August Updates from the Road
Miami, Minneapolis, New York, and more.
Since the month is almost over (and I spent the majority of it traveling domestically), here are a few quick and fun updates!
Keep Telling Y’all to Go to Minnesota
I’ve written about the Twin Cities a couple times here. My family moved to the area in the spring of 2022 and I’ve been going to visit every few months since then. Whether you’re new to the area or visiting for the first, second, third time, here are some of the fun things I did on my most recent visit that I highly recommend:
Take a day trip to Stillwater: half an hour from the Twin Cities there are wineries, cideries, farmers markets, a cute downtown/Main Street area with lots of shops and restaurants, and a teddy bear park — yes, you read that right. I wanted my nephew to climb the bears for a photo opp, but he was more interested in climbing the actual rocks and was weirdly good at (he’s two).
Ride the swan boats at Como Park. There are also some fun summer concerts outdoors here, so grab a beer. We caught the tail end of a classical/jazz ensemble. I think they were just playing whatever they felt like, but it was packed and people were loving it.
My favorite place to grab a drink in the Twin Cities is Bar Brava, where the wine is organically farmed, unfiltered, etc. Last time I was there, they had a little three-spritz menu in addition to food and wines so I tried one of those. It was good.
I love the Walker Art Museum and I love its restaurant, Cardamom, even more. The museum has a free Thursday nights for everyone deal, so you know where I’m spending my Thursday nights when I’m in town. There’s a big Keith Haring exhibit at the moment, so once we were able to peel my nephew away from that, we made our way to the restaurant for drinks and mezze and the BEST cucumber dish. Oh also, we discovered an Eataly-style market and rooftop restaurant called Cossetta in Saint Paul so will definitely be returning. Pasta sauce was so fresh and there’s tons of bread and treats to take home.
And right now through Labor Day is the (very) famous Minnesota State Fair! I haven’t gotten to experience this yet, but my sis-in-law and my brother have both spent some time there this year already, and so has Andrew Zimmern.
I Spent a Few Days in Miami…
But I didn’t do much. Took my dad to an early birthday lunch at Old Lisbon so we could pretend we were in Portugal, and ate/ordered far too many things like the clams, the feijoada de mariscos, a bottle of wine, a round of port, another fish with risotto, and a pasteis de nata.
And Then a Whirlwind 2 Nights in New York
All I did was work and eat so here’s a quickie for you if you only have a day or two and are staying in Brooklyn: Wine at rhodora, dinner at Colonia Verde, another dinner at Theodora, coffee and a Spanish tortilla at Che, and ice cream at Caffè Panna, which was heavenly.
I also spent four days in Long Island’s North Fork, but I’ll save that for another time. The restaurants left much to be desired, but the wineries were beautiful (the area is known for its Cab Francs), and the views rival Malibu, though after living in LA for so long, I am really a California girl forever.
