Weekend of Culture in Minneapolis

My daughter and I jetted off to Minneapolis for a fabulous weekend complete with great conversations, friends, art shows, fine dining, cocktails, fashion show, more dining, and more cocktails.

We headed to visit my friend Jill who I met when I was working in New York. We don’t to see each other near enough. She is on the Junior League who was hosting an American Girl fashion show, this was a perfect opportunity for a girls weekend. My daughter had so much fun last time we were there, she could not wait to go back.

We arrived early Saturday and headed to check out the Midtown Global Market, what an awesome place. Any type of food you can think of, lots of shops, very unique. I don’t think Chicago has anything similar, but I am going to be on the lookout for it. After a few loops around we decided on Mexican. Tons of delicious of food, I went with a chicken gordita. Made me long for the gorditas Celia (22 year-old’s sitter when a baby) used to make us. I sure wish I would have written down the recipes she taught me.

Then we went on a favorite activity of mine to check out a local grocery store. A very fancy grocery store, the nicest one I have probably seen. The aisles we carpeted for pete’s sake! There was a liquor store attached and we stopped in for nice wine tasting. Learned a lot about some wines from Isreal that a former California wine maker is exporting to the US. It is labeled as such to downplay the kosher aspect. Learned some interesting stuff about their unique fermentation process, like they remove the lids on the barrells every evening, and tasted some wines I would have normally overlooked.

We spent the evening hanging out with Jill’s sister and her daughter for a girls night sleepover. Her niece was going to be in the fashion show as well. The girls got along fabulously from the minute they met. They both have the same fashion sense, that being that they refuse to wear matching socks! They kept themselves entertained with no problem. They had the most fun creating art shows on the kitchen chalk board and charging us admission. They even provided usher service to our seats and an opening act. Fun stuff. The fashion show was done very well, it was very cute and all the girls seemed to enjoy themselves.

We headed out for dinner Sunday night to a place called Duplex. Kind of an unassuming place. From the outside it almost looks like a house on frat row, it is an old house or two flat and it had neon bar signs in the window. The food ended up to be so amazing, especially given the kitchen in the place is smaller than mine. Everything was delicious right down to the ketchup mixed with basil and cherry vinegar. Had a great local beer, Surly Cynic. Loved it, had a hint of banana flavors which is my favorite. As if we weren’t full enough we stopped off for ice cream. Not just any ice cream, dark chocolate ice cream with caramel and dark fudge, with a sea salt edge and a smattering of toffee gravel. To die for. We managed to survive the second half of the Oscars before full food comatose set in.

Overall a wonderful weekend. I am lucky to have found and kept such a great friend. Always a pleasure to visit, she puts Martha Stewart to shame with her hospitality. I really enjoy Minneapolis, the city has a ton to offer. A great weekend trip for us being so close. I love that no matter where you are there is a lake in walking distance. Though something you will never catch me doing, flying a kite on a frozen lake on a sunny afternoon. That is just plain C R A Z Y!