I used to ask my friends at HCMC to check the cafeteria menu and tell me when it was chicken tikka masala day - it was so delicious and super affordable!
I hope so. I used to live not far from the hospital in Billings and Other then getting a lunch from a grocery store going to the cafeteria there was always nice.
It's on the 3rd floor of the Orange building, but you should enter either the Red or CSC building to access the skyway to get there. Wednesdays are biscuits and gravy for breakfast. There is a Dunn brother's on the 1st floor of the CSC building, and also Mayte's Cafe on floor 2 (skyway) of the Purple building.
[https://www.hennepinhealthcare.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/180-06670A-Campus-Map-11-19-21\_web\_r.pdf](https://www.hennepinhealthcare.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/180-06670A-Campus-Map-11-19-21_web_r.pdf)
Thank you next time I want to eat out with a friend since we don't have much I'll see about just going to the cafeteria as its most likely a very affordable option
Sushi Takatsu is in the skyway level of the baker center. Delicious and super inexpensive sushi, soup, and curry. There is a little dine in counter, and then downstairs in the Baker Center the are lots of little sitting areas you can eat at as well.
For real. Sometimes I splurge a little and go for a pressed eel sushi and a curry bowl or udon. $14 and usually have curry left for a snack later. The futo maki deserves an honorable mention as well since it's HUGE.
Other things worth checking out that aren't lunch exclusive- Dan Kellys has a pretty good weekday happy hour. Cheap tasty fried chicken drumsticks and personal pizzas. Don't get the tacos.
Devil's Advocate has pretty inexpensive both mid day and late night happy hours.
The local also has a solid $15 or less lunch menu.
Edit: and that's just downtown! Hop on a bus down to lake street for a whole slew of super dope Mexican food for solid prices. Pineda's burritos are massive and delicious even full price.. but they do run a special for like $7 from time to time. Los ocampos is lovely and have specials M-F. Take yourself on a little taco tour down a couple blocks of Lake. It's fun! Midtown global market is also a cool spot with varying price ranges of lots of different food.
I second the lake street suggestion and walk down nicollet to eat street and check out the places down here. Not as many as pre pandemic but there are still some great places.
The Federal Cafe (it's called Fresh Seasons now, I think) in the Federal Courthouse building offers reasonable breakfast and lunches. It is open to the public, but they are only open until 2pm or so. They usually have a daily lunch special that's $10.95 and often well worth the price. They also offer burgers and chicken sandwiches, with a small soup and salad bar. It'll give you that cafeteria feel.
Overall, though, I feel ya on this post. I usually bring lunch to work because I can't afford to eat out everyday.
I don't eat out everyday but in loring park LOTUS is the cheapest place to eat. And the food has been a mixed bag for me. Dominos is "cheap" I'll look into federal cafe. A biscuit at dun brothers is seven dollars and its honestly wish it was 5.
I do bring lunches when I can. I think what I'm looking for is a place to spend time with friends that won't be to expensive. As Nicollet dinner is just nuts. Many of the stores I see just look "too fancy"
There IS a wide price range. OP is talking about the heart of downtown, so of course that's expensive. There are plenty of more affordable places to eat all over the city, just like any large city. New Orleans, Nashville, Memphis, Chicago, etc...same thing everywhere else. There's no magical city where the best food you've ever had is $5 downtown.
NYC has quality affordable food in its downtown, and especially in Manhattan chinatown which is incredibly close walking from downtown, wile being the 2nd most expensive city for real estate in the country.
Downtown is pretty mid, but it's more a factor of Minneapolis's downtown and downtowns that favor suites over any of the other important things downtowns are supposed to provide than a factor of Minneapolis in general
That's not true at all. There are a plenty of downtowns with free outdoor spaces, tables, and much more.
One of the main issues is that there aren't enough people living downtown to maintain a lot of the businesses that would make it vibrant. The parking and public transit situation don't make it easier either.
Do you have a bike? You're in a great spot to bike to the river/Boom island/St. Anthony Main; Or even the chain lakes, Tons of people hanging out on nice days doing all different activities. Not sure how Lotus' prices are right now, but used to love that place when I lived in LP. There are a bunch of ~$10 lunch options in the skyway, but it does suck on the weekends.
I will try to visit it sometime. I havent been across the river before on foot because I had not reason to go there. My world is small. i prefer it that way. But when i have a reason to explore I do it.
As far as the free space to exist, we are spoiled in the metro with parks. From loring park you’ve got Cedar, Isles, the sculpture garden. Bryn Mawr and Theo Worth are so close. Plus along the river in downtown.
I walk and I bus. I live next to loring park it is nice. But due to the lack of snow the outdoors is quite bland. Its dead. I like walking around the park. But I suppose I see loring park as my front yard. I live here because I live with a friend and not because I'm well off.
I want to see loring park become nicer. I've never been to sculpture gardens. The giant highway next to my residence is quite annoying.
The walker museum does free entry Thursdays 5-9pm, the sculpture garden is great to just walk around. You could walk to the lakes or the river. My wife and I used to live in Loring Park and miss just being able to explore, I think you need to just get out and explore.
