One of my favorite parts of summertime and living around here are the weekend markets. Minneapolis and St. Paul are chock full of awesome farmers markets, but one of my favorites is definitely Mill City Farmers Market. It's located in such an awesome part of Minneapolis, right on the river, and offers some really awesome breakfast and coffee as well as vegetables, fruit, meat, eggs, honey, and other farmers market goods.

My friend Daci and I went last weekend and walked around a few times, checking everything out before deciding on breakfast tacos (she) and a goat cheese + veggie omelet (I). We got our food and sat facing the river, and then we were off to make the rounds again, this time buying some herbs, rhubarb, honey, lilacs, and stopping for a treat on our way out. It's such a fun place to spend a Saturday morning.

Mill City Farmers Market

704 S 2nd Street

Minneapolis, MN 55415

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Food 4/5

Service 5/5

Atmosphere 5/5

Prices & Specials 3/5

Paleo-Friendly 5/5

A couple of months ago, Rob and I went to Butcher and the Boar for our anniversary and had a great time. It's a wonderful place to have a fancy and delicious dinner, but it's kind of hard to spend less than around $200. I was recently very pleasantly surprised to learn of their casual and much more budget-friendly beer garden, where you can sit outside, still receive great service, and eat fantastic food (for a fraction of the price you'll pay inside at dinner).

Check out their menus here! They have a terrific bourbon list which is totally not my thing but pretty cool either way. When we went for dinner we had the mushrooms, bacon-wrapped beef tenderloin, and the double-cut smoked pork chop (as well as a couple of cocktails), but for snacks on the patio a few weeks ago, we shared some ribs and their famous red hot Brussels sprouts (seriously, get those). Everything is good! I'm going back soon for the pickled vegetables and the smoked olives.

Butcher and the Boar

1121 Hennepin Avenue

Minneapolis, MN 55403

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Food 5/5

Service 5/5

Atmosphere 4/5

Prices & Specials 3/5

Paleo-Friendly 5/5

We stopped by The Muddy Pig in St. Paul one snowy afternoon when Rob's brother, Sam, was visiting us a few weeks ago. It's a little hole-in-the-wall with a nice, simple, but high-quality menu and a great beer list, so it's exactly the kind of place that goes on the list when one of our brothers visits.

I got the Buffalo Chicken Salad and was really pleasantly surprised when they served me a big salad (with no croutons!) with a whole, juicy chicken breast on it. The seasoning was more of a dry-rub than a Buffalo sauce, which I wish I had known so I could have gotten balsamic vinaigrette instead of blue cheese, but whatever--it was delicious. Rob and Sam enjoyed sandwiches and a few beers and we had a great time.

The Muddy Pig

162 North Dale Street

St. Paul, MN 55102

Food 3.5/5
Service 3/5
Atmosphere 2.5/5
Prices & Specials 4/5
Paleo-Friendly 4/5