The Best of 2010, According to METRO - and You
This will make sense when you get to the end.
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FASHION
Best Fashion Trends for Cold Minnesotans
Fur
Faux or real, it’s hard to find a warmer fabric than soft, luxurious fur. Luckily, it’s back with a vengeance this season, and vintage stores are packed with cozy options.
Layers
Minnesotans are already pros at piling on the layers. Keep it in a similar color palette, don’t mix too many busy prints and you’re good to go.
Shearling
It’s lining everything these days, from cuffs to boots, keeping all your extremities snuggly warm.
Military-inspired boots
No need to worry about slipping and sliding down your driveway in winter’s hottest footwear trend. These babies have grips and treads galore.
Chunky knitwear
You can thank the ‘90s for this trend. Big, thick, cableknit sweaters straight out of a ski chalet are the look du jour this season.
Lesser-Known Neighborhoods for Shopping
Snelling and Selby
Home to Alle Metrochic, Flirt lingerie boutique, Everyday People consignment shop, Go Vintage and Lula vintage stores, Patina and many more.
Linden Hills
Located around 44th and France Ave., this area is a treasure trove of cute boutiques like Russel + Hazel, Victory, Oscar & Belle and Bibelot.
Downtown Lakeville
Home to hip womenwear boutiques Pink Door and Isabella’s as well as the LOFT Bridal & Design and Lakeville Jewelers.
Woodbury Lakes
Indie boutiques like Elodie, Shoes to Boot, Blissful Bath and nearby Bella Bridal Boutique mix with chain stores at this charming outdoor mall.
The Shops at Arbor Lake in Maple Grove
Yet another suburban mall with a surprising number of locally owned shops like Bluebird boutique, MODE, Schuler Shoes, Zida Fashion Accessories, Shoesters and Hot Mama.
Best New Stores
Allee Metrochic
Tucked away down a cobblestone path, Alee Metrochic is St. Paul’s newest gem. The shop carries cute, European-inspired dresses, coats and separates — not to mention locally designed handbags and jewelry, and clothes by Joynoelle.
Bluepeg
Fashion savvy guys should look no further than Bluepeg, the latest addition to 50th and France. The shop is full of great basic from brands like Postage, Luke Simon and Alternative Apparel.
C’est Chic Boutique
It’s about time we got another independent clothing store downtown. With an array of European and local brands, loads of colorful clothes, and a stellar jewelry collection, C’est Chic is a breath of fresh French air.
Bombshell
You gotta love a shop that doesn’t truly believe the average woman fits into a size four. (Hello, reality?) Grand Avenue’s newest shop caters to stylish curvy ladies with national and international labels at affordable prices.
GUILD
This is the best store we’ve found that has a little of everything (home décor, vintage clothing, antiques, furniture) and the taste level to pull it off. The highly curated shop is run by a group of likeminded designers who are unnaturally good at finding beauty in rare items.
Lesser-Known Fashion Blogs
minneapolisaffair.com
Minneapolis’ answer to The Sartorialist has arrived. Professional portrait photographer Wynona Grey and husband Reed Grey, a real estate broker, have created a clean, minimalistic street fashion blog with truly impressive photography. Minneapolis never looked so fashionable—or multicultural.
dirtyhairhalo.com
This local outfit blog may be new to us, but it seems to be a regular read for the rest of the world. Featured on Glamour.com, Elle.es and MTV.com, this gorgeous blogger’s outfits are creative, chic and surprisingly accessible.
clichempls.blogspot.com
Written by staff at Cliché boutique, this new blog highlights unique finds at the shop, and also thought-provoking essays on industry trends and styling inspiration.
ignitemodelsinc.blogspot.com
We love checking out the new talent cropping up at one of the Twin Cities’ best modeling agencies. Ignite regularly posts photos of test shoots, editorials and just-signed newbies.
froma2j.blogspot.com
Explore the world of wardrobe styling and local modeling through the eyes of working girl AJ Lund. Her blog features behind-the-scenes photos, tips for people who want to work in the industry and personal anecdotes.
Readers’ pick:
Best local fashion designer: Kim Jurek
FOOD
THE Place to Eat in 2010
Haute Dish (read more here)
Best New Additions to the Restaurant Scene (take the video tour here)
Travail
Heartland
Piccolo
Street food (read more here)
Food We Could Have Survived on in 2010 (take the video tour here)
Street food. Have you heard about street food? We are quite fond of street food.
