36 Hours in Minneapolis (2024)

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• The Highpoint Center for Printmaking is a cultural hub with gallery spaces and a printmaking co-op for artists working in various media, from screen-printing to lithography.
• Owamni won the James Beard Award for Best New Restaurant in 2022 and has a singular commitment to using only ingredients native to North America.
• Open Book, a three-story literary arts center, is a downtown destination for book lovers.
• Marty’s Deli is a sunny shop in the Northeast with outstanding egg-and-cheese breakfast sandwiches.

• Berlin, a polished new jazz club, hosts performers ranging from string trios to ambient bands.
• Mixed Blood, a theater and social justice organization, stages plays in a former firehouse in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood.
• The Lake of the Isles, with leafy islands, marshy coves and a winding lakeside path, is a popular loop for a morning walk.
• Bde Maka Ska is a larger oval lake with areas for fishing, swimming, biking and canoeing along a three-mile pedestrian path.
• Bryant Lake Bowl, a classic eight-lane bowling alley, was originally built in the 1930s.
• The Walker Art Center, the city’s preeminent arts institution, has an adjacent sculpture garden with a secluded bunkerlike installation by James Turrell.

• Spoon and Stable is a bustling restaurant in the Warehouse District with a beautiful back-lit bar and lively see-and-be-seen atmosphere.
• Meteor, a bar on an industrial block by the Mississippi River, serves excellent co*cktails as well as boilermakers and hot dogs.
• Laune Bread bakes hearty sourdough loaves, mandarin-marmalade Danish pastries, chocolatey babka knots and honey-sesame coconut macaroons.
• Indeed Brewing Company is a popular brewery with delightfully unusual craft beers and an inviting taproom displaying whimsical artworks.
• Pryes Brewing Company, an enormous brewery on the western bank of the river, has citrusy West Coast-style I.P.A.s and a lane for feather bowling (a game somewhat similar to bocce).
• At Kim’s, a new restaurant from the chef Ann Kim, the Korean-American menu includes a tasty twist on mac and cheese.
• Bronto Bar, down a mural-splashed alley, is a moody basem*nt bar with fun co*cktails.

• Milkweed Editions is an independent publisher with a bookshop on the first floor of the Open Book arts center.
• Minnesota Center for Book Arts has a shop filled with literary gifts, including quirky zines, letterpress cards and hand-sewn books.
• The Weinstein Hammons Gallery is a well-regarded space specializing in contemporary photography.
• Northern Clay Center displays wide-ranging ceramic artworks.
• All My Relations Gallery showcases the work of Native American artists.
• The Northrup King Building, a massive brick industrial complex in the Northeast, houses over 300 art studios, galleries and shops.

• The Four Seasons Minneapolis, the city’s first five-star hotel, opened downtown in 2022 in a gleaming 36-story tower with 222 rooms and suites, indoor and outdoor pools, an al fresco bar and a restaurant run by the local chef Gavin Kaysen. Rooms start at $535.
• The Hewing Hotel is a boutique property with a prime location in the historic Warehouse District, a neighborhood also known as the North Loop. In addition to 124 guest rooms, the handsome brick building also boasts a rooftop sauna and lounge, as well as a rustic Nordic-inspired restaurant. Rooms start at around $320.
• The Element Minneapolis Downtown is another solid option in the walkable North Loop area with 156 contemporary rooms, free daily breakfast, a panoramic roof deck and an attached parking garage. Rooms start at around $229.
• Look for a short-term rental in the Warehouse District, a safe downtown neighborhood with many modern apartments within walking distance of cafes, restaurants, bars and breweries.

• There are two light rail lines, one of which connects the airport and downtown. But beyond that you’ll want a car. Parking is relatively easy; download the MPLS Parking app to pay where applicable. Those without wheels can take buses (fares from $2) and taxis. For now, there are also two ride-hailing options: Uber and Lyft (but that may soon change; both companies plan to exit the city on July 1, when a new ordinance requiring higher pay for drivers is expected to go into effect).

4 p.m. Search for prints at the source

For a friendly introduction to the city’s engaging arts community, start in the southwestern Uptown neighborhood at the Highpoint Center for Printmaking. At this multipurpose cultural hub, staff gladly guide visitors through the gallery spaces and the printmaking co-op, an area with machinery used by local artists working in various media, including screen-printing and lithography. Don’t miss the small Highpoint Editions gallery showcasing fine artworks made on-site, including a series of haunting abstract screen-prints entitled “Corner of Lake and Minnehaha,” by the artist Julie Mehretu, who was inspired by a photograph taken at the Minneapolis intersection during the turmoil ignited by the killing of George Floyd in 2020.

