FOODSTUFF >>

• BEST APPLE ORCHARD
  We admit that part of the allure of Afton Apple is the beautiful drive to Hastings. From I-94, the nearly 12-mile stretch along Manning Road and County Road 76 oozes rural charm, especially on a crisp fall day when the leaves are blazing and the sun is out. Then there's the hayride across some... More >>
• BEST ASIAN GROCERY
  It was the surf clams that caused us to fritter away damn near an entire afternoon in this vast, but hard to find, market. As confirmed Asian food lovers, we were predictably agog over United Noodles' bounty even before we spotted the pretty clams. We'd ogled the vacuum-sealed cuttlefish,... More >>
• BEST BAGELS
  For some, the arrival of Krispy Kreme doughnuts in the upper Midwest was reason for celebration, carbs be damned. Sure, we waited in long lines in Maple Grove for those famous just-off-the-conveyor-belt sensations, but now that you can get a Krispy Kreme fix at a Holiday gas station, next to the... More >>
• BEST BAKERY
  A great bakery should have great ambition, lofty standards, arresting charm, and great prices. It needs ambition because otherwise you could bake cookies yourself. It needs standards because otherwise you could get worse quality stuff from the grocery store. It needs arresting charm because... More >>
• BEST BBQ
  If you've spent any time in the South or ever stumbled upon a hole-in-the-wall barbecue joint in Kansas City, the barbecue capital of the world, you know that tacky trinkets and contrived shack charm don't make for mouth-watering, forehead-dripping barbecue. And Ted Cook's 19th Hole Bar-B-Que... More >>
• BEST BREAD
  We're sure that Bakery on Grand has the best bread in town--just, we refuse to pick which bread exactly. There are many to choose between! The baguette happens to be so airy, so weighty, so filigreed, so robust, so very full of holes and yet also full of the heavy substance of bread that if you... More >>
• BEST BURGERS
  We went far and wide searching for the best burger. We traveled the highways, the byways, and even the skyways, hunting for a burger with great flavor and also great spirit. We tried burgers stuffed with foie gras, burgers filled with molten cheese, burgers as soft as cream cheese, burgers made... More >>
• BEST BURRITO
  Located at the edge of Victorian Village--a preppy area usually packed with college students and people looking for a beer on their way home from work--La Cucaracha fits in more than one might like with its bar and happy hour specials. But what's really great about this Mexican restaurant is its... More >>
• BEST CANDY STORE
  In a place called Candyland, moon rocks are two-inch jawbreakers, comets are heavenly hash-covered marshmallows, and the swirls on colorful, old-timey suckers look like palm-sized galaxies. It's a universe of colors, shapes, and scents that will set synapses firing and mouths salivating. The... More >>
• BEST CHEESE SELECTION
  The cheeses include goat's, sheep's, and cow's milk, and you can find both artisanal and conventional types. But what distinguishes the Whole Foods selection from the rest of the pack is its ability to seduce a rather bland palate with funky choices. Adventuresome contestants need apply.... More >>
• BEST CHOCOLATE
  Husband-and-wife team Brian McElrath and Christine Walthour have a rack of awards that would make Lord of the Rings king Peter Jackson jealous. Aside from being showered with local accolades, their artisan chocolate company, B.T. McElrath, has received press mentions in Bon Appétit and... More >>
• BEST COFFEE BY THE POUND
  It's always ironic--or oxymoronic--to see the words "fresh roasted" inscribed on the cans of coffee lining the grocery shelves. That's especially true if you get your beans at one of the many Dunn Bros outlets around town. Every locale except for the one at the Mall of America has a bean roaster... More >>
• BEST DELICATESSEN
  Just when you thought nothing could get better than a jar of pickles on the table, the Brothers have gone and topped themselves--now the pickles are out of the jars and lolling around in a huge pickle buffet, waiting for you to gorge yourself upon them. That's right, they're just lying there,... More >>
• BEST DOUGHNUTS
  Look for Kieran's pub on the ground level, walk in off the street, climb to the skyway level on the daffy staircase--one of the stupidest-looking pieces of interior architecture in American history--and behold the modest retail counter that is Lone Doughnut Café. Could it be that this... More >>
• BEST FISH MARKET
  Dining at a fancy-pants boîte not long ago, we fell in love with a filet of skate, sautéed till crispy on the outside and napped with its classic accompaniment, brown butter. (Skate is a kind of a winged manta ray-looking critter that's a member of the shark family.) Days later,... More >>
• BEST FRESH PRODUCE
  Year after year we've waxed long in this very space about the Wedge's consistent success in offering up absolutely pristine produce at prices that should (but don't) shame the local upscale chains. We've written passionately about the completely blemish-free organic Fuji apples, the... More >>
• BEST FRIED CHICKEN