[Fill in the Blank]s Are the New Cupcakes
Doughnuts
Macarons
Eclairs
We still dig cupcakes
Cake Eater's chai cupcakes. Photo by Tate Carlson.
Mecca’s Top 21 Dishes You’ve Probably Never Heard of: 2011 Edition
If you’re looking for the best of the best, you can read all about it in the December issue of METRO, and probably lots of other sources as well. When it comes time to compile these lists, it becomes apparent that I’ve read, written, heard it all before. So have you. And isn’t it my job to give you a little something different? To sniff out the secrets of the city and tell you something, for once, you don’t already know? So here it is, my first annual top twenty (plus one) dishes you’ve probably never heard of. Sometimes lowbrow, but always delicious. Enjoy, and happy almost New Year!
Honey Smoked Ham, Rice and Beans from San Pedro Café, Hudson Wisconsin
If you should end up in Hudson, perhaps after a debaucherous evening you started in Minneapolis and can hardly remember at this point, this surprising breakfast might help steady you. A refreshing break from eggs, the smoky ham acts as a perfect counterpoint to fortifying black beans and rice. A real rock star of a brunch.
Sausage and Sauerkraut Pizza, Savoy
When your hungover roommate insists that you order this pie, which seems like a very bad idea indeed, trust him just this once. Combining the high and low flavor notes necessary for a good pie, kraut acting as acid and crunch, sausage as its fatty foil, you’ve got the best of a couple good junk food worlds, all in one cheesy-blanketed place.
Buffalo Chicken Pizza, Loring Kitchen
Speaking of combining junk foods, I will not make apologies for my love of the buffalo pizza hybrid, in my opinion as bonafide a genius move as brilliant as the Girl Scout cookie Blizzard. Loring Kitchen has been tweaking their version, the chicken spicy as it should be, and my favorite flourish, real St. Pete’s select locally made blue cheese. Ask real nice and they’ll give you more on the side.
Truffle Whipped Brie, Barbette
This is not the place to go on about executive chef Kevin Kathmann’s talent, which he has in spades. Instead, this simple quenelle of truffle whipped brie—exactly what it sounds like and nothing more, was one of the highlights of the summer. If it’s off the menu, it’s worth groveling for.
Fried Shishito Peppers, Nick & Eddie
These mildly sweet peppers are sometimes nicknamed “Russian Roulette Peppers,” as every now and then you’ll get a hot one. Lightly fried and salted, they’re the new edamame.
Spaghetti Nero, D’Amico Cucina
For me, squid ink is one of those rare delicacies that actually lives up to its hype. Tasting like nothing else on earth, it’s the most enchanting way to flavor pasta, like this one from D’Amico Cucina, accented with manila clams and garlic fried breadcrumbs.
La Miche Loaf, Patisserie 46
If you haven’t already heard of this bread, well then that’s a crime. Quite possibly the most beautiful loaf of bread you’ve ever seen, a La Miche is roughly the size of a throw pillow. A large throw pillow. The kind of rustic crust that echos when you knock on it, inside it’s a dense, yeasty dream—all wheat and malt and fortification. If you want, they’ll give you only half, but as a whole, it makes the most impressive of gifts.
Cuke Nuts
Cuke Nuts are exactly what they look like. Wee, teeny tiny little cucumbers that you can pop into your mouth, one by one, like corn nuts, only way more refreshing. They’re just ripe for the pickling, or just as wonderful raw, seen here on a carpaccio by Ben Pichler of Grand Café. Seek them out next summer at the farmer’s market.
Bent River Camembert with Milk from Cedar Summit Farm
As perhaps the most recognizable French, rind ripened brie-style cheese, Minnesota doesn’t seem to factor in. But oh, how it does. Bent River uses cow milk from Cedar Summit Farm in New Prague. So creamy it shines like melted caramel, with funky notes that define a good Camembert. These two worlds coming together—dessert creaminess plus edge, its good any time of day, for any reason.