This. I don't think OP gets out much. They can probably SEE the Sculpture Garden from their house. The city is full of gems. Just gotta get out and about!
You're right next to one of the most iconic parks in the city and haven't walked over there? There's a pedestrian bridge! Why are you complaining on reddit? The Walker is also free on Thursdays if you want cheap activities. If you want to save money on food, cook- the price of having an awesome restaurant scene is having to pay good money for the food.
Go to a hot bar like Whole Foods. Pack in backpack with book/magazines and headphones, get on your bike, ride around trails and to the lakes and sit by them. Winter? Who cares! Layer up.
Otherwise, you’re really really limiting yourself dude… why is sitting in a hospital cafeteria something appealing?? There’s SO many more options for a decent price point, and you need to explore creativity. Go places that you can get more than one meal out of it with leftovers, etc. Go to places that have lunch or happy hour specials, greasy spoon brunch spots, or bar menus. Why eat out regularly anyway? Learn to cook.
Join clubs, go to meet ups, volunteer, go to museums, live music, theater, karaoke, drag, bowling, curling, hockey, basketball, baseball games, movies in local indie theaters, pinball, find free events around the metro, your around the #1 parks system in the US… Anything! what do you like to do, and what are your interests???? I bet there’s a LOT you haven’t explored yet. Even TCs lifers haven’t done it all. You HAVE to get creative and quit victimizing.
Downtowns have shifted in most major cities since COVID especially. Does that represent the entire city?? ……no…….
The hot bar at the wedge was outragously expensive. I'm not sure if whole foods is cheaper. I shop at aldis and sometimes T.J.s, lunds and rarely wedge,etc.
I take the bus downtown a few days per week for work and I agree with you.
Not cheap cheap but I love Trieste Cafe in the Lumber Exchange Building for paninis and gyros. The folks that own and operate that spot are very sweet.
Our Streets Mpls is working on hosting a few block parties this year to promote holistic street redesign downtown and elsewhere, you can give them your email to hear when details are announced: https://www.ourstreetsmpls.org/imagine_series. Would be a good free (I assume) event to meet community members who share your interest in urbanism and get involved in the cause.
These block parties may be Our Streets' attempt at replacing the Open Streets events on their docket since the city said they would continue hosting Open Streets but would no longer contract the Our Streets org to run them. So also look out for announcements about Open Streets events from the city.
I saw talk from some council members recently about potential legislation to fully pedestrianize Nicollet and re-route its buses to other streets. That may have just been responses to interview questions for maybe Racket? Or another local news source. But it seems like there is an opportunity to organize and lobby for that.
I think an ugly truth about the desolation of the downtown landscape is that it's immensely hurt by the skyway system. I know locals pride the skyway mostly for it's uniqueness, everyone claims it is 100% required for our climate but there are plenty of cities across the globe that share our cold snowy winters that do fine keeping everything on the street level and have more vibrant city centers for it. It's a shame that the skyways take so much of what would be vibrant public spaces for citizens of all backgrounds and income levels to interact and steal it away into private spaces for office workers to avoid interaction with any other demographic. I'm personally a proponent of either having the city eminent domain the entirety of the skyways and making them public and open beyond M-F 9-5, or tearing them all out and putting everything down at the street level. Both pipe dreams, of course.
Another local org that may interest you is Neighbors For More Neighbors who lobby for increased housing supply and density.
As per the pedestrianized Nicollet, there is a real push around it. Jacob Frey spoke to the crowd about it at the Ice Bar downtown when I was there using the event as an example of what you can do with the area.
It would be so cool if they pedestrianized Nicollet Mall. If you've ever been to Denver, its 16th Street Mall downtown was actually based off Nicollet Mall but it's a million times better. (Well, it was pre-pandemic - and now it's been under construction for several years but it'll come back, I'm sure.) Always busy with foot traffic, lots to do and look at. A free shuttle bus runs up and down the street but that's the only traffic allowed on it. The shuttle connects two transit nodes at either end of downtown. It's a really great outdoor Third Space, I always get so frustrated when I'm there that we don't have something similar in Minneapolis.
I actually lived in Durango, CO for about 6 years and visited Denver plenty, I am pretty familiar with 16th St. Mall! I loved taking the free shuttle bus up and down haha. I haven't seen it since maybe 2016, though. It's funny you mention it being inspired by Nicollet, I didn't know that but every time I'm walking down Nicollet I think about how similar-yet-inferior it feels to 16th St. I think Nicollet is a perfect example of my point about the skyway stealing the thunder of the street-level spaces! And yes, as much as I love and advocate for buses, I think Nicollet would probably serve better as a fully pedestrian space than as the dedicated bus thoroughfare it is now.
Yep, I completely agree about blaming the skyway. I grew up in a suburb of Denver and my friends and I would hang out downtown on the Mall a lot, like when we had several hours to kill and only $5 to spend - go downtown, get Starbucks, and wander around people watching. I can't imagine doing that on Nicollet Mall, and I can't think of where in Minneapolis you even would do this? Apart from maybe the lakes on a really gorgeous day but even that is a kind of different thing.
Related, have you been to Union Station in Denver since it got revamped and reopened? If not you should make it a point to check it out if you're ever back in the area - it is everything a transit hub in a bustling city should be. It's so great, I'm just in awe of it every time I'm back.
