte.
Red Coral Coffee proved international coffee was everything in 2025, opening inside Okome House in Longfellow in May of ’25 with Taiwanese-global favorites. Think: iced black tea with a frothy cap and an espresso cola made with baby-pink Japanese cola, transformed before your eyes with inky espresso.
Phe Coffee opened in Lowertown across from CHS Field in July of ’25 with Vietnamese-style options like a pandan-flavored iced coffee or a banana-foam matcha.
Karol Coffee opened near Como Park in the last days of March of ’25, with locally roasted coffee and a phenomenal breakfast sandwich, in case you want to meet a pal before a trip to the Como Conservatory.
Albi Kitchen, open in August of ’25 just a stone’s throw from Loring Park, is the neighborhood’s new go-to for Somali qahwa (spiced coffee), iced matchas, and sambusas for a quick morning bite.
Moona Moono opened in Uptown in the former Paper Source location in April of ’25, bringing a globally on-trend, East Asian focus to coffee. Try the black sesame latte or ginger matcha and also pastry—it’s the only home for special Asian-inflected Bogart’s donuts, like a fluffy yuzu poppy seed raised-and-glazed.
Mosaic Coffee opened in April of ’25, bringing another bright spot to Uptown, and it’s got some of the metro’s hardest tables to snag, as Gen Z does homework while glancing at one another over their lattes in classic real-world, pre-cell-phone Uptown style.
Bichota Coffee opened on George Floyd Square in October of ’24 with a mission: connecting coffee and culture and supporting the communities of color, both farmers abroad and folks at home, often excluded from the specialty coffee realm.
Stargazer
Best new bar of the year.
“How do you teach the next generation the craft? how do you keep bartending alive?” asks Robb Jones, founding bartender of Stargazer, explaining the logic behind the spot. Jones is one of Minnesota’s most important bartenders—a co-owner of Meteor (James Beard finalist for best bar in the whole country), a talent behind the cocktail menu at Diane’s Place that’s been winning national raves, and a seven-year veteran of Soigné Hospitality, where he set the bar for Demi and Spoon and Stable’s cocktail culture.
Jones has been part of the great circle of life in our local cocktail culture, which can be summarized as: 1) Twenty years ago, almost no one knew the craft of bartending any longer, and cocktails were a shot of something with a long squirt from a bar soda gun. 2) Cocktail revolutionaries like Jones, Nick Kosevich, and the Earl Giles crew founded New Cocktail Culture spots like Town Talk and Eat Street Social. 3) The world was so excited—until the world grew weary of bartenders with their eyedroppers and ice obsessions taking too long. 4) Pre-batched cocktails took over! 5) Return to No. 1, minus the human input of pouring a shot because cocktails are now, often, just something pre-batched in a little keg and dispensed from the bar soda gun. Obviously, the floor for bar culture is higher now; those pre-batched cocktails taste good. But in the process, has the collective bar ceiling—the upper possibilities, the dreaming and reaching—been lowered?
“What if a guest cares about, what if a server wants to learn about cocktail culture—where can they even go?” Jones wondered. Enter Stargazer, in the last days of 2024, bringing the return of the “bespoke” cocktail. The menu is outrageously ambitious: a whiskey sour with high-proof Wild Turkey but also a rare French strawberry vermouth, birch syrup, and fresh ginger and lemon; a nonalcoholic, fresh orange juice and vanilla invention that tastes exactly like a dry creamsicle. But the real magic of Stargazer is in the training of the craft.
One night while I was sitting at the bar, a woman opened and closed the long menu, saying: “I don’t know what any of this is.” The bartender said, “That’s fine,” then quizzed her on what she liked, retreated, mixed, shook a cocktail shaker overhead, and slid her something bright purple with a frothy white top and floating tiny flowers in a coupe glass. It was a daisy—that is, the type of sour-plus-sweet cocktail that forms the family that includes margaritas, cosmopolitans, and sidecars—but what’s important isn’t so much that it was a daisy but that it solidified and advanced cocktail culture in our time, just a little, with a happy customer and a bartender tapping their creativity, art, and hospitality skills all at once.
This is why Stargazer opened last winter to lines out the door and a crush, a reputation that no one could get into the artsy-chic spot, with its ceiling constellations and rocket ship bathrooms. Then it added reservations, and the easily frightened moved along, and now: It’s easy to get into Stargazer, and you should go right away, for cocktails and the cheapest great bar grub of our day.
For real. The owners of Stargazer are the Travail crew, who, in addition to running fine-fun-dining Travail and outrageously inventive pizza spots Pig Ate My Pizza, have done bazillions of fun live events over the years and thought that people drinking bespoke cocktails would like the funny little tasty finger foods that they excel at: everything on skewers, everything silly and amusing! People did not like that, so Travail swapped in a $5 smash burger that’s bigger than a slider and smaller than one of our many large and hefty restaurant burgers. It’s just delicious, with a big fluffy bun and a super-crisp, fresh Angus smashed patty that’s bar food and not must-lie-down food. They’ve also rolled out a whole bunch of sub-$10 items and plan to add a bunch of under-$15 pastas for the winter, including a Northeast inspired riff on a dumpling cousin of pierogi/pelmeni.
