James Beard Award winning chef Isaac Becker’s Italian eatery is perpetually packed. Small and large plates are available and are best shared with friends. The crowded, boisterous dining room is always humming with activity.

Isaac Becker’s new restaurant is a bit of a slice shop and also a great place to go for a cocktail before heading over to Bar La Grassa for sharable plates of pasta.

Parlour Bar’s more upscale sibling restaurant with beautiful plates of food and a wonderful side patio for lingering on when the nights are warm. The food is fancy enough for date night, but casual enough for a post-work hang. The open warehouse dining room has wood and metal finishes.

There are several fantastic food stands inside this open-air co-working friendly space. It’s hard to decide between the Detroit-inspired pan-baked pizza stylings of Wrecktangle Pizza, soul and Asian food mix of Soul Fu, fried chicken from Thigh Times, or Minneapolis’ singular Hawaiian comfort food hotspot Ono Hawaiian Plates.

A food hall with a wide selection of fantastic dining options from locally reknowned chefs. Start the day with baked goods and coffee from Honey & Rye and cap out the night with a cocktail from the centrally located bar. In between there’s fried chicken and soul food mastery from Soul Bowl, knock your socks off megadillas from Flagsmash, blistery crisp empanadas from MidNord, tender roast beef from Carbon Pit Beef, banh mis from Lu’s, and fresh poke from Fish Bowl. There are plenty of seats, big screens for game day viewing, and gorgeous outdoor space when the weather cooperates.

Coal-fueled fire kissed chewy edges mark each of the pizzas found inside this ground-level pizzeria that also serves a wide selection of locally brewed beers.

Upstairs is a casual neighborhood eatery serving breakfast through dinner and downstairs in a nouveaux-dive bar with a food-service window. The mac and cheese is legendary, as are the friendly, fast-pouring bartenders.

A classic neighborhood dive bar that has remained true to its roots as the neighborhood has grown up around it. It’s dark, well-worn, and affordable for a simple beer and bump.

A quirky, luxe little bar that’s hidden in the North Loop, Cobble Social House serves gorgeous drink and snacks in glasses and on plates that are also available for purchase in the adjacent shop.

The hottest reservation in town, this tiny restaurant serves high-end, artfully focused tasting menu experiences via James Beard Award winning chef Gavin Kaysen. Reservations are released at noon on the first of the month and always sell out quickly.

Gavin Kaysen changed the conversation around Minnesota dining when he left New York to open his first restaurant in his hometown. Three years after opening, this remains one of the most sought-after reservations in town.

What if Minnesota cuisine could be elegant and groundbreaking? That was the presumption that Eric and Andrew Dayton used to open this landmark restaurant that led the charge to changing the North Loop dining scene. The room mixes fine-dining elegance and country chic like the cornflower blue and white wallpaper.

Grab a bite at the upstairs Bachelor Farmer before heading into the below level speakeasy. (Enter through the unmarked door facing the parking lot.) These boundary-pushing cocktails are the kind of thing mixology nerds geek out about, but are also divine to simply sip.