Hot Links by Erik Anderson
It’s true that chef Erik Anderson is mostly known for his role with delicate fish dishes at seafood juggarnaut Sea Change, but have you tried his sausage? Anderson has plenty of porky tricks up his sleeve, such as this torpedo of love, the hot link, paired dangerously here with a whole grilled jalapeno. Also, Anderson hails from Chicago, so he’s got a certain touch with tube meat. You won’t be able to get them just anytime, but check out Gastro non Grata events next summer on the Sea Change patio.
Foie Gras Dog, Victory 44
It’s not often that a food item actually makes you blush, but that’s likely to happen when you’re confronted with something so wrong, yet right, as this foie gras dog from Victory 44. A housemade frank gets paired with three fat slices of torchon, rendering what has probably been the most indulgent treat of my year. Grainy mustard provides balance with a bit of grit and much-needed acid foil. Obscene? Maybe. Delicious? Definitely.
Grand Ole Creamery Pizza
One of the sweetest discoveries of my summer is that Grand Ole Creamery makes pizza (St. Paul restaurant lore has it that Punch, across the street, started serving ice cream, so Grand had no choice. . . ) That said, this pie is not just an afterthought, but instead a gargantuan, indulgent pie with carbon blisters on the bottom, expensive cheese on top, and well sourced sausage and pepperoni—check out the meat lover’s situation, beyond a college student’s dream come true. It’s also probably the best deal in town—a giant pie costing less than what two of those Frisbee sized things across the street would. And the best part? They’ll throw in a free pint of ice cream, flavor choice yours, with delivery. Now that’s really something.
Pork Hash, Caribe
It’s a crime, the number of restaurants that can’t poach an egg. Caribe’s poaching skills—perfect bubbly orbs, yolks golden and runny—are alone worth the trek on a Sunday morning. But when you add them to pulled pork seasoned with spicy sofrito and potatoes, you have a dish that makes getting out of bed a pleasure.
Egg Sandwiches, Golden’s Deli
A well-made egg sandwich is an underrated art. That said, my perfect egg sandwich may be different than yours, so enter Golden’s Deli. The sunny café, in perfect proximity to the St. Paul farmer’s market, offers a build-your-own option when it comes to the eggwich, allowing you to mix and match your bread, your egg preparation, and your accoutrements. Behold, the fried egg on foccocia with tomato, bacon, cheddar and cream cheese. Take it to go, and stroll along the farmer’s market aisles, vowing to eat just field greens for dinner.
Pork Belly with Fig, Il Gatto
It’s a rare thing indeed when a chef takes it on himself to show restraint, and to make a decision to not show the world everything he can do, on every single plate. This being the calling of Italian food, and Tim Mc Kee being a chef of sophistication and maturity, this is a marriage made in restaurant heaven. Take for instance this fatty slab of pork belly (essentially the most indulgent bacon you’ve ever had) slathered in nothing but top-notch olive oil, balsamic, a few very ripe figs and basil.
Cold Szechuan Noodles, Szechuan Spice
Take the heady spice of szechuan chili oil, and add it to a cold noodle presentation, and what you take away is an ultra harmonious gathering of the senses—hot meets cold meets chew meets crunch of peanuts equaling pure satisfaction. This is a perfect, classic dish, and it’s all yours for a few bucks no further than Uptown. Brilliant.
Ghost Pepper Salsa, Barrio
Developed by the chefs at Barrio when customers complained of habanero salsa being overly mild, ghost pepper salsa can be had for the asking at Barrio. These beautiful to look at, intoxicating chiles have an amazing aroma and addictive flavor in addtion to their searing heat-- about eight times hotter than habaneros. Again, ask for it by name at Barrio, but use caution. I’ve eaten this, and it’s a lethal weapon—sexy, but dangerous.
Pig’s Trotter with Kimchee and Duck Egg, Travail
Sometimes, you wish the cool kids of progressive cuisine would show a little restraint, and then sometimes they nail it. This dish, from the fledgling Travail, falls into the latter category—the kind of thing that combines just the right elements of fat, zing, and smooth technique (kimchee is housemade, natch.) This dish, perfect for hangover-busting brunch, is just as delightful at dinner. It may not be on the menu when you go, but its well worth asking for.
