My Mrs and I are going to visit the Twin Cities in early June. Can we have wine shipped to us from out of state? Are there good wine stores in the Downtown area or near the Mall of the Americas?
Are restaurants BYOB friendly? Do people use Uber?
A lot of questions, we will probably stay at The Town Suites by Marriott Downtown. It looks a lot nicer then the Marriott City Center. We wanted to stay at the Westin but it is booked up. I have the feeling that most things are near by. Is that true?
The best wine store I’ve found there was Sunfish which is a bit out of the way.
David. We’ve got the usual challenges shipping here from retail, but receiving wine is not a problem. In my opinion, we don’t have good wine available at retail, so for drinking while you’re here retail is not a great option (depending on your taste I guess). Restaurants generally allow BYOB, but prefer it when it’s “good” wine, not recent vintage retail wines. We were one of the early Uber cities. Lyft and Uber are alive, well, and active here. So drinking and driving not required, and you can Uber anywhere. We speak Canadian when required.
PM if you need help with receiving wine. Happy to have you ship to my office and can easily drop it off once you’re here.
Surdyks Liquors downtown Minneapolis is your best bet - a good store with a well rounded selection.
Call ahead for BYOB, as many restaurants don’t allow it as do - it’s an “iffy” situation in the Twin Cities -
David, if you’re near MOA Sunfish is our single best store in town IMO. Prices are set based on WS Pro low internet prices. They beat the lowest WS Pro price whenever possible. There are gems there but most all are recent releases. They do most of their business over the internet. They’re recently purchased and are now housed in a great local Italian restaurant I Nonni in their deli area. I now basically buy over 90% of my wines from just 2 stores - Sunfish & Envoyer out of LA. I Nonni has a great outdoor patio and cool bar food.
Your location is great for walking and the warehouse district restaurants like Spoon & Stable. My 3 favorite local restaurant are 1). The Kenwood which has most consistently great chef in town and you can walk around Lake of Isle after dinner a couple blocks away. 2) Tilia up near Lake Harriet - cool neighborhood place with an eclectic menu and super fun vibe. 3. Also nearby Tila is a new place Martina that is killer for white wine parings. All 3 places have been extremely wine friendly for dinners I organize.
Definitely walk around the city lakes and tie in a lunch or dinner at one of the 3 places I mentioned.
One more thought. As a local I rarely stay downtown but the Marquette Hotel is smack dab in the heart of it and located in our iconic IDS Tower. One of the few 70s glass buildings that still looks as fresh and big city as the day it was completed. The Marquette is know for its larger 70s era rooms and especially the corner rooms. I’ve heard they keep it up to date but I base hotels on Trip Advisor user ratings. You are also close to 112 Eatery, downtown, which is excellent but only eat on the main floor and a booth which are classy and cozy for 2 people or 4 skinny people. Upstairs oddly is more like sports bar feel. And, the food at our excellent local jazz club the Dakota is excellent too. The Dakota is on Nicollet Mall.
Thanks for the great information everyone.
Brad. That is a very kind offer thank you. We have had great success having wine shipped to our hotels when we travel. I may skip that idea though as it won’t be shipping season. Also it’s great that you all speak Canadian, but I have seen Fargo so I will be OK. Ya betcha.
Craig. Those sound like great recommendations. Also it’s great to hear that there is lots to walk to in the city. I will be going to an afternoon ball game while my wife is working and want to get my picture taken under the arched bridge at night so I can look like my new hero Richard Painter.
Thanks for the hotel tip but Oracle has a specific list of hotels for us and my wife is an SPG Platinum member. We stayed at a Townplace Suites in Santa Clara and really liked it, although it did smell like an Ikea. Also I like the sounds of 112 Eatery. I will be careful where they seat us as I am far from skinny or small.
Thomas and Michael. I will check out both wine stores you recommend. I will have time to explore wine stores during the day.
This will be the closest I have been to an LL Bean store so we plan a trip to the Mall of the Americas to load up on Khaki pants and tote bags.