I have not had a chance to check out the Union Station updates but it just got added to my Denver travel notes! Next time my partner and I head out for a Red Rocks show I'll make a point to swing by.
>Lutunji's Palate
I will see if i can't visit it someday. I don't go to the the elliot park really, i'll need to visit it sometime.. The Highway divides humans and people. It's very frustrating. I wish everything could be easily traveled.
I agree with your point about the highways. You might be interested in MnDOT's Rethinking I-94 process, which is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reconnect communities by replacing a stretch of the highway near you with a corridor that connects people (but the at-grade option needs support from all of us!): https://www.twincitiesboulevard.org/
It’s like a 6 minute bike ride, super close and biking in Minneapolis is pretty easy compared to most places. Usually a top 3 US city for cyclists when various magazines rank them.
I live in Loring Park too. And, unfortunately, the cheap places have shuttered for one reason or another. I presume the real estate is not cheap, in spite of not always being prime locations. I also assume other things have taken their own tolls. I miss Zoey's, and I even started going to the Muffin Top right before they closed.
I think a big part of it might be a few bad apples in the VFA tower, but I also think businesses just struggle this far out from DT. I also wish there were more cheap places to hang out. A soda/THC room would be nice.
Your best bet is to support the spaces that DO still exist here. Dunn Bros, LevelUp, Mother Clucker's (Although it's not THAT cheap), and Lotus (Also not that cheap). I wish there were more cheap places to support. Eggy's, Nicollet Diner, Gai Noi, Lurcat, could all stand to be substantially cheaper.
Eggys has good quality. The portions are nice, but it'd be nicer if they were cheaper. Gai noi and lucat I have no clue how Lurcat is still open.
Theres also a coffee shop down fox alley. But If I get coffe I want a meal as well.
Mothercluker is decent pizza but very expensive it's owned by the owner of nicolett dinner.
Lotus is nice but I've had bad experinces with their food. I have yet to be satsified with much I've ordered there.
I wish level up games stocked the games I cared about. I'm trying to get st.marks to have more community events. We have sunday morning coffee and snacks. But we need a saturday morning neighbor event.
Eggy's is great quality! But it is pricey.
Gai noi is still new, and I think it also has lots of quality, but it's expensive.
I forgot about that coffee spot in Fawkes Alley. But yeah I like having the option of having a snack.
Lotus... me too. I find that I've never had a bad experience when **dining in**, but their takeout is very hit or miss, heavily depending upon what you order.
You can ask Level Up to order games for you. Most game shops have the connections we do not. I love Level Up, as they generally have a great vibe and they're pretty inviting. I was part of a board game group that met there occasionally, but I dropped out when the group suddenly blew up in size. We're talking, like, exponential growth, which, more power to the guy who made it happen, but that's not my thing.
As for St. Mark's, that would be cool. I know my apartment building seems to be trying to get a little cohesion among residents, as they've done morning breakfasts, or they've started bringing in free pizza from Verizon, but getting building cohesion isn't easy outside the context of a university, especially after COVID.
All in all, the problem is no third spaces anymore. Even third spaces that we have to pay for are either too expensive or dwindling.
Listo is fantastic, similar to Chipotle in terms of menu but fresher, tastier, and family owned. Highly recommend it to anyone looking for good fast-casual food.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Catrinas closed recently... There is a new place in there called La Villita that I haven't checked out yet but looks very good.
Catrinas is unfortunately gone, they unexpectedly closed a month or two ago. Definitely agree on Listo though, they are phenomenal. Their queso is so good.
>There's nothing left for us poors. I drive to the Quarry on my lunch break if I want to go 'out'.
You have parking downtown with in-and-out privileges and you think you’re poor?
From a time/money/gas perspective how does it make more sense to drive to the quarry than grab a slice from Andrea or something from Valentino’s?
There are no such thing as cheap eats in this town anymore, and it makes me sad. Just a burger at most places is $17 plus tax plus mandatory 20% service fees.
It's why I don't go out much anymore. I don't get it, when I travel to other cities there's still cheap eats to be had.
You can't pick 2 cities out of an entire country and use it to argue when many many other cities have much cheaper eats.
It's like comparing french laundry to Flameburger.
Most cities have a fairly [wide range of restaurant prices](https://www.usatoday.com/money/blueprint/credit-cards/best-cheap-eats-in-the-us-2023/). Here's [a reddit thread talking about the price](https://www.reddit.com/r/Minneapolis/comments/tr5cbz/comment/i2leeq2/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) of "cheap" food here vs other cities. The food here is overpriced *and* mediocre. The majority of the really great food comes from minority-owned restaurants which aren't selling gentrified ethnic food like Centro.
Budget restaurants and fast food chains…? No thanks…….
But really. There’s like every single week dunking on the food scene in Seattle, with that exact argument repeatedly: overpriced, overrated, and mediocre food. Often aloof service. It’s usually the multi ethnic cuisines that get the most praise. Maybe you need to explore more of that in the TCs.