Inside Out Tuna Roll with Lime & Cilantro, Thom Pham’s Wondrous Kitchen
It’s not very often that a restaurant staff will share with you their own special secrets, the way they tweak the menu to suit their own particular tastes, to make things palatable to those who’ve tasted it all. But such was the case with the revelatory inside out tuna roll with cilantro and lime, the way my server Ryan told me he always orders things. The end result was an east-meets-southwest version of sushi, all seafood and citrus and the interest of herb. Try it—you’ll probably like it.
Wild Mushroom Flatbread, Longfellow Grill
There’s pizza, and there are the kinds of things that sort of stand in as pizza, and the latter is usually not as inspiring as the former. But not so with this flatbread from Longfellow Grill, lacking any kind of sauce but no worse the wear for it— vast handfuls of meaty wild mushrooms are the star of the show, blanketed by more handfuls of expensive cheese, and then a why-the-hell-not flourish of truffle oil. The whole thing is as craveable a snack as you can stand to have around here, for not too much dough.
Banh Mi, Scenic Café
I’m a little embarrassed to report that a highbrow café in Wisconsin has the best banh mi in the region, but there it is, and I’m not taking it back. Harbor View, the worth-the-drive little bistro overlooking lake superior has taken this humble yet famous sandwich, and elevated it even still with fussily julienned veg, smooth as butter pate, tangy and succulent pork terrine, and an aioli that’s prettily piped rather than slathered. This, taken with a glass of wine on a hot as bathwater July day is what dreams are made of.
Readers’ picks:
Best restaurant: Aster Café, Meritage and 112 Eatery (tie)
Best coffee shop: 318 Café and Spyhouse (tie)
Best bakery: Cake Eater
Far Afield: Five Laudable Productions Outside the Expected Environs
Fissures (lost and found)
In order to catch the premiere of this entrancing, hour-long collaboration between Minneapolis’s Workhaus Collective and former members of Theatre de la Jeune Lune, one had to travel to Louisville’s Humana Festival last spring. And was it ever worth it—spiraling around memories and slippery impressions, lending room for an ace cast to do its stuff, Fissures was the One That Got Away for local audiences in 2010. Please, someone find a way to stage this show locally in 2011.
Nature
Tiger Lion Arts put on a show at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum that, on the surface, had all the makings of an After School Special: the story of the friendship between Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, played out in a bucolic setting with live period music. But it worked. This meditation on nature and mortality lent a haunting poetry to a summer evening, even if the mosquitoes were absolute bastards.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
See enough theater, and you will eventually see Shakespeare’s homage to young love/lust and fairy dust get stomped, creased and manhandled by casts not up to the task of reviving the familiar story. But Strange Capers took to Powderhorn Park last summer and, for those who showed up with a folding chair and an afternoon to kill, staged a lively, funny and sexy Midsummer that left one hankering for a weird dream of one’s own.
Traveling Light
Having driven past the Layman’s Cemetery off Lake Street countless times, it was enticing to have an excuse to finally drive in and have a look around (there’s nothing like a century old, crumbling tombstone to give you pause). But once Theatre Pro Rata’s Traveling Light started after sundown, the audience was transported to a fictional night in London in the 1960s, where playwright Joe Orton and Beatles impresario met toward the end of their brief lives. Terrific acting, a spooky locale and a genuine sense of depth impressed this one in memory.
Why We Love Small Theaters
The Transdimensional Courier’s Union
Walking Shadow followed up on the 2009 sci-fi mind bomb Robots vs. Fake Robots with an original script by John Heimbuch. The premise was simple enough: a hand-held time-travel device hits the market, becomes as ubiquitous as the iPod, and proceeds to make an absolute hash of anything we currently understand as a coherent timeline. If the premise thrilled the inner geek, the reality went miles beyond: a great cast, tight execution, with genuine thrills and roller-coaster momentum. On any short list for the best local show in the last five years.
Dancing at Lughnasa
This story of a family of Irish women struggling to survive was an exercise in taut dramatic storytelling. It also showcased a ridiculous wealth of local female acting talent: Tracey Maloney, Mo Perry, Stacia Rice, Amanda Whisner and Karen Wiese-Thompson. Say no more.
Music Lovers
There’s nothing like the thrill of witnessing the alchemy between a fine new script and a group of performers who essentially plug it in and crank it up to eleven. Alan Berks’s story of a group of friends and lovers whose lives revolve around rock’n’roll unfolded all over the Playwrights’ Center black box, drawing the audience into a measured story about the disappearance of youth and the necessity of figuring out what comes next.
