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1999 Best of Keyword Search:
FROM SEX & DRUGS & ROCK & ROLL
BEST NEIGHBORHOOD BAR (ST. PAUL)
Starting Gate
Though there's not a whole lot of neighborhood immediately surrounding the Starting Gate, there's usually a comfortable community feeling in this room. Despite the large front windows--a rarity for a bar like this--most of the interior is appropriately dark and seemingly immune to time. It's easy to relax and share stories in one of the many cozy booths, or at the bar, which is rectangular instead of one long row, encouraging conversation among all the seated patrons. Plenty of amusements serve to distract customers from the outside world: pull tabs, pool, darts, and Foosball--or, for the passive, sports on TV. Cheap drinks and deep-fried food, necessities for a good neighborhood bar, are in abundance. The place does get its return customers, and many of the "neighbors" filling up seats are employees of the nearby airport. If you're very lucky, you might walk into a rare occurrence at the Starting Gate: a mini-potluck with Norwegian delicacies provided by generous regulars.
- - - Readers' Choice - - -
Sweeney's
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Introduction
Hard to believe, but it's been a whole year since we last strapped on our searchlights and scoured the hometown haunts for every local superlative we could find.
And boy, did we find what we were looking for! In this, the biggest issue in City Pages history, you'll find more than 350 of our favorites. There are the usual suspects like Best Hot Dog and Best Politician (or are those one and the same?), along with more obscure treasures like Best Place to See a Strip Show at 9:00 a.m. We've got your Local Boy and Girl Made Good, and we also present for your perusal an entire mini-section of paeans to our newly elected governor--not to mention a dissertation on the Best Golf Course on Which to Have a Dadaesque Experience.
Speaking of Dadaesque experiences, we received nearly a thousand responses to our annual Readers' Poll, wherein you were asked to weigh in with your own choices. Though you opted to honor McDonald's for its French fries (again), our overworked crew of ballot counters was somewhat gratified to see that you used more imagination when it came to the Best Movie Theater category, wherein you swept aside the megamall cineplexes in favor of the Suburban World. (Then you went schizo, picking your very own head of state in the Local Boy Made Good, Politician, and Villain categories. Bully for you!)
Now, without further ado, we give you the 1999 installment of the ongoing battle for Twin Cities supremacy. The winners raise their fists in triumph while the also-rans roll with the punches till next year. As for you, dear rabble-rousing readers, consider this to be one from us, right in the kisser.
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| THE CITY GRITTY | ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT |
| OUT & ABOUT | BOUGHT & SOLD | RESTAURANTS |
| FOODSTUFF | SEX & DRUGS & ROCK & ROLL |
| READERS' POLL |
Best Letters to the Editor concerning Best of the Twin Cities 1999
»BEST OF: TOO FAR OUT (Kim Orr, Ramsey)
»BEST OF: THE SEXUAL FAVORS CONSPIRACY (Dave Okar, host, Voices from the Well open mic at Kieran's Irish Pub)
»BEST OF: NICE THOUGHT, BUT A FEW SHEETS SHY OF A PACKAGE (Joni Wheeler, manager, Paper Source)
»BEST TIP OF THE TOQUE (Joni Sivanich, Minneapolis)
»BEST LOVE AFFAIR WITH A BAR (Jason L. Bakke, St. Paul)
»BEST ACCEPTANCE SPEECH WITH A DEFENSIVE SUBTEXT (Joe Dowling, artistic director, Guthrie Theater)
»BEST THANKS FOR THE MAMMARIES (Gary Miernicki, Minneapolis)
»BEST SELF-PROMOTION DISGUISED AS CONGRATULATIONS (Bob Protzman, host, Monday Evening Jazz)
»BEST CRITICISM DISGUISED AS A COMPLIMENT (Itamar Ronen, Minneapolis)
»BEST SINS OF OMISSION (Adrian Peek, Minneapolis)
»ELECTRONICA SEIZES THE MIC... (DJ ESP, Woody McBride, St. Paul)
»SO, LESLIE, YOU'RE SAYING DAVE WAS WRONG ABOUT THE SEXUAL FAVORS? (Leslie Ball, host, Balls)
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