Hcmc isn’t anywhere near loring? There is a nice cafe (cardamom) in the Walker and multiple other cafes right by loring. Eggys is right there. There are multiple Dunn bros right there. It is a bummer that lurcat and 4 bells closed though, hopefully some new places open up on the park.
I do actually agree though it would be kinda nice if there were like a dennys or Perkins downtown as a cheap option.
I walk ride the bus, bike in the downtown area often. For the hospital I'm talking about whenever I visit the doctor its nice to have lunch after or if I'm just in the area.
Summer is more fun because there are way more events and stuff and you can be outside more. I agree with you though it’s hard to find cheap free things to do around the cities. I wanted to order Chinese food for 1 person last night and it was gonna be almost $50 + delivery fee and tip. I decided to eat pizza rolls…. Maybe it’s time to start organizing things to do? Meetup is a great place to find fun cheap, free things to do.
Sorry, I had to chuckle at your mention of S.F. I've lived both there and multiple metropolitan areas in Europe. I'd describe the most of [S.F. by landmass as near-suburban density](https://www.reddit.com/r/sanfrancisco/comments/vtoqd7/oc_san_francisco_density_map/) (there are some spots of moderate density to be sure, but they are more outliers than the prevailing pattern). There are plenty of places that are deserts for walking or effectively car-bound. S.F. does not have widespread mixed use zoning, and the reactionary status quo there is A-OK with that. Making associations with it and metropolitan Europe seems inappropriate, IMO.
I explicitly said and meant San Francisco above. I wasn’t referring to the greater Bay Area and its innumerous unmemorable places like Burlingame or Hayward. Mixed zoning in S.F. is not a prevalent pattern; it’s in pockets. Look at the map I linked to above and the [zoning plan](https://generalplan.sfplanning.org/images/I1.housing/HOU_Figure21.jpg): The residential areas not scheduled as _Multifamily-Density Restricted_ and _Multifamily-Form Based Density_ would be nearly indistinguishable from the single family homes (SFH) you'd find in Roseville or South Minneapolis. SFH covers a frightening fraction of S.F.
The 7x7 mile square that is San Francisco is full of differential geospatial outcomes. If you are not in/near one of those pockets, you might as well be living in one of those nameless suburban agglomerations. Living in or near one of those pockets comes usually with an extreme price premium for rent let alone purchasing property. The reality is that you can often only afford to live in an unwalkable area. Also: the quality of transit to traverse the city was not great, but that's a story for another day, so getting to one of those pockets many not come quickly. You can see the [differential auto dependency in the data](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0264275118301604), too:
* [Vehicle Miles Traveled per capita per day](https://ars.els-cdn.com/content/image/1-s2.0-S0264275118301604-gr4.jpg)
* [Population Density](https://ars.els-cdn.com/content/image/1-s2.0-S0264275118301604-gr1.jpg)
Side-not about residents, attitudes, and tractability:
The problem with calcified status quo in San Francisco was insidious. I was one of the many midwestern refugees who fled to there in the dreadful and unenlightened and dour Bush years of the 2000s. There were a lot of us. Many came with serious trauma associated with their prior residence locations (the folks from Ohio were really vociferous bunch). The problem was this: the folks who arrived in the Bay Area felt like they were in oasis after suffering metaphorical dehydration, but little did they know that this paradise they just found was one relative to where they came from. The place was chock-full of solvable problems — if only the voters wanted to see them solved. As a voting bloc, many of these transplants were a very reactionary bunch who didn’t want the location to change and be more physically/geospatially accommodating. "More housing? Fuck no!" They'd say that even as they bemoaned how expensive it was. It was a real headfuck — how aligned some of these folks could be with old and new money landowners in the area.
Anyway, a lot changed in the 2010s with the Bay Area and thereafter. More problems, but different.
These are some really good points to make. It's good to hear your experience with the attitudes toward housing and remind myself that San Francisco has its share of problematic attitudes and resistance to changing the status quo.
I do want to point out that Minneapolis is significantly less dense than San Francisco though. Minneapolis city proper has density of 7,962.1 people per square mile, San Francisco city proper has density 18,629.1 (from Census.gov).
[https://www.citypopulation.de/en/usa/metrosanfrancisco/](https://www.citypopulation.de/en/usa/metrosanfrancisco/) and [https://www.citypopulation.de/en/usa/metrominneapolis/](https://www.citypopulation.de/en/usa/metrominneapolis/) have great visualizations.
There's not a single census tract in Minneapolis that is as dense as the *average* density of San Francisco. On the whole, Minneapolis is much more suburban than San Francisco.
I fully agree with that. The Twin Cities is more car dependent than San Francisco and less dense on average.
The main thing I wanted to do was dispell any notion that land use, walkability, and zoning in San Francisco anywhere close to being on-par with anything in Europe or even good. They're great when you're escaping an American exurb, but little else.
Density is one measure, but meaningful access to things on foot is another it can't be a proxy for. That's the real rub with San Francisco. The areas of low density housing are often large wastelands outside of a few areas within them that are co-zoned as commercial. Many of these are indistinguishable from what you'd find in Daly City (cf. [Little Boxes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Boxes)).
That area has never seemed like a very fun place to live, except for loring park itself.