5:30 p.m. Taste the local bounty

Book an early table at Owamni, which earned the prestigious James Beard Award for Best New Restaurant in 2022. The chef Sean Sherman, of the Oglala Lakota Sioux tribe, has a singular commitment to using only ingredients native to North America, so expect no wheat flour, dairy or cane sugar. The menu changes seasonally and recently included an earthy tepary-bean dip with pepitas and wild-rice crackers ($12), smoked quahog clams ($40) and tender bison tacos with guajillo-chili salsa ($9). For a drink and something sweet, stroll up the street to Spoon and Stable, a bustling restaurant in the fashionable Warehouse District with a lively see-and-be-seen atmosphere. Grab a seat at the beautiful back-lit bar, which was remodeled earlier this year. A recent dessert stand-out was the almond cake with coconut and lime curd, pineapple sherbet and a sprinkle of ancho chile powder ($15).

7:30 p.m. Catch a live performance

In addition to the Guthrie Theater, with its acclaimed repertory and modern geometric architecture, and First Avenue, a cavernous rock club where the hometown artist Prince performed in the 1984 film “Purple Rain,” Minneapolis is also home to several smaller stages worth seeking out. Across the street from Spoon and Stable, duck inside Berlin, a polished jazz club that opened in February with acts ranging from string trios to ambient bands (cover is usually $10 to $25). Or see if there’s a play running at Mixed Blood, a theater and social justice organization in a former firehouse in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood. Admission is by donation, an effort to remove all barriers to attend performances, which recently included “The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington,” a satire by the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright James Ijames.

10:30 p.m. Down a drink at a dive

For cheap beer and a shot of whiskey, you’ll do fine at any of the many dive bars clustered in the Northeast, a historically working-class neighborhood. But there’s a more interesting option right across the Mississippi River. Meteor, which opened on an industrial block in late 2019, has the grungy patina of a bar that’s been around for decades, with exposed brick walls, checkerboard floors and a well-worn wooden bar. The friendly bartenders mix excellent co*cktails — try the Secret Tiger, a spicy passion-fruit mezcal margarita ($14) — but they’ll also pour you a boilermaker (a shot and a beer; a tequila and Tecate is $9), to pair with a relish-topped hot dog ($6).

St. Anthony Main, a stretch of restaurants and a theater, is on a cobblestone street that runs parallel to the Mississippi River.

9 a.m. Loop around a lake

Many visitors start the morning with a stroll along the Mississippi River for views of the historic Stone Arch Bridge and the dueling Pillsbury’s Best and Gold Medal Flour signs, which are on opposite banks. Locals, however, prefer the lakes. Southwest of downtown, a string of lakes are encircled by walking and biking trails, a subset of the 51-mile citywide Grand Rounds Scenic Byway. Start at the picturesque Lake of the Isles, with its leafy islands, marshy coves and winding lakeside path. It’s an easy 2.7-mile loop that can be extended by continuing south to Bde Maka Ska, a larger oval lake with areas for fishing, swimming, biking and canoeing along the popular three-mile pedestrian path.

10:30 a.m. Browse some book stores

Skip the massive Mall of America, with its theme park, aquarium and hundreds of chain stores, in favor of a novel shopping experience at Open Book. At this three-story center of literary arts downtown, several book-related organizations are housed within the handsome brick building. Browse the titles at Milkweed Editions, an independent publisher with a bookshop on the first floor. Then cross the lobby to the Minnesota Center for Book Arts, a nonprofit dedicated to the art of book-making — letterpress printing, bookbinding, papermaking — with workshops, classes and a first-floor gallery space. In its shop, you’ll find beautiful marbled paper and letterpress cards, instructional guides to linocuts and printmaking, quirky zines and little hand-sewn books containing a single poem.

11:30 a.m. Get your daily bread

Laune Bread began as a micro-bakery, delivering bread around the city by bike, before opening an airy storefront southeast of downtown in 2022. In addition to hearty sourdough loaves made from Midwestern grains, the bakery also offers a tantalizing array of sweet and savory baked goods, which recently included caramelized-onion-and-gouda tarts ($5.25), mandarin-marmalade Danish pastries ($5.20) and veggie-and-Cheddar sandwiches on sesame-crusted simit, a ring-shaped bread ($9.75). Don’t miss the chocolatey babka knots ($4) or a handful of the honey-sesame coconut macaroons ($2 each).

