FOODSTUFF >>

• BEST ASIAN GROCERY
  It always happens: We stop in to Shuang Hur for a jar of curry paste or a bottle of fish sauce, and we leave $30 lighter but toting the makings for any number of quasi-made-up meals. Because, you see, there is not one kind of curry paste, or even one discrete display, but an aisle of tins and... More >>
• BEST BAKERY
  Pastry that looks too good to eat? Well, it probably is. But at Franklin Street Bakery, the trays of scones, tarts, and muffins are irresistible precisely because they are not egg-washed and jellied to perfection. Instead each is a crusty, browned, homey individual. And Franklin Street offers... More >>
• BEST BARBECUE
  It's largely a myth that you can't get good barbecue in the Twin Cities--scores of places do up barbecue in some sort of "authentic" style. The trouble with that, of course, is that paying homage to some variation of barbecue feels anything but authentic. Great barbecue here is rare. Some... More >>
• BEST BREAD
  Turtle Bread knows crust: the splinteringly crisp but tender crust of a baguette, the soft shell of a potato loaf, crackling and toothsome ciabatta. Turtle also knows crumb: airy baguettes, soft and open hearth loaves, dense brioche. What's amazing is that, like a batter in a cage hitting ball... More >>
• BEST BURGER
  Last year, a bar in Pennsylvania announced that it sells a gut-busting six-pound burger--not including the three pounds of bun and toppings. After hearing this, what could be more appetizing, more rational, and less nauseating than a plate of Herkimer mini burgers? Before you go dismissing them... More >>
• BEST BURGER (GOURMET)
  Eavesdropping on a recent conversation about the best burger in the Twin Cities, we were horrified to note the following ground rule: "But not counting Vincent, of course, that thing is beyond a burger..." What! Is this what happened back in the evolutionary mists of time when the first fish... More >>
• BEST BURRITO
  The burritos at Taqueria La Hacienda are meals within themselves, with a variety of fillings sure to appeal to anyone's taste. The chicken- and steak-stuffed versions taste like meat, sure, but also like cilantro and onion. In fact, they set a new standard for the egalitarian burrito, in which... More >>
• BEST CANDY STORE
  Gentlemen: Want to meet real single women now? Live and in person? Women with, shall we say, certain appetites? Start by forgetting about the Friday night parade of Midwestern nubility that staggers up and down Minneapolis's First Avenue in search of grain alcohol. You want to catch these women... More >>
• BEST CHEESE SELECTION
  How many sorts of blue cheese should a cheese counter have to win your admiration? Ten? Oh no, Surdyk's Cheese Shop can do better than that. Twenty? Keep going. Twenty five? Pshaw. How about 30! That's right, a recent visit to Surdyk's revealed more than 30 varieties of blue cheese, and not... More >>
• BEST CHOCOLATE
  At best, the folks at Just Truffles are wonderfully humble people; at worst, they are liars. Walking into the house that serves as their aromatic headquarters, it's pretty obvious they've got a lot more going on than mere truffles. In fact, there's a whole display case stacked with trays of... More >>
• BEST COFFEE (BY THE POUND)
  Two words make this the best pound of coffee to take home: Nordeast mud. It's rich. It's oily (that's a good thing in Coffeeland). It's smoother than anything this complex should be and goes down like good chocolate. It has a taste so dense you could stand a spoon up in it. And the loyal... More >>
• BEST DELICATESSEN
  Seventy years is a long time to be the pastrami king of Minneapolis, but if you've tucked into a pastrami sandwich at Brothers lately, all hot and steamy, piled high on good thick rye, ecstatic with the precisely correct ratio of soul, nostalgia, and salt, you'll know that even 70 years in, the... More >>
• BEST DOUGHNUTS
  Doughnuts are decidedly blue-collar food. No need for imported, artisan, or Dutch-processed anything. At the same time, you don't want your doughnuts to come from a gas station or the front rack at Target (we're looking at you, Krispy Kreme). The Bosela family has been hand-rolling and... More >>
• BEST FISH MARKET
  Few things set a cook's heart afire as quickly as a really kick-ass display of finfish, crustaceans, and mollusks. The colors alone take one aback: deep ruby tuna steaks; pink, opalescent whole snapper; silvery-patterned striped bass; ivory diver scallops; blue-black mussels; finely ridged... More >>
• BEST FRESH PRODUCE