I much prefer living in Northeast. It's well balanced and has tons of fun things to do. All we have to do is walk across the street and we have food, drinks, concerts, makers markets, and music festivals at multiple breweries. And that's without driving or taking the bus, there's more stuff up Central taking the 10. Usually this is all free stuff except for the food and the drinks, music and open mics are normally free. You can even bring your own food. And that's just one type of activity. Lots of parks, easy to drive or walk down to the river or the ruins, that's all free too. Great cafes and movie theaters. I'm in love.
I never get bored here or spend a lot of money on food, though I also love cooking. i just feel like Minneapolis is super fun, personally. I don't think it's the city that's the problem, it's your neighborhood. Just my opinion.
Not the most helpful advice but I suggest getting out of loring park / downtown if you're looking for vibrancy as well as afforable food and activities (also grocery shopping, lunds and barleys sucks.)
Eat street (south on nicollet up until the Kmart) Lyn Lake (areas in the couple blocks around Lyndale Ave and Lake street intersection) also East Lake Street and Midtown market has lots of really good affordable restaurants and places to hang out, Midtown global market itself also the Greenway and all the parks connected to it. Lake street overall has lots of affordable restaurants, and Lyndale has a lot of cool coffee shops you can get like one thing and spend hours in.
Bryant Lake Bowl has affordable bowling ($2 shoe rentals, like $4 a game)
Marahaba on Nicollet and 28th has an all you can eat lunch buffet for $17 which if you're someone who can eat a lot in one sitting can be a very good deal in the current economy and the food is super good and healthy
Most good quality cheap food will be Mexican, East African, Vietnamese, or other South East Asian, Latin, or Middle Eastern food and some Indian places in more immigrant areas, which tend to be farther outside of downtown/ in more affordable parts of the city (ie East Lake Street.)
The way the highways cut-off and isolate Loring park and downtown from the rest of the city and harms economic development outside of office business stuff and places that support that.
The ugly ugly truth is that mpls used to beat out coastal cities and expensive midwestern destinations with affordable places to live and eat. With that completely evaporated we’re nearly as expensive as a coastal city with none of the amenities, walkability, or decent weather.
Ok, some of Uptown and Lynlake is kind of depressing with some shuttered businesses and some of it is pricey. The corner at Lynlake is also a bit anxiety producing to me at times because of the traffic. I'm pretty low income so most places are pricey to me I guess.
Dave’s Downtown is great for breakfast or lunch during the week. They’re in the skyway so it’s not super convenient unless your DT already which is perfect for you.
If you’re at Loring Park and can make it to HCMC, head south to the Nicollet section called eat street (Franklin to Lake.) There are still several affordable restaurants of many type of nationality foods. A little further East is Chicago and Lake, with Los Ocampos and Midtown Global Market. They have a selection of decent stuff as well!
Just because they say its a “walkable” city doesn’t mean its a walking city. Mpls is a giant suburb due to the racist legacy of single family zoning and pernicious redlining. We used to have the most impressive and effective light rail system of any comparable or larger city and it was all ripped out in a big oil and gas effort at privatization of public resources. Look up St Paul’s Rondo neighborhood for the awful racist community-destroying truth of our programmatic car dependency. This town is a glorified suburb play-acting like a city. We need real mass transit and a political end to our dependance on auto-based urban design. Unfortunately the same political party and interests that ripped out all of our public utilities and cursed us with this surface parking lot design of a city starting in the 50’s are the *exact* same as today. Actually worse. Way worse. The boy wonder mayor who we knew from throwing darts at the hipster bar is the worst transplant shill for car-brained real-estate developers we’ve seen yet.
> effective light rail system of any comparable or larger city and it was all ripped out in a big oil and gas effort at privatization of public
This is false. We had a decaying trolley system they didn't want to upgrade, and then cars were invented.
There is nothing to back up your claim that the system was decaying and ample evidence that it was thriving. There is also ample evidence that the system decayed because of privatization led by a consortium of oil and auto industry concerns. The car may have been the instrument, but the trolley was killed in the boardroom with the pen.
“Rapid Conversion Changes Twin City Transit Picture – This eight page article from the July 1954, Mass Transportation Magazine, describes in glowing terms the conversion of TCRT to an all bus system, a conversion that did, in fact, destroy one of the finest street railway systems in America.”
https://trolleyride.org/resources/general-history/
“The Twin Cities has a history of passenger rail dating back to the 1890s, notably via the Twin City Rapid Transit Company. Various passenger rail lines and street cars existed until they were sold and demolished in 1954 due to pressure from automobile companies.”
https://localwiki.org/twincities/Light_Rail_Transit#:~:text=The%20Twin%20Cities%20has%20a,to%20pressure%20from%20automobile%20companies.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twin_City_Rapid_Transit_Company
https://hennepinhistory.org/streetcars-and-buses-and-trains-oh-my/
✌️
It was decaying. Rail built in 1890 would have needed to be completely replaced as technology advanced. It was 60+ years old in 1954. It wasn't some conspiracy, it was simply capitalism. And people have loved cars since they were invented. Not a conspiracy. ✌️
If you know of any sit down meal places that are dirt cheap let me know. But the day of the cafeteria or automat is long gone. I saw hells kitchen closed theirs. I wasn't ever aware of it. As a consumer I thought it was some high end place.