1 p.m. Go gallery hopping

It’s easy to gallery-hop around this city, where it’s rarely more than a five- or 10-minute drive to the next locale. Start at the Weinstein Hammons Gallery, which specializes in contemporary photography, then check out the Northern Clay Center, with its wide-ranging ceramic artworks. Continue to All My Relations Gallery, which showcases the work of Native American artists. Or instead, you could easily spend an hour exploring the Northrup King Building, a massive brick industrial complex in the Northeast that now houses more than 300 art studios, galleries and shops. Many open to the public on Saturday afternoons, and although the quality varies, it’s worth seeking out the first-floor Galleri 167 with colorful abstract paintings and wall-mounted sculptures, and the second-floor studio where the printmaker Beth Dorsey, a Queens-born Minneapolis transplant, makes intricate lattice prints.

4 p.m. Sip a sea-salt-and-lemon lager

Across the train tracks from the Northrup King Building, Indeed Brewing Company draws crowds with delightfully unusual craft beers and an inviting taproom filled with whimsical art. Start with a few smaller pours to sample the range on tap, like the tangy mango sour, the aromatic pistachio cream ale and the refreshing sea-salt-and-lemon lager (from $4 for six-ounce pours). If the bar is packed, head over to Pryes Brewing Company, an enormous brewery on the western bank of the river. Order a soft pretzel ($10) and a pint of Glamorama, a citrusy West Coast-style I.P.A. ($8), and try your hand at feather bowling, where players roll a wooden ball shaped like a cheese wheel down a sloped lane to land as close as possible to a vertical feather at the other end.

7:30 p.m. Chow down Uptown

The Uptown neighborhood has struggled to regain its pre-pandemic vibrancy, but you wouldn’t know it by stepping inside Kim’s. The chef Ann Kim opened this casual restaurant with a rollicking energy last November in the same space as her former Mexican-inflected restaurant. Now, her Korean-American background takes the spotlight: a smash burger on a soft hotteok bun ($12), Korean fried chicken wings with ranch dressing ($16) and the dish my table fought over: a twist on mac and cheese with chewy rice cakes smothered in a cheese sauce spiked with gochugaru, a red-pepper powder ($15). Ask for a booth by the window with space for all the sharing plates, including bindaetteok (mung-bean pancakes, $12) and soy-glazed beef-and-kimchi mandu dumplings ($12), along with a few banchan (sides).

10 p.m. Knock back drinks and pins

After dinner, head down the mural-splashed alley behind Kim’s to Bronto Bar. At this moody basem*nt bar, which opened last year, settle into one of the soft couches and peruse the menu of fun co*cktails, the best of which is By the Sea, a neon-blue concoction of shochu, Curaçao, pineapple and bitter Americano liqueur with a shark gummy candy garnishing the delicate stemmed glass ($13). Or hop over to Bryant Lake Bowl, a classic eight-lane bowling alley nearby that was built in the 1930s (and recently appeared on the cover of the Black Keys’ new album). Soak up the old-school vibes — no automatic scoring or video screens here — with a Hamm’s Tall Boy ($4.50) from the bar while rolling a few late-night games ($5 each; shoe rental $2).

The Third Avenue Bridge leading to downtown Minneapolis.

10 a.m. Savor a special breakfast sandwich

Minneapolis may be famous for the Jucy Lucy — a burger with molten cheese inside two patties. But it ought to be known for the outstanding egg-and-cheese breakfast sandwich at Marty’s Deli, a sunny shop in the Northeast that the chef Martha Polacek opened in 2023. What sets this sandwich apart is the fluffy house-made focaccia flecked with rosemary and sea salt, which is filled with soft eggs, melted American cheese and a schmear of garlicky aioli ($9). Pro tip: Order the hashbrowns on the side ($5) and cram bits into the sandwich for extra crunch. It’s best enjoyed with a cup of coffee ($3) at a table flooded with light from the wall of windows. Before leaving, grab a scotcharoo (the Midwest’s salty-sweet, chocolate-and-butterscotch-topped twist on a Rice Krispies Treat, $3.50) for later.

12 p.m. Explore art inside and out

There’s always something new to discover at the Walker Art Center, the city’s preeminent arts institution (admission, $18). The latest exhibition, “Keith Haring: Art is for Everybody,” which opened last weekend, includes over 100 works and archival material from the American pop artist (through Sept. 8). And in June, the center will open “This Must Be the Place,” an exhibition of works from its evolving collection, with paintings by Edward Hopper and Franz Marc alongside new acquisitions from contemporary artists like Jennifer Packer. Outside in the adjacent sculpture garden (free), which will host its first art fair May 11 to 12, most visitors beeline to the supersize “Spoonbridge and Cherry” sculpture. Instead, climb the hill to enter a hidden bunkerlike installation by James Turrell, and watch clouds float across a square of blue sky overhead.