  God bless the Twin Cities' excellent food co-ops: They've educated a generation of cooks to demand nothing less than fresh, locally grown, pesticide-free produce. And come summer, those cooks now flock in droves to the farm stands at Minneapolis's Midtown Public Market where they finger,... More >>
• BEST FRIES
  The menu at jP insists on calling them pommes frites, but, whatever: When it comes to happy-hour grazing or late-night nibbling, the crispy, salty fries at Lyn-Lake's swankest destination are always the first bar treat to leap to mind. They are, of course, perfectly crispy and deeply salty, but... More >>
• BEST GOURMET GROCERY
  To the uninitiated, Kowalski's might look like a mere grocery giant, but if you're a Twin Cities cook you'll quickly see that Kowalski's is much more than that, it's a delight to both palate and soul. Why? Because Kowalski's has both a great, great number of great ingredients, and a great... More >>
• BEST HOT DOGS
  Every few months, inevitably when we've been mixing gin and Guinness, we feel compelled to make the case that Joey D's is the finest restaurant in the Twin Cities. We'll spare you the excruciating details of this harangue (and apologize if you've ever witnessed this sad spectacle), because the... More >>
• BEST ICE CREAM PARLOR
  There are so, so many reasons to name this Lyndale neighborhood sweetheart Best Ice Cream Parlor. There's the ice cream, of course, and the sorbet, the sherbet, and the ice cream-based desserts, all blended on the premises in small batches from top-flight sustainable ingredients and in killer... More >>
• BEST INDIAN GROCERY
  Strains of "It's a Small World" might as well have been wafting down from the heavens as we made our way slowly through this bright, sparkling, Nordeast market one day in search of provisions. There were the inevitable spices and sauce mixes and bulk bags of exotic rice and legumes, yes, but... More >>
• BEST LATINO GROCERY
  So far, 2005 is shaping up to be the year we conquer the chile: dark and musky guajillos, sweet and fruity anchos, startling cascabels, bold, almost tannic pasillas. It's pretty easy to turn the dried pods of your choice into a rich, thick sauce. Toast, soak, grind, and fry, and then simmer... More >>
• BEST LIQUOR STORE
  What makes a liquor store the best one? The liquor, mostly. Like how the last time we were in Liquor Depot we got the daft idea of counting the varieties of vodka. Right as we hit number 138, we completely lost track, so awestruck were we by the vodka in the bottle shaped like a 1920s Tommy... More >>
• BEST NATURAL FOODS GROCER
  Whether your diet is vegan, lactose-free, macrobiotic, or you just plain enjoy a meal without yellow number 5, you've probably spent some quality time in grocery stores scanning aisles and reading labels. That's why it's so great when you find a store where the staff has already read the labels... More >>
• BEST PIZZA
  Galactic Pizza's slogan is "Pizza with a conscience," and, boy, do they mean it. Tucked in a tiny storefront on Lyndale just north of Lake alongside flash-in-the-pan hipster shops and trendy dining establishments that will feel outdated by the year 2006, this pie shop has a checkerboard floor... More >>
• BEST PIZZA (GOURMET)
  For the best authentic Neapolitan pizza this side of the Atlantic, one need look no further than Punch. A certified member of the Associazione Vera Pizza Napoletana, Punch doesn't pack its delectable thin-crust pizzas with greasy fixin's like thick ham or half-cooked bacon. Instead, Punch fills... More >>
• BEST SALAD
  We'll never forget the very moment we encountered the first shell peas of spring. There they were in a first-course salad at Osteria I Nonni: greener than Kermit the frog, springier than a spaniel off-leash, and as welcome, in the ice-capped late winter Minnesota landscape, as water is to a... More >>
• BEST SOUL FOOD
  Did you think hot-water cornbread was dead in Minnesota? Did you think you'd never see a credible hush puppy or drown your sorrows in a glowing mound of candied yams ever again? Yes, it was a dark 2004, with Lucille's Kitchen closing. But the whole point of soul food is that life is a glory and... More >>
• BEST SUSHI
  Grocery stores have made great strides lately in popularizing sushi basics. Consequently, sushi bars are more popular than ever. This has been great for the bottom line at all of the best local sushi joints, but it has led to a new sort of problem: All too often, sushi bars are greeting their... More >>
• BEST WINE STORE
  There are two sorts of people shopping for wine: Those who need help, and those who don't. If you can't tell a Barolo from a Zinfandel even when one bites you on the pants, it doesn't matter if you're in the Fort Knox of wine: It all looks the same. Meanwhile, if you chuckle all week because... More >>