Burn This
Gremlin Theatre meets Lanford Wilson in a show about Manhattan sophisticates in the 1980s. Wait, come back. The Gremlin space is increasingly a go-to destination, if not a can’t-miss then at least an I-don’t-want-to-miss-out. And this production—smart, wildly entertaining and unexpectedly moving—afforded a stellar local cast (anchored by wildman Peter Hansen and a soulful Katie Guentzel) a near-perfect showcase. The only disappointment was when it was over.
Le Squat
Paul Herwig of Off-Leash Area lived up to his company’s name in this elliptical story of his time spent in a Paris squat in the 1980s, allowing himself to go barking mad in the service of evoking everyone from an alcoholic wastrel to a change-vomiting French Minister of Culture. In the tiny confines of the OLA performance space (a converted three-car garage), you either bought into the craziness or you didn’t. If you did, it was unforgettable.
We Love Big Theaters, Too
(Note: You may find yourself on this list and not consider yourself a big theater. We get it. But if you have a long track record in a dedicated space, we’re lumping you in with the Big Blue Behemoth. It’s a compliment.)
The Scottsboro Boys
Kander and Ebb’s final musical eyeballed horrible racial injustice in early 20th-century America and converted a real-life story into a genuinely provocative, daring and unsettling evening. The show came under criticism for incorporating minstrel-show conventions into its strange brew, as it deserved to, but there was no denying its force and dizzying subversion. This Broadway tune-up went on to die a quick death in New York, so local audiences got what might turn out to be a rare look at a powerful oddity.
City of Angels
A fictional private detective and the author who created him faced off in this relentlessly oddball musical, along the way livening up Bloomington Civic Theatre with dark textures and no shortage of wit. With a big 17-piece orchestra, this was an example of what high-end community theater can be: ambitious, nervy and willing to eschew compromise. After all the rip-offs and double-crosses, we were left unsure what’s real and what isn’t, both within the theater and without—no small accomplishment.
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
At intermission of this show at the Jungle, the audience in the lobby looked as though they had just spent the last hour being shocked into submission—and they couldn’t wait to get back inside for more. You have to love it when a play you thought you knew is unveiled with new, stark and unnerving tones. This story of a bickering professor, his wife and a young couple unfortunate enough to go home with them reminded us why Edward Albee is still considered a titan.
Brief Encounter
From the U.K. came Kneehigh Theatre back in February to deliver this wistful, aching Noel Coward adaptation. Using the play and film of the same name for inspiration, this production melded music, projection and physical theatricality to tell this story of a pair of star-crossed, impossible lovers. Our lives might be silly little things, but forgive us if we take them seriously.
Two Old Black Guys Just Sitting Around Talking
James Craven and Abdul Salaam el Razzac played a couple of long-time rivals and enthusiastic haters who, finally old and lonely, found themselves with no one to turn to but each other. This one was decidedly short on warm and fuzzies, instead featuring a couple of brilliant actors using their characters’ mutual enmity to drive one another to vivid, finely drawn performances. This was as engaging and acute as any night out in 2010—and even dared to send us off into the night with a smattering of hope. Thanks, guys.
Readers’ picks:
Best theater production: Frank Theatre’s Santaland Diaries and Ballet of the Dolls’ Cinderfella (tie)
MUSIC
Best Reallllllly Slow Jams
Bedroom Dr. Dementos reinvigorated a tried-and-true production gag this year, slowing pop songs to glacial tempos and posting the creepy-funny results to YouTube. If the Devil made records, they’d sound like the following.
“Gimme Pizza - High Times Version”
Originally a harmless rap recorded by the Olson Twins in their Full House days. Decelerated, it turns grimy, funky and vaguely inappropriate.
Miley Cyrus sounds like that “lotion in the basket” creepster from Silence of the Lambs in this ghoulish version of her hit song.
“Justin Bieber 800% Slower”
Whoever hit the “sleep” button on this Bieber tune was smart enough to retain the track’s original pitch level. The outcome is a dreamy soundscape on which, against all odds, Bieber’s voice is listenable.
Local Bands to Watch in 2011
Waxx Maxx
This new Mark Mallman project is less kitschy than Ruby Isle and synthier than his solo work.