David, nothing wrong with your hotel pick. Envious of the economics of business travel. My daughter is in sales for Concur which I think is division of Oracle? I walk buy it often if dinning in the warehouse district at Spoon & Stable or other venues nearby. I love walking after dinner so The Kenwood, Tilia and Martina are great for that as all three are just a block or 3 from Lake Harriet or Lake of Ilse. Not a fan of Painter but I won’t go into that 
.
This is a very timely thread. Great info. I will be alone in Minneapolis for business from May 15 to 19, staying at the Westin downtown, and am thinking about taking myself to one nice dinner at a place with a good Euro-focused wine list. I could Lyft or Uber to The Kenwood, but is there a best choice closer to where I will be?
I liked cafe lurcat quite a lot.
Tilia and Travail quoted me $20 corkage. We’ll be in the area around 6/1.
Best right downtown and easy walking are…
Spoon & Stable make res quick or eat late
112 Eatery
Otherwise short 10-15 minutes top Uber to Kenwood and you have option of great walk by Lake of Ilse and gorgeous old highend neighborhood.
15-25 minute uber to Martina or Tilia and then could walk around icnonic Lake Harriet.
I never pay corkage at my favs but I’m a simi regular. Tilia is a very cozy friendly place and you may get comped if sharing wine or not a pain .
Martina, about a half a block away is super fun but best dishes pair with whites. I love whites but not everyone does.
St Genevieve is also a nice option but a bit of a drive.
You want The Bachelor Farmer. My favorite of all the places I dined in MLPS. They do a cool trick with the wine list where they let you order a half bottle of most bottles on the list and then they pour the rest BTG. We did it with a Huet to start. I liked the wine list there the best of any place I went. Definitely the most disorderly list I saw by a wide margin.
I didn’t really like the food Spoon and Stable all that much, it was food I’ve had 1000 times but better executed elsewhere and I really didn’t like the wine list. That said, the service was excellent and our waiter was a huge Levi IDTT fan, which I found endearing.
I agree on Spoon & Stable. Not in my top 5 because the execution is uneven. That said the room is very cool and you’re sure to find 2-3 dishes that are great along with a clunker or two. Corkage at $30 is brutal by Minneapolis St Paul standards and fairly rigidly enforced until they see again and again and tipping well.
Here are my top 10ish Minneapolis……
1) The Kenwood - best all round everything hands down for me
2) Tilia - great vibe and excellent food but low key. Chef driven but not fancy. Just zen like cool
3) Martina ( new place in last six months and also a very cool room)
4) Meritage St Paul - always cool in downtown St Paul
5) 112 Eatery - does BYB but prefer you buy their wines
6) Corner Table
7) Octo Fish Bar - St Paul - great for seafood
8) Spoon & Stable
9) Young Joni - newer place with very cool food and room
9) St. Genevieve
10) Cafe Alma ( this is #1 for many people but is inconsistent and the room is weird)
11) Bachler Farmer - never got this place and their famed chef has left.
Spoon and Stable is my favorite restaurant around downtown, by a good measure. Truly exceptional food, wine list, wine service and overall service without premium expense.
They allow corkage - I think it’s $30 with $50 for a magnum, one fee waived for a bottle purchased. Their list is excellent and full of good options at $60 and less. Buy a white for $50-60 and bring a bottle of red and you’re in business.
The only thing is that it books up. Even for an ordinary weeknight, you’ll want reservations several weeks ahead. I don’t know how much harder weekends are - I think they take reservations a couple of months ahead.
Hi Craig. I stopped by the new Sunfish location and was surprised. Isn’t it now a much smaller store? Fewer selections? Seems really downsized. Maybe you what’s going on.
Hey Dan, well I agree it feels smaller crammed into the I Nonni deli but Mike claims he actually has more skus which might be true. Yea, I like the old free standing wine store feel better for sure but it doesn’t matter as long as I find the wines I want and he sticks to his pricing philosophy to trying to be the lowest price on WS Pro I’m good. I also special order a lot of single btls at great prices too from Mike. And, I do like I Nonni’s too. Tommy in the restaurant has always been good to the wine group for small or large dinner both. Think we let them work out bugs. I’m trying not to be judgmental just because its a change:).