I think I've FINALLY come down from the high that was my birthday weekend this year. It was a whirlwind couple of days and we had so much fun venturing around the Twin Cities, catching up with some of my college buddies and exploring new breweries and restaurants. I tried (keyword: tried) to take a photo everywhere we went, but sometimes the beer had other plans for me 😜, so here's all of what we did in our very fun two days in Minneapolis/St. Paul!
DAY 1 | Friday, October 25
6:40 AM
Up, up and away we go from MOL to MSP for a nice, early landing of 8:15 AM. From the airport, we took their very user-friendly metro transit downtown to the AC Hotel in downtown Minneapolis to drop off our bags.
9:00 AM
At this point, we're ready to get the party started. Unfortunately, we were just about the only people in Minneapolis looking to turn up before 10 AM on a Friday 😂. So, after a walking a few blocks downtown we finally found some warmth (and beers!) at Tullibee, located inside of the Hewing Hotel. To start, I warmed up with a hot cup of coffee while Danny asked for a beer menu. The coffee came out in a pint glass with the cutest wool drink sleeve!
11 AM
Note to self: Most places don't start serving alcohol, or even open, until 11 AM. After having a few local brews at Tullibee, we stumbled upon a Minneapolis favorite - Black Sheep Pizza. It's coal fired pizza, which ended up going amazing with our day of beer drinking and we highly recommend the build your own with fennel sausage and garlic - YUM!
12 PM
After finishing our delicious lunch at Black Sheep Pizza, we walked to Modist Brewing Co. which had a great selection of New England IPA's, Milkshakes and, my personal favorite, their coffee lager - First Call. Not only was their beer delicious, but they also had an impressive selection of board games which we took full advantage of! After a few games of Sequence, it was onto the next brewery.
2:30 PM
Danny did a great job plotting out our day and knew where every brewery was in relation to our hotel and the other breweries we were visiting. From Modist, we walked to the next brewery - Inbound BrewCo. While no board games here, it was dog-friendly and had flavored pretzels for purchase! If we were more hungry, we could have indulged in some food from the food truck that they had parked outside (which smelled divine, btw), but we opted to save some room for our dinner later in the evening so pretzels tied us over nicely!
4:40 PM
At this point, it's already been a day - and we haven't even checked into our room yet! On our walk back to the hotel, we stumble upon some Lime scooters. We've seen these parked/dumped all over Minneapolis and decide to give them a shot! $10 later, ($5 per bike) and we're scooting our way back to the AC Hotel.
5 PM
After checking in, it's time for a nap to gear up for our late dinner reservation. 😴
8:45 PM
Fully rested and ready for some Italian, we make it to our 8:45 PM reservation at Bar La Grassa with my close college friend Danielle and her husband Eric (whose due date is coming up very soon for baby Dandurand!!). Between catching up, Danny and I enjoyed the arancini, bucatini carbonara and the red wine spaghetti (they actually boil the noodles in red wine - ugh, even typing it makes my mouth water!). Highly, highly recommend!! Be sure to make reservations a few weeks in advance, because it fills up quick.
12:30 AM
And, just like that, it was a half hour before they close! It's so easy to lose track of time when you're with great friends. Danielle and Eric dropped us back off at the hotel and down we went for the night.
DAY 2 | SATURDAY, OCTOBER 26
11:30 AM
After a long day, and a fun, late night - we rewarded ourselves with some much needed R&R, before starting our second day in the cities. At 10:30 AM, we grabbed a ride to St. Paul where we began the day at my favorite coffee shop from college - Coffee Bene. Is it the greatest coffee in the world? I won't claim that, however it was the first place I ever tried coffee and it helped me get through many all-nighter's finishing projects and papers (thank God for caffeine, amiright?!). And, I finally figured out the name of the drink I used to get - The Milly Chocha (chilly mocha). So. Good.
Coffee Bene is right across the street from the University of St. Thomas (where I went to college) so Danny and I spent some time walking through campus, going into the gift shop, etc. so I could walk down memory lane. I do really love college campus' in the fall - there's just something about the fallen leaves and brisk air that brings me back to that time in my life.
The walking continued as we left campus and headed up Selby Ave., past my college house (where my 1848 girls at?) and to our lunch spot.
1 PM
Two blocks from my college house is Blue Door Pub, known for their cheese-stuffed burgers called Blucy's (or, Juicy Lucy's in other bars around the Twin Cities). We started with an order of their flaming-hot cheese curds along with a few beers as we waited for some friends to join us. For my meal, I ordered the Mt. Blucuvious, which was stuffed with ghost pepper cheese, and topped with fried avocado, spicy bacon and a cilantro lime sauce - it was to die for. This is a go-to restaurant anytime we're in the cities and they have since expanded to four metro locations and one inside of the MSP airport.
2:30 PM
Did someone say beer? Yup, next stop was another brewery in St. Paul called Black Stack Brewing where we enjoyed a brew with friends and played Cards Against Humanity. Next to Black Stack, is Can Can Wonderland - an amusement-type park with old school games, an indoor miniature golf course, pour-your-own beer wall, and a bomb photo wall, which we took full advantage of!
5 PM
One. More. Brewery. on our weekend agenda, which brought us to downtown St. Paul at Barrel Theory Beer Company. I'm going to be completely honest, I don't remember a lot of what the beer tasted like here since we'd been drinking for a few hours at this point, but we had a blast here! We even made friends with the two people (not a couple - brother and sister, they had to point out) sitting next to us 🤣.
7:30 PM
Apparently all great things come from Selby Ave. in St Paul, because we headed there for dinner, too! If you haven't noticed I'm big into anything spicy, so a Southern comfort food spot with Nashville hot chicken is right up my alley. And let me tell you, Revival lived up to expectations! We ordered an appetizer of the hush puppies, fried chicken thigh sandwich (tenn hott, I was advised not to go with poultrygeist and after trying a tad, I'm happy they steered me away! It was hottttttt), and Danny ordered some Southern fried chicken. I would recommend anyone go here if you're into comfort and/or spicy food, but just make sure you make a reservation ahead of time unless you don't mind waiting at the bar.
9 PM
During dinner, I started to reminisce on college a bit more and somehow by the grace of God convinced him to go to the bar we used to go out at all the time back in the day - Plums. It was so much fun getting to show him around the cities and had so many fun times in. We sat at the bar, sipped on some, you guessed it - beer - and even took a shots of Scooby Snacks! The two of us had a blast reminiscing and watching the college kids slowly start filtering in for their night out. After a beer and a scooby snack, we Uber'd home!
The next morning, we slept in and headed straight to the airport to fly back into Moline. It was an amazing birthday weekend and I would love to give anyone recommendations if you're planning a trip there (although, I'd advise going spring, summer or fall - winters can get nasty).
Thank you to absolutely everyone who helped make my birthday special - I have a feeling great things are in store for year 29!