Pink Mink
You really can’t go wrong when Arzu Gokcen (Selby Tigers, Strut and Shock, So Fox, famed Staraoke hostess) is involved.
Grant Cutler and the Gorgeous Lords
The former Passions and Lookbook member has struck out on his own.
Hastings 3000
This one-man band mixes punk, blues, surf and garage rock, and it totally works.
Is/Is
This trio, which includes Sarah Nienaber of Gospel Gossip, is brimming with superior shoegaze-reminiscent songwriting.
Albums that Proved Music Can Still Be Pretty
Blonde Redhead – Penny Sparkle
Tame Impala - Innerspeaker
Dark Dark Dark – Wild Go
Owen Pallett - Heartland
Beach House – Teen Dream
Albums that Proved Music Can Still Hurt (In the Best Way Possible)
Marnie Stern – Marnie Stern
Les Savy Fav – Root for Ruin
Screaming Females – Castle Talk
Titus Andronicus – The Monitor
Sleigh Bells - Treats
Albums that Proved Dancing is Not Dead
METRO's September cover girl and Prince fave Janelle Monae – The Archandroid
Big Boi – Sir Luscious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty
LCD Soundsystem – This is Happening
Gorillaz – Plastic Beach
Robyn – Body Talk
And One that Proved "OK, Maybe It is"
M.I.A. - MAYA
Albums that Proved Creepers, Crazies and Cult Members Make the Best Music
Grinderman – Grinderman 2
CocoRosie – Grey Oceans
Prince Rama – Shadow Temple
Tobacco – Maniac Meat
Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti – Before Today
Top Fictional Hip-hop Songs of 2010
"Drury Lane Bitch" by Muffin Man
"You Can Do That There (Right There)" by Coyote
"Stanky Drawls" by The Ponzi Boyz
"I Seem to Have Misplaced my Wallet" by Dr. Eugene Berryman
"Ambien Sexx" by S’Kittles
Musical Moments that Made Us Want to Party Like it's Some Other Decade
The 40th anniversary of First Avenue
The Corin Tucker Band’s album 1,000 Years, and Wild Flag, the new project featuring the other members of Sleater-Kinney.
We saw Superchunk, Pavement, Guided by Voices, The Suburbs and The Vaselines this year. Uh, what year is it?
Readers’ picks:
Best album: Arcade Fire’s The Suburbs
Best concert: The Suburbs at First Avenue and Lady Gaga at Xcel Energy Center (tie)
Best radio station: 89.3 The Current
Local band to watch in 2011: Communist Daughter
Best music venue: First Avenue
Most Memorable Twins Moments of 2010
Even though the Twins weren’t World Series champs in 2010, there were many moments that made the season exceptional.
American League Central Division Champion
Staying up late and waiting by the television to find out the results of the White Sox game in August was like sitting on pins and needles. When the game ended and it was final, we clinched another division win—the much-deserved cherry on top of a fantastic season. Players and management, you played your hearts out for us and looked good doing so (yes Joe, we are talking to you). Thank you, fellas, for giving those of us in Twins territory another reason—besides the numerous ones we already have—to be proud to call ourselves fans.
Jim Thome
August 17, 2010. Bottom of the 10th; Twins are down 5 to 6 against the White Sox. Jim Thome steps up to the plate and knocks the ball out of the park for the first ever walk-off homerun at Target Field. Earlier in the season he ties, and then breaks, Harmon Killebrew’s homerun record—in the same game. When you think of the 2010 Twins season you think Jim Thome. Thome himself is a top moment of 2010, a first-class season for a first-class guy. Please Jimmy, come back to us.
Da ‘Stache
The morning Carl Pavano decided not to shave was the morning that would start a movement—not just of him dominating the mound, but of facial hair sweeping the players and Twins territory. Carl Pavano’s mustache became its own entity (and even made the METRO 100 list) in 2010; we can’t knock it because it looked good.
Jason Kubel’s Grand slam in Yankee stadium.
For a Twins fan there is no greater feeling then being able to say a big “suck it” to the Yankees, and Kube’s grand slam in Yankee’s stadium this past season did just that. Thank you Kube, for doing what the rest of us needed you to do. And suck it, Yanks.
Opening day of the inaugural season of Target Field.
