There are lots of good places to ogle your peers in the Twin Cities if you want to study a monoculture, but we've always found the best people-watching comes in places where you're not sure who's going to pass through your field of vision next. Get a lot of disparate characters crammed together cheek by jowl, forced to interact, and things get even better. That's why we like early evenings at the Brass Rail. Smack dab in downtown in the middle of a still moderately dodgy block, the place recently underwent a renovation in an effort to class itself up a little. That effort was more or less successful, so now the stable of regulars is salted with after-work skyway types, disoriented tourists looking for a pre-theater drink, and of course the folks who are coming early to guarantee a seat for the Wednesday-through-Sunday go-go boys. It's a friendly mix, and never boring.