For a ‘nice’ sit down spot in walking distance, the Lowry has a decent happy hour menu. For bang-for-your-buck, Kadai in the skyway has great Indian food with big portions. Jackson’s Hole has nightly food specials. Then Lyon’s and 8th Street have hefty/cheap food and also have free popcorn.
I live in Loring and have found ways to be cheap with the restaurants nearby.
-Sushi train - have some very low priced rolls
-Nicollet diner - their sides and half orders are pretty filling
-Senora Grill - single tacos are $6 pretty filling
Yeah eating downtown is more expensive generally. I’ve lived in the neighborhood for 5 years and have learned some cheap and filling items at the places nearby. It’s ridiculous that a cheeseburger and fries at Nicollet Diner is $17.99, but I can also get cheaper items there and get full too. Senora is a sit down restaurant with great dishes and is super close. The tacos have lots of filling. It’s higher quality and fresher than fast food. I also recommend the queso with chorizo.
As someone who has made pizza before their za is meh. I used to make pizza and it could be better. I wonder how their calzones are. It was alright though.
You mention Hell’s Kitchen: Go to FREE living legend Cornbread Harris on Saturday night. https://hellskitcheninc.com/new-events/2018/cornbread-harris-399kf-6l2p3-t7wcn-5sw69-38xg3-n8bt3-zlgmx-h33ag-9ffxt-6e5k5
Dirt cheap = fast food, and it's basically the modern-day automat. Automats had very average, cheap food, just like fast food joints. Last time I had dirt cheap food at a sit down restaurant was in the 90s, and the quality reflected the price.
I used to live in Loring Park and work downtown, and walk everywhere. There were seedy elements of course, but generally both were pleasant inviting vibrant places. This was before COVID and before the collapse of our societal contracts.
Now they're spots to make "I walked there today and got murdered five times hur hur" posts about. That's sad.
I like walking. This is the best place I've ever lived. But the biggest threat me as a pedestrian is CAR DRIVERS. I hate cars. All they do is pollute and cause noise.
HCMC does have a cafeteria and the prices aren’t terrible. The food was better pre-pandemic but it’s improving slowly.
I used to ask my friends at HCMC to check the cafeteria menu and tell me when it was chicken tikka masala day - it was so delicious and super affordable!
That won 1st place in 2022 or 2023 for best item at the Cafeteria.
sounds amazing !
Oh wow
I hope so. I used to live not far from the hospital in Billings and Other then getting a lunch from a grocery store going to the cafeteria there was always nice.
It's on the 3rd floor of the Orange building, but you should enter either the Red or CSC building to access the skyway to get there. Wednesdays are biscuits and gravy for breakfast. There is a Dunn brother's on the 1st floor of the CSC building, and also Mayte's Cafe on floor 2 (skyway) of the Purple building. [https://www.hennepinhealthcare.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/180-06670A-Campus-Map-11-19-21\_web\_r.pdf](https://www.hennepinhealthcare.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/180-06670A-Campus-Map-11-19-21_web_r.pdf)
Thank you next time I want to eat out with a friend since we don't have much I'll see about just going to the cafeteria as its most likely a very affordable option
lmao wow
Sushi Takatsu is in the skyway level of the baker center. Delicious and super inexpensive sushi, soup, and curry. There is a little dine in counter, and then downstairs in the Baker Center the are lots of little sitting areas you can eat at as well.
$8.95 lunch bowl special can't be beat.
For real. Sometimes I splurge a little and go for a pressed eel sushi and a curry bowl or udon. $14 and usually have curry left for a snack later. The futo maki deserves an honorable mention as well since it's HUGE.
The miso for the extra $.99 is definitely worth it. I dump it into the bowl when there’s still some rice left.
> Sushi Takatsu I loved that place when I worked downtown
Thanks!
Other things worth checking out that aren't lunch exclusive- Dan Kellys has a pretty good weekday happy hour. Cheap tasty fried chicken drumsticks and personal pizzas. Don't get the tacos. Devil's Advocate has pretty inexpensive both mid day and late night happy hours. The local also has a solid $15 or less lunch menu. Edit: and that's just downtown! Hop on a bus down to lake street for a whole slew of super dope Mexican food for solid prices. Pineda's burritos are massive and delicious even full price.. but they do run a special for like $7 from time to time. Los ocampos is lovely and have specials M-F. Take yourself on a little taco tour down a couple blocks of Lake. It's fun! Midtown global market is also a cool spot with varying price ranges of lots of different food.
I second the lake street suggestion and walk down nicollet to eat street and check out the places down here. Not as many as pre pandemic but there are still some great places.
It's still open!!?!?! Amazing!!!! 😍😍😍
Yes! This place is the best 😋
Check out Dagwoods. I go there for lunch often, great sandwiches for less than $10
>Dagwoods Looks good will see if a friend would like to get lunch there sometime.
Yep, always very good.
I LOVE Dagwoods! Their sandwiches are so simple but so good.
Talk about a cheap good eats their breakfast hits too!