“We have around 200 employees at Travail at this point,” Travail founder Mike Brown told me as we talked about Stargazer’s evolution from buzzy open to rock-solid place to love. “We feel like we might have missed the mark when we just opened Stargazer. We wanted to create our dream spot, this cocktail place that didn’t exist in this area anymore after Marvel Bar and Bradstreet. But people didn’t want refined finger food and take-your-chances; they wanted good bar grub and reservations. So we changed.”
Change is good! Stargazer today feels like other classic Minneapolis bars, like a Nye’s or Mayslack’s, with a come-as-you-are, laid-back vibe, followed by an eat-well chaser. That you can advance and secure the art of the cocktail while receiving a glass of something inventive and eye-opening isn’t just good news; it’s a great moment in our year. 1304 NE 2nd St., Mpls. —D.M.G.
More New Bars We Love
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. It was the age we could summon delivery from terrific restaurants and get it an hour or so later in somewhat battered and lukewarm condition. It was the era we finally got to the end of absolutely everything on Netflix and thought: “You know what’s awesome? Leaving the house to go somewhere new.” Such as:
Carnival Bar, tucked behind Mr. Paul’s Supper Club at 50th & France in Edina, opened in April of ’25. It’s the home base for one of Minneapolis’s most-important-of-all-time bartenders, Nick “Town Talk, Bittercube, and Eat Street Social” Kosevich, who pours outrageously inventive cocktails like the Popcorn Margarita (very photo-worthy) or the Peanut Colada (it tastes so surprising, and so good). 3922 W. 50th St., Edina
Pikok Lounge also flashed its feathers. Why not take your buzzy front bar and rebrand it as its own thing, expanding bar star Megan Luedtke’s cocktail menu, offering a kimchi cheeseburger to enchant obsessed burger-heads, and even setting out a cocktail in the year’s most stunning photo-worthy peacock glass? That’s what Minari did with its front bar in September of ’25, and it’s a hit—go early for happy hour if you want to be as thrifty as you are on trend. 323 13th Ave. NE, Mpls.
Kizzo is restaurateur Kamal Mohamed’s September ’25 replacement for his Stepchld in Northeast near Surdyk’s, and it’s something brand new—a sports bar and membership social club hybrid. Stop by; watch a game. If the vibe and cinnamon rolls strike you as your scene, keep coming, because this could, officially and with membership perks, be your new clubhouse. 24 University Ave. NE, Mpls.
Vern’s Tiki Bar opened with high-camp, super-cute vintage tiki style in March of ’25 in the way back of the restaurant Public Domain, right near the Warby Parker on Washington in the North Loop. Go for selfies with your besties, hoist the cutest-ever throwback tiki mugs, and remember—a flaming scorpion in a bowl with three straws is how some of life’s greatest adventures begin. 119 Washington Ave. N., Mpls.
Heyday of Handhelds
Here’s the 2025 handheld lowdown, for all you eaters who prefer no fork, please: You’ll find the best new burger in the metro at Le Burger 4304, a sleek, sneakily French little spot carved into Linden Hills’ main drag. Go for L’Oignon, a Wagyu beauty dressed with caramelized onions, Gruyère, and demi-glace (see: French), and finish the meal with a raspberry soft-serve sundae. Meanwhile, in the Kingfield neighborhood, chef Pedro Wolcott’s new North Star Deli has established itself as a veritable neighborhood sandwich joint, serving up muffulettas, Cubans, and peppery pastrami deluxes dripping with Russian dressing. Lastly, two floating concepts we love found brick-and-mortar homes this year: Centro Restaurant Group’s Hippo Pockets, which conjures classics like Philly cheesesteaks and braised beef birria into tortilla-wrapped magic, opened a new spot down on 48th Street in south Minneapolis, and chef Bernard Collins’s Burnt Chicken, which fires up the best dang fried chicken sandwich in the metro, is nestled into a new space on St. Paul’s Payne Avenue with an expanded menu of Southern favorites. 4304 Upton Ave. S., Mpls.; 315 W. 46th St., Mpls.; 735 E. 48th St., Mpls.; 858 Payne Ave., St. Paul —J.J.
Our Year of Haute Korean
The Twin Cities has had an interesting relationship to the chic Korean American restaurant food conversation. While New York and Chicago had their periods of Momofuku and Dave Chang obsession, the Twin Cities’ leading chefs with Korean heritage took on projects that leaned more heavily into European traditions. Think: Ann Kim with her pizza, Jamie Yoo at the side of Gavin Kaysen before he opened his Korean street-food spot Abang Yoli (which opened a second location in Minnetonka in April of ’25, and soon closed the original Nicollet Avenue spot), and of course chef Jeff Watson, who has long worked as chef Dani “Colita, Martina, and Porzana” del Prado’s right hand.