  Lately KFC has been spending millions trying to convince us that its familiar acronym stands for "kitchen fresh chicken" and while it's laughable to imagine any fast-food franchise achieving a homemade, just-like-mom's taste experience, the underlying message is clear: KFC knows we all want at... More >>
• BEST FRIES
  Golden French fries in a silvery bucket on a white china tray--Bar Lurçat doesn't serve mere fries, it presents a treasure of spuds. The fries themselves are ultra-fried, crisp as the dickens outside, creamy and potato-rich inside. Each bite of these tawny 3-D stripes has you reveling in... More >>
• BEST GOURMET GROCERY
  Always a contender for the Best Natural Foods Grocery, Whole Foods also racks up a healthy, affordable line of gourmet selections. For one, the national chain with a local vibe offers ingredients for every level of cooking ability. If you're a single computer geek with a pallet for gourmet, you... More >>
• BEST HOT DOGS
  Those who love big, sumptuous hot dogs know exactly what goes into making them: beef, pig knuckles, Sasquatch meat, compost, industrial-strength artery-clogging juice, and a whole lotta love. But here at this tasty West Bank dive, you can get even more than that. How much is that doggie in the... More >>
• BEST ICE CREAM PARLOR
  It was just a few weeks from the end of the summer last year when, enjoying a Crema cone after a particularly zealous playground session, the nickel dropped. Here we were, in the middle of an impossibly bucolic afternoon, in once-pedestrian southwest Minneapolis, enjoying ethereally delicious... More >>
• BEST INDIAN GROCERY
  Flanked by The Donut Connection and across from Lyndale Garden Center, Flavors of India, with its faded window sign and dull lighting, is easy to miss. But once inside, the fragrance of dried rose petals, cumin, turmeric, cinnamon, and musk mark this exotic and authentic place. You'll find... More >>
• BEST ITALIAN GROCERY
  It's hard to know where to direct the eyes when inside Broders', so innumerable are the things you want. Do you look inside the case at the rich, fresh puttanesca sauce, bursting with olives, capers, anchovies, garlic, and red peppers, and just crying out for a bruschetta to ennoble or a pasta... More >>
• BEST LATINO GROCERY
  All this place needs is a few live chickens to peck at the crumbs on the floor and it could be any market in Guadalajara. This grocery-cum-cafeteria supplies its Latino neighbors with guisados, homemade tortillas, and red pork tamales in a voluptuous smoked chili sauce, as well as saint's day... More >>
• BEST MIDDLE EASTERN BREAD
  Perfecting pita bread requires more than a good sense of geometry. This round flat bread with the pocket inside is the staple of many Middle Eastern cuisines, and it has many important jobs. Scooping up baba ghanoush, for one, or cradling spicy falafel balls smothered in tahini sauce. The... More >>
• BEST MIDDLE EASTERN GROCERY
  The recently expanded Holy Land Bakery and Deli proves that super-sizing is not always a bad idea. It was, after all, impossible to contain the depth and breadth of Middle Eastern fare within just one normal-sized Northeast storefront. Case in point: the oils. At Holy Land you can spend hours... More >>
• BEST NATURAL FOODS GROCERY
  Whether you shop at natural grocery stores out of dietary necessity or because you're a selective eater, Mississippi Market has you covered. Looking for free-range chicken broth? No problem. Green tea and ginger root ice cream? They've got it. Gluten-free pizza crust? Yup. Vegan jello? Check.... More >>
• BEST PIZZA
  For the record, the issue is the crust. You can have the finest salami, the freshest mushrooms, the most attentively tended sauce, but without a good crust, it all falls apart in a flat flabby mess, like a teddy bear without any stuffing. Punch's pizza, now in three locations, has that crust:... More >>
• BEST SALAD
  The salad of the year was a mushroom salad. Well, not really. It wasn't really a mushroom salad, officially. Officially, it was a spinach and arugula salad, but it had a whole forest floor's worth of pale mushroomy marvels in it: ghostly oyster mushrooms, spidery enoki mushrooms, a few golden... More >>
• BEST SOUL FOOD
  There was a scare this year--for a while it looked like Lucille's Kitchen, the anchor and rainbow of the north side, might close. What, a world without the crispiest fried chicken, the smokiest collards, the creamiest ever macaroni and cheese? Surely that would not be a world fit for living!... More >>
• BEST SUSHI
  A local critic recently wrote that all Twin Cities sushi tastes the same--thus revealing that they'd never had the blissful experience of sitting at the bar at Origami and ordering the "omakase," or chef's choice. That's where the sushi chef sitting before you creates magical course after course... More >>
• BEST WINE AND LIQUOR STORE
  Scrappy, feisty, and spirited. Not much to look at, but a dynamo in the aisles. How could anyone resist Zipp's? You might know Zipp's as your collegiate party headquarters--is it the friends or the keg that makes drinking when you're 21 so especially sweet? Oh well, leave that riddle for the... More >>