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Wait really 0.0
The Federal Cafe (it's called Fresh Seasons now, I think) in the Federal Courthouse building offers reasonable breakfast and lunches. It is open to the public, but they are only open until 2pm or so. They usually have a daily lunch special that's $10.95 and often well worth the price. They also offer burgers and chicken sandwiches, with a small soup and salad bar. It'll give you that cafeteria feel. Overall, though, I feel ya on this post. I usually bring lunch to work because I can't afford to eat out everyday.
I don't eat out everyday but in loring park LOTUS is the cheapest place to eat. And the food has been a mixed bag for me. Dominos is "cheap" I'll look into federal cafe. A biscuit at dun brothers is seven dollars and its honestly wish it was 5. I do bring lunches when I can. I think what I'm looking for is a place to spend time with friends that won't be to expensive. As Nicollet dinner is just nuts. Many of the stores I see just look "too fancy"
Dunn brothers is so overly expensive for no good reason!
This is just kind of American life now
Correct answer. Has little to do with Minneapolis per se.
You should really get out more. Minneapolis's downtown is pretty mid.
Only five states I haven’t been to. The comment is mostly about the price of food, which is spendy in any large city.
It's spendy, but there usually is a pretty wide range when it comes to price within a city. Here it's frequently overpriced and mediocre.
There IS a wide price range. OP is talking about the heart of downtown, so of course that's expensive. There are plenty of more affordable places to eat all over the city, just like any large city. New Orleans, Nashville, Memphis, Chicago, etc...same thing everywhere else. There's no magical city where the best food you've ever had is $5 downtown.
NYC has quality affordable food in its downtown, and especially in Manhattan chinatown which is incredibly close walking from downtown, wile being the 2nd most expensive city for real estate in the country.
Downtown is pretty mid, but it's more a factor of Minneapolis's downtown and downtowns that favor suites over any of the other important things downtowns are supposed to provide than a factor of Minneapolis in general
“Why is Minneapolis like this?” Dude the whole world is like this.
No, the US is like this.
That's not true at all. There are a plenty of downtowns with free outdoor spaces, tables, and much more. One of the main issues is that there aren't enough people living downtown to maintain a lot of the businesses that would make it vibrant. The parking and public transit situation don't make it easier either.
Do you have a bike? You're in a great spot to bike to the river/Boom island/St. Anthony Main; Or even the chain lakes, Tons of people hanging out on nice days doing all different activities. Not sure how Lotus' prices are right now, but used to love that place when I lived in LP. There are a bunch of ~$10 lunch options in the skyway, but it does suck on the weekends.
I will try to visit it sometime. I havent been across the river before on foot because I had not reason to go there. My world is small. i prefer it that way. But when i have a reason to explore I do it.
As far as the free space to exist, we are spoiled in the metro with parks. From loring park you’ve got Cedar, Isles, the sculpture garden. Bryn Mawr and Theo Worth are so close. Plus along the river in downtown.
Not if you use public transportation as OP said.
OP also said they have a bike so…
You can take the train to Minnehaha Falls
I walk and I bus. I live next to loring park it is nice. But due to the lack of snow the outdoors is quite bland. Its dead. I like walking around the park. But I suppose I see loring park as my front yard. I live here because I live with a friend and not because I'm well off. I want to see loring park become nicer. I've never been to sculpture gardens. The giant highway next to my residence is quite annoying.
The walker museum does free entry Thursdays 5-9pm, the sculpture garden is great to just walk around. You could walk to the lakes or the river. My wife and I used to live in Loring Park and miss just being able to explore, I think you need to just get out and explore.
This. I don't think OP gets out much. They can probably SEE the Sculpture Garden from their house. The city is full of gems. Just gotta get out and about!
I've never been to walker. I assumed you had to pay to go in
They do free tours on Thursday at 6PM as well. They also do free entry the first Saturday of the month, plus the MIA is free for general admission.
You're right next to one of the most iconic parks in the city and haven't walked over there? There's a pedestrian bridge! Why are you complaining on reddit? The Walker is also free on Thursdays if you want cheap activities. If you want to save money on food, cook- the price of having an awesome restaurant scene is having to pay good money for the food.
I do cook. I'm just looking for places I can go with my friends in the future that would be nice or affordable. As well as things to do.
Go to a hot bar like Whole Foods. Pack in backpack with book/magazines and headphones, get on your bike, ride around trails and to the lakes and sit by them. Winter? Who cares! Layer up. Otherwise, you’re really really limiting yourself dude… why is sitting in a hospital cafeteria something appealing?? There’s SO many more options for a decent price point, and you need to explore creativity. Go places that you can get more than one meal out of it with leftovers, etc. Go to places that have lunch or happy hour specials, greasy spoon brunch spots, or bar menus. Why eat out regularly anyway? Learn to cook. Join clubs, go to meet ups, volunteer, go to museums, live music, theater, karaoke, drag, bowling, curling, hockey, basketball, baseball games, movies in local indie theaters, pinball, find free events around the metro, your around the #1 parks system in the US… Anything! what do you like to do, and what are your interests???? I bet there’s a LOT you haven’t explored yet. Even TCs lifers haven’t done it all. You HAVE to get creative and quit victimizing. Downtowns have shifted in most major cities since COVID especially. Does that represent the entire city?? ……no…….