You can’t deny it—being outside for brings something special to any baseball game, and after many memorable years in the Metrodome we were ready to be outside. We felt it the second we stepped off the light rail on opening day: an energy that cannot be described in words. The opening ceremony was amazing to watch as memories of the past seasons came across the big screen, and at the end of the National Anthem jets flew over in honor of the troops. Then the Davids who have slain the Goliaths of the Twins’ past came to the mound to throw the opening pitch: The Killer, Tony O, Rod Carew, Kent Hrbek and the son of Kirby Puckett came to the field. For Twins fans, this as good as it gets.
Most Memorable Vikings Moments
Brett Favre, despite the fact he's a grandfather and as gray as Ian McKellen, decides to play another season.
We picked up Randy Moss because he's talented.
We dropped Randy Moss because he's an asshole.
We dropped Brad Childress because he's an asshole.
Watching the Metrodome collapse (and later the Vikings at TCF Bank Stadium) under 17 inches of Minnesota's finest.
AROUND TOWN
Neighborhoods that Make Us Happy to be Twin Citians—Even During Snowmageddon.
Cedar/Riverside (Minneapolis)
Between the Cedar Cultural Center, the Triple Rock Social Club, Palmer’s, Hard Times, Chai’s Thai and the Wienery (and everything in between) there isn’t a culinary or cultural need that goes unmet in this neighborhood.
Stevens Square (Minneapolis)
Conveniently located near Uptown, Eat Street, Downtown, 35W and 94, Stevens Square is an unassuming little nook that’s home to the Stevens Square Center for the Arts, the Boiler Room Café and plenty of quaint brownstone buildings—five of which are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Bryn Mawr (Minneapolis)
This quaint “cottage community” sits on the border between Minneapolis, Golden Valley and St. Louis Park and is home to parks, lakes and trails galore.
West Side (St. Paul)
River bluffs? Panaderias? Proximity to the Wabasha Street Caves? Check, check and check. So what if it’s technically on the east side of St. Paul?
Loring Park (Minneapolis)
With the Walker, a million cafes and downtown all within walking distance—and the return of the Pride Festival and the Basilica Block Party every summer—there’s never a dull moment in Loring.
The 2010 Scott Seekins Award for Local Ubiquity Goes to … Jay Gabler, Associate Editor, Twin Cities Daily Planet
Move over Jason DeRusha. Jay Gabler became the Cities’ most visible man about town this year by attending nearly every local cultural happening (There he is at the Alec Soth show! Is that him at Mos Def?), infiltrating local media (We just heard him on MPR!) and Tweeting his every move (sample: “Naturally, on the one night at Club Jäger that I don’t have a single drink, I smack into the door frame on my way out.”) Either he’s cloned himself or he never sleeps. Or both. Whatever his secret, his omnipresence scares and fascinates us.
Bars Beyond Bars
All hail these progressive pubs
Where We Drank When We Weren’t Feeling Quite So Progressive
Grumpy’s
Readers’ picks:
Best neighborhood: Northeast Minneapolis
Best bar: Grumpy's, Brit’s Pub and 331 (tie)
BEST OF THE REST
Local Blogs That Made Us Go "Hmm…" (in a Good Way)
Minneapolis Fucking Rocks
Things I Found (at the Thrift Store) (read the METRO story here)
Heavy Table (Those drool-inducing photos alone are enough to make us bookmark that thing)
LOL/OMG and MPLS.TV (Two words: Dude Weather)
Viral Videos Even the METRO Office Succumbed to
Double Rainbow guy
Bed Intruder - This one even infiltrated our Halloween pumpkin-carving contest, and some of us may or may not have purchased the iPhone app.
Gimme Pizza (slow version) - This one just straight up gave us nightmares
Best of the Best of the Best (i.e., Best Best-of Lists)
Pitchfork’s Top 50 Albums list
Making end-of-the-year drunken hipster debates an annual tradition since 1996.
The Hollywood Black List
A list of the year's best screenplays that never got produced
The New York Times Best Books of 2010 list
Yep, Freedom’s on there.
Dogs dressed as Harry Potter
Not particularly topical, or timely. Just our gift to you.
Happy New Year!
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Off-the-beaten-path neighborhoods in which to partake in some seriously good shopping.
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