It’s late December, and that means it’s list season—an indulgent media tradition from which your pals at Racket are not immune!
The list you are about to read, as you’ve no doubt gathered from the headline that brought you here, collects my favorite new restaurants of 2024. And to paraphrase the preamble from previous year-end wrap-ups (here’s 2021, 2022, and 2023), these are my favorites. This dining rundown isn’t really a “best of” guide to new restaurants, because we don’t emphasize fine-dining coverage as much as other publications in town, preferring to frequent places on the more approachable end of the spectrum—and where you probably won’t need a reservation to get in. That I’m a one-person food and drink department spending either my hard-earned money or your hard-earned subscription dollars helps guide that ethos.
There’s no hard and/or fast rule here, but generally speaking, our coverage tends to line up with the way we eat on a regular weeknight, not a special occasion. So while the list below highlights some finer establishments, you’ll also see sandwich shops, food trucks, fast-casual restaurants, and bars. I’m sure Vinai is amazing—literally everyone says it is—and I’m really looking forward to checking it out sometime soon. But I also think it’s more fun and more rewarding to highlight some of the places we don’t see as much on other year-end best-of lists.
And please tell me about your favorite restaurants of the year in the comments! I want to know where to go first come 2025.
Bina’s
Oh yes, we teased Bina’s a bit when the Centro-owned bar opened in January. “A dive bar cannot be made from thin air!” we declared. “It is the result of decades of spilt drinks and beery tears! You need octogenarian regulars!” Well… maybe. But over the course of the year, Bina’s quietly shuffled into my heart. Out in Northeast and looking to grab one more? Bina’s. Need a place to celebrate a lowkey birthday? Bina’s. Want to play pool? You get the idea. It was Bina’s where we stayed out until the bleary hours after a friend’s surprise wedding this summer. And it was Bina’s where, the day after Thanksgiving, I tucked into a second plate of deviled eggs with friends, looked around the crowded bar with Christmas lights twinkling overhead, and realized it nails one of the dive’s most essential qualities: It feels like a home away from home. (Also, it has pull-tabs.) 1404 Quincy St. NE, Minneapolis; binasbar.com
Sandwich Club
One of the best sandwiches I ate this year (and I eat a lot of sandwiches) was the Bodega Buddy ($15), a chopped cheese with pickled jalapeños from the Sandwich Club food truck. From their parking spot along the side of Victory Memorial Drive, husband-and-wife Marcus and Kelsey Brandt spent the summer and fall slinging exceptional sandwiches like this one, all trench-cut and stuffed with house-made everything. I only regret that you can’t go get one of their sandwiches right this second. Good thing they’re scheming up a brick-and-mortar operation as we speak. 4499 Victory Memorial Dr., Minneapolis; sandwichclubmpls.com
L2 at Tii Cup
Boba and liquor—how has no one in town put that together before? We have L2 at Tii Cup to thank for cracking this particular cocktail code; the speakeasy-style bar zhushes up many of its drinks with popping tapioca pearls. I’m especially fond of the Tom Yum-ii ($12), a savory-spicy cocktail that’s inspired by the classic soup and lets you choose your spice level just like you were ordering a bowl at your favorite Thai takeout spot. Pair them with tasty bites like tofu squares ($6.75), popcorn chicken ($7.95), and taro fries ($7.95), and you’ve got the makings of a cheap and delicious night out in Uptown. Yep, it’s still not quite dead. 2645 Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis; instagram.com/l2_tiicup
Bichota Coffee
“It’s my strong belief that every neighborhood deserves a walkable coffee shop,” Bichota owner C. Anderson told Racket in October, and that’s a belief we share, especially when it comes to Bichota’s neighborhood. The coffee shop is located at 38th & Chicago, in the heart of George Floyd Square, an area that could stand to have someone celebrating its vibrancy rather than emphasizing its tragedy. Bichota is both cozy and sassy—Anderson, who’s Puerto Rican, says the name implies a “flirtatious confidence”—with outstanding coffee and tea, conchas from Marissa’s Bakery, and house-made pastries on the way. And its small staff unionized almost immediately upon opening! How cool is that? 3740 Chicago Ave., Minneapolis; bichotacoffee.com
Hey Bear
At just 700 square feet, Hey Bear is one of the tiniest new restaurants on this list, which makes it all the more impressive that the St. Anthony Park neighborhood newbie is doing so much in-house. Biscuits, coffee cake, and scones are all scratch-made daily, along with almost everything that appears on their sandwiches: pickles, smoked scallion aioli, mojo pork for the Cuban, roasted beets for the vegetarian reuben—even the corned beef for the non-vegetarian reuben is made by Hey Bear’s team. (That Cuban is really wonderful, by the way; kitchen manager Oskar Johnson modeled it after the one at Victor’s, his favorite sandwich in the city.) And despite all that hard work, somehow no sandwich on the menu costs more than 10 bucks? What a spot. 791 Raymond Ave., St. Paul; heybear.cafe
Dario
