We're Back Baby
What we're loving in the TWIN CITIES (Part I)
After a bit of a hiatus (read: moving into a new home), we’re back and ready to fill your inbox with ~Sunday Sauce 🍝
For those of you who don’t know, I moved to Saint Paul back in the spring and have spent the last few months eating and drinking to the best of my ability; all in hopes of finding my new regular haunts. After a lifetime in New York, I’m hitting a new city with a blank slate and have a long road ahead until my coffee shop once again knows my name and order.
For now, I’ve started a list of the places I already have been frequenting, or anticipating myself heading back to again and again. Give a scroll to the first half of my much anticipated 202
5 Hit List and mark your Google maps for any upcoming trips to the MidWest.
Hyacinth
Coming in at a hard number one is Hyacinth, a kind of American/Italian/French amalgamation of all the best from each cuisine. Coincidentally, it’s also two blocks from my house. To give you an idea of how often I’m there, in roughly 4 months my camera roll has 210 photos from this one restaurant. Every time I eat here I’m more impressed than the last, a most recent notable being the Roasted Cabbage with Bagna Cauda and bread crumbs (as seen in my scrapbook below).
They’ve also recently partnered with the Injera Circle on a new supper club exploring Ethiopian cuisine. I was out of town for the first one and shed a literal tear.
Myriel
After Hyacinth, I’m not putting these spots in any particular order (or uploading from my camera roll), but I will say Myriel was competing for #1. Perhaps it’s because the size of the restaurant and the dining set-up feel the most familiar to me, but chef/owner Karyn Tomilson’s induction to Food & Wine’s Best New Chefs doesn’t hurt either. Oh and everything is completely, completely, farm to table. The waiters are great at letting you know what the farm brought in that morning, and any menu changes as a result.
I prefer to sit at the bar when I’m here, where you can snag a rotating charcuterie with house-made pate and pickled veggies. Ask the bartender for a wine rec, they always hit.
Meteor
In so many ways, Meteor is my dream bar. From the moment you park your car, your dive bar senses will be tingling. A sort of monolith of a building, the front features a glass block wall with colorful twinkle lights behind, giving a kind of otherworldly feel when they emanate through the glass and into the snow. Then you walk inside and boom, it’s the dark and lived-in kind of dive bar you so hoped for, save for the fact there is actual space to move around.
Where we diverge from this divey trope however is in the drinks. These guys are slinging insanely delicious cocktails. They can make the classics, or you can try from their always-changing list of house specials (including mocktails AND low ABV options).
The pièce de résistance of Meteor however is the hot dog menu. They offer 3 hot dog styles, and while I can’t remember them all exactly I can tell you one’s got kimchi mayo, one's got pineapple, and one’s got a whole lot of relish.
Taqueria y Birriera | La Cuatro Milpas
If I’m being honest I’ve only eaten at Las Cuatro Milpas once, but it’s not close to me and the fact it’s on this list should tell you enough about how delicious it was. If you’re a Birreria fiend, they’ve got you covered as the name denotes, but I lean more toward a carnitas or lengua taco and can honestly say these were some of the best I’ve had since…May in Mexico.
Grab a small horchata (It was like 32 oz) and side up to the large windows to let the sunshine hit you while you enjoy. Oh and I just discovered their Instagram and it’s incredible work, Danny Trejo is the cover of 4/5 posts.
Small Hours
Freshly opened in September, I have a soft spot for Small Hours because it’s as new to the Twin Cities as I am. While these kind of wine/listening bars exist in droves in NYC, here it’s pretty one-of-a-kind, and the two owners did a great job building it from the ground up to be unfussy, beautiful, and full of great wine & music. They carefully pick guest selectors for their beautiful vinyl system, and have frequent collabs with winemakers and vermouth brands alike.
Head in to see if they have seating available (it’s first come, first serve!) and and load up on Gamay, sardines in spicy olive oil, pickles, and chunks of bread. IDEAL!
To be continued…
Oh, we also wanted to leave you with a little footnote on what our team has been loving at home recently. Feel free to send in your recs from kitchen objects to pantry goods, and we’ll include them in next week’s round-up!
Synergy Trilogy Kombucha…sue us!
Bagna Cauda on everything, especially this recipe