By the time Ann Kim leaned into her Korean heritage with Kim’s, Uptown troubles and pandemic effects were battering Uptown’s finer restaurants—“timing, timing, timing” is the other restaurant rule after “location, location, location.”
And yet. When Watson focused on his Korean roots and worked with his old boss to open Minari in November of ’24, something special emerged. Minari opened with a little of everything for an American haute-dining audience, but what was genius about it quickly became obvious. It’s the no-expense-spared, best-of-everything Korean restaurant the Twin Cities dearly needed.
Start with the tuna gimbap, a lush spin on the tradition of a Korean veggie roll. Now, the main event: Fill up the table with a ssam spread fit for a globe-trotting food king. Try the flank steak (Porzana-heads, seem familiar?), add the intensely rich pork jowl, add the appropriately briny grilled mackerel, summon different spicy banchan for the table, and now build ssam wraps with different heirloom lettuces—vavoom! Each bite is now a world: rich, herbal, spicy. Add a few fancy Korean-influenced cocktails to your night, like the one with gochujang honey decorating the glass; finish with a miso tart; settle back, full and happy; and ask yourself: Is this the most luxurious Korean restaurant the Twin Cities has ever had? Yes. And it happened in a year that the local contribution to the global Korean food conversation grew more interesting than ever. 323 13th Ave. NE, Mpls. —D.M.G.
Resto Revivals
2025 was a year of remarkable restaurant comebacks. “Resurrections” sounds a little dramatic, but truly, so many of these places we thought were gone for good. There was Burch Steak, a massive early-pandemic loss, now reborn via crab-and-sea- bean salads and Gorgonzola-swathed pasta at Nancy St. Pierre and Isaac Becker’s St. Pierre, and beloved Lowertown tavern Dark Horse, which closed as fast as it reopened under new owners this summer. There was the Travail Collective’s remake of both Pig Ate My Pizza in Robbinsdale and Italian Eatery down near Minnehaha Creek, and the Malt Shop’s spiffed-up (and remarkably affordable) redo under new leadership. And, of course, the acquisition of Revival by local restaurant group Jester Concepts, long after we believed it had passed through the gates of fried chicken heaven (that one we should have seen coming; it was all in the name).
But the most significant among these is the reopening of Selby Avenue’s Golden Thyme Restaurant and Bar, which was transformed this spring from the homey neighborhood café it had been under former owners Mychael and Stephanie Wright into an upscale (but not stuffy) New Orleans–inspired restaurant. This revival, of course, runs much deeper than the reopening of the restaurant itself: Golden Thyme was purchased by the Rondo Community Land Trust, which has a determined mission to revitalize the Selby Avenue corridor in Rondo, St. Paul’s historically Black, once immensely prosperous neighborhood that was shattered by the construction of Interstate 94 in the 1960s. Homes and businesses were bulldozed, their owners were displaced and given little restitution, and their families (and descendants) were gutted of their generational wealth. RCLT’s goals are far-reaching: Create affordable housing and economic opportunities, and shift land in the area away from the for-profit real estate model toward shared equity and community ownership, among other aims.
RLCT partnered with restaurateur Randy Norman to reimagine Golden Thyme, but it’s head chef Adam Randall dishing up velvety jambalaya linguine, honey-butter johnnycakes, Tater Tot gumbo (a little Minnesota twist on a Big Easy classic), and exceptionally crispy catfish po’boys. (The trick with catfish, he says, is a 24-hour milk bath that washes away the fish’s natural muddiness and makes the meat extra sweet.) Randall is a part of the Rondo story himself: Both his grandparents and his wife’s parents had homes on Rondo Avenue that were destroyed when the highway snaked its way through the heart of the Twin Cities’ Black community.”
Randall says that while St. Paul at large has welcomed Golden Thyme with open arms, he feels its reopening has been especially meaningful to the African American community—the food, he says, is “familiar,” rooted not only in the Southern food canon but in many family home-cooking traditions; the space is elegant but ever welcoming, a place for reconnection and gathering, much in the same spirit as the former Golden Thyme.
Meanwhile, the restaurant’s presence ripples outward from the corner of Selby and Milton. “I think that Golden Thyme is serving as a beacon to people of color to come and establish a Rondo-like community on Selby Avenue again,” he says. “I think that over the next number of years, there are going to be more Brown- and Black-owned businesses of all kinds, and in 10 years, it’s going to look completely different. My granddaughter is going to be able to walk past Golden Thyme and say,
‘My grandpa was a part of that.’ Being African American and being a chef on Selby Avenue, I couldn’t be more filled with pride. I truly hope that my in-laws and my relatives are looking down and saying, ‘Look at what Adam is doing. He’s a part of something really special.’”
If you have forgotten, however briefly, the power of restaurants to shape our worlds, go order Golden Thyme’s blackened catfish, served with peas and rice in a silky Cajun remoulade, and remember it. 934 Selby Ave., St. Paul —J. J.
Dining and Cooking