Of all the really excellent things I ate this year, Dario's beef tartare ($21) is probably the dish I think about most. (More like… Beef Tartario?) Inspired by shuttered Minneapolis favorite King & I Thai, this texturally incredible blend of soft beef and crunchy puffed rice is everything: salty, savory, fresh, magical, with minuscule spirals of pepper providing big hits of heat. “I loved it. I loved it,” I wrote of the dish back in March, and that infatuation has grown no less intense over time. The emphasis at this splashy North Loop hot spot may be the pasta, and those dishes are similarly sublime. But it’s the tartare I’m most looking forward to enjoying on my return. 323 N. Washington Ave., Minneapolis; dariorestaurant.com
Sandwich Room at Sea Salt
You wouldn’t know it from the number of sandwiches we write about here at Racket, but our official position is that the Twin Cities needs way more sandwich shops—blame the fact that two staffers grew up on the East Coast. Sea Salt’s Sandwich Room, when it opened this summer, was a welcome oasis in a sandwich desert. Most sandwiches here are served on a perfect Patisserie 46 baguette, and the menu includes showstoppers like Uncle Harry ($15), a positively mouthwatering combination of sliced brisket sausage, pimento cheese spread, and bacon habanero jam with a bit of Cry Baby Craig’s hot honey. Biking to Sea Salt on a sunny afternoon is one of Minneapolis’s great pleasures. Now, you can bike to Sea Salt, stuff a sandwich in your backpack, and enjoy it at any point as you pedal along the creek, or continue down to the shores of the Mississippi, or go wherever the day takes you. What a life! 4825 Minnehaha Ave., Minneapolis; seasaltmpls.com
Aster House
Like Aster Cafe, its sibling restaurant down the road, Aster House has historic digs. It’s situated in the Brown-Ryan Livery Stable building, which was built in 1880, and stepping inside the St. Anthony Main building feels a little like stepping through time. There could have been deep fried wild rice fritters back in the 1880s, and the Lazy Susan—which at Aster House arrives with a trio of spreads, house-made Cheez-Its, various meats and cheeses, and plenty of pickled stuff—was invented in the 18th century. There’s really no way of proving you didn’t time travel here, now that I think about it, and that feels right for a restaurant situated on one of Minneapolis’s prettiest and most historic streets. 25 SE Main St., Minneapolis; asterhousempls.com
Beckett’s
When I’m out drinking with friends and the night is going a certain way, one of us will inevitably get a glint in our eye and ask, “Should we go to Beckett’s? It’s on the way home.” Folks, Beckett’s is almost never on the way home. But this has become our shorthand when we want to keep the good times rolling, something Lyn-Lake’s new sports bar does expertly (thanks in no small part to boozy cocktails served in buckets). There’s also the kitschy sports memorabilia on the walls, the juiced-up “OJ Canseco” slushie, the tiny TVs playing sports movies on VHS, and the Baseball Card Vandals photocopies wallpapering the bathroom. Beckett’s is just a very fun time, no matter its distance from your home. (You can use that trick wherever you want, by the way; we also employ the “on the way home” shorthand any time we want to go to Little T’s.) 3006 Lyndale Ave. S., Minneapolis; beckettsmpls.com
Parcelle
As it turns out, I’m not immune to the sugary siren song of the spendy smoothie, and neither is the rest of the Racket staff. Provincial little flyover state rube that I am, I have never been to trendy L.A. cafe/supermarket chain Erewhon—this is a Target/Cub household. But the fresh-faced local TikTokers who crowed about Parcelle’s Hailey Bieber smoothie dupe were right that it rocks, and though I would never insist that anyone needs to try a $12-$14 blended drink—you should tell me to fuck off, frankly—it’s a nice little treat, to borrow another Gen Z-ism. Especially if, just by way of example, you’re already in the neighborhood treating yourself to expensive cheeses from Surdyk's, or expensive film from West Photo. 233 E. Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis; parcelleorganics.com
Du Nord Cocktail Room + Lagniappe
On the ground floor of the newly reopened Coliseum Building on Lake Street, there’s a Nawlins twofer, and that’s not a euphemism. The new cocktail lounge (Du Nord Cocktail Room) and restaurant (Lagniappe) from Du Nord Social Spirits’ Chris and Shanelle Montana are spiritually similar (and share a kitchen), but they differ a bit in vibe. Du Nord, which opened first, is the more laid-back of the two, with po’ boys and small plates and a smash burger drizzled in Alabama white BBQ sauce ($16). Lagniappe is its indulgent and luxurious sibling; think blackened catfish fillets served atop a bed of crawfish and rice and bananas foster they roll out to tables on a cart. It’s like the Big Easy and the Big Even Easier. 2708 E. Lake St., Minneapolis and 2700 E. Lake St., Minneapolis; lagniappeonlake.com, dunordcocktailroom.com
Stargazer
Maybe I’m just a mark for a clever gimmick [the comments section nods furiously], but god help me, Stargazer’s schtick is so good. The drink list that arranges cocktails into constellations, the food menu that emphatically eschews forks or any silverware, the ceiling full of stars illuminating the otherwise dark, bluish-purple room, the 2001: A Space Odyssey-ass bathroom… It’s only been open a few days now, so I’m somewhat hesitant to include Stargazer on this recap—especially since I wrote about it so effusively just days ago. But with the team behind Travail and Meteor’s Robb Jones guiding the (star)ship, I think I can confidently give Racket's endorsement. Almost as confidently as I can say “It will probably be hard to snag a seat here for a while.” 1304 NE. Second St., Minneapolis; stargazermpls.com