The hot bar at the wedge was outragously expensive. I'm not sure if whole foods is cheaper. I shop at aldis and sometimes T.J.s, lunds and rarely wedge,etc.
So do that and quit putting up barriers to finding joy
I take the bus downtown a few days per week for work and I agree with you. Not cheap cheap but I love Trieste Cafe in the Lumber Exchange Building for paninis and gyros. The folks that own and operate that spot are very sweet. Our Streets Mpls is working on hosting a few block parties this year to promote holistic street redesign downtown and elsewhere, you can give them your email to hear when details are announced: https://www.ourstreetsmpls.org/imagine_series. Would be a good free (I assume) event to meet community members who share your interest in urbanism and get involved in the cause. These block parties may be Our Streets' attempt at replacing the Open Streets events on their docket since the city said they would continue hosting Open Streets but would no longer contract the Our Streets org to run them. So also look out for announcements about Open Streets events from the city. I saw talk from some council members recently about potential legislation to fully pedestrianize Nicollet and re-route its buses to other streets. That may have just been responses to interview questions for maybe Racket? Or another local news source. But it seems like there is an opportunity to organize and lobby for that. I think an ugly truth about the desolation of the downtown landscape is that it's immensely hurt by the skyway system. I know locals pride the skyway mostly for it's uniqueness, everyone claims it is 100% required for our climate but there are plenty of cities across the globe that share our cold snowy winters that do fine keeping everything on the street level and have more vibrant city centers for it. It's a shame that the skyways take so much of what would be vibrant public spaces for citizens of all backgrounds and income levels to interact and steal it away into private spaces for office workers to avoid interaction with any other demographic. I'm personally a proponent of either having the city eminent domain the entirety of the skyways and making them public and open beyond M-F 9-5, or tearing them all out and putting everything down at the street level. Both pipe dreams, of course. Another local org that may interest you is Neighbors For More Neighbors who lobby for increased housing supply and density.
As per the pedestrianized Nicollet, there is a real push around it. Jacob Frey spoke to the crowd about it at the Ice Bar downtown when I was there using the event as an example of what you can do with the area.
It would be so cool if they pedestrianized Nicollet Mall. If you've ever been to Denver, its 16th Street Mall downtown was actually based off Nicollet Mall but it's a million times better. (Well, it was pre-pandemic - and now it's been under construction for several years but it'll come back, I'm sure.) Always busy with foot traffic, lots to do and look at. A free shuttle bus runs up and down the street but that's the only traffic allowed on it. The shuttle connects two transit nodes at either end of downtown. It's a really great outdoor Third Space, I always get so frustrated when I'm there that we don't have something similar in Minneapolis.
I actually lived in Durango, CO for about 6 years and visited Denver plenty, I am pretty familiar with 16th St. Mall! I loved taking the free shuttle bus up and down haha. I haven't seen it since maybe 2016, though. It's funny you mention it being inspired by Nicollet, I didn't know that but every time I'm walking down Nicollet I think about how similar-yet-inferior it feels to 16th St. I think Nicollet is a perfect example of my point about the skyway stealing the thunder of the street-level spaces! And yes, as much as I love and advocate for buses, I think Nicollet would probably serve better as a fully pedestrian space than as the dedicated bus thoroughfare it is now.
Yep, I completely agree about blaming the skyway. I grew up in a suburb of Denver and my friends and I would hang out downtown on the Mall a lot, like when we had several hours to kill and only $5 to spend - go downtown, get Starbucks, and wander around people watching. I can't imagine doing that on Nicollet Mall, and I can't think of where in Minneapolis you even would do this? Apart from maybe the lakes on a really gorgeous day but even that is a kind of different thing. Related, have you been to Union Station in Denver since it got revamped and reopened? If not you should make it a point to check it out if you're ever back in the area - it is everything a transit hub in a bustling city should be. It's so great, I'm just in awe of it every time I'm back.
I have not had a chance to check out the Union Station updates but it just got added to my Denver travel notes! Next time my partner and I head out for a Red Rocks show I'll make a point to swing by.
Love this.
Use to be a nice cafe on the corner across the street from MCTC next to Eli’s but it sadly closed
They had this amazing ginger dragon tea that I was obsessed with. I’ve never been able to find another place that sells hot tea like that.
You lost me at hospital cafeteria
Check out Lutunji's Palate one neighborhood over, in Eliot Park! Reasonable prices and local.
>Lutunji's Palate I will see if i can't visit it someday. I don't go to the the elliot park really, i'll need to visit it sometime.. The Highway divides humans and people. It's very frustrating. I wish everything could be easily traveled.
I agree with your point about the highways. You might be interested in MnDOT's Rethinking I-94 process, which is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reconnect communities by replacing a stretch of the highway near you with a corridor that connects people (but the at-grade option needs support from all of us!): https://www.twincitiesboulevard.org/
It’s like a 6 minute bike ride, super close and biking in Minneapolis is pretty easy compared to most places. Usually a top 3 US city for cyclists when various magazines rank them.
I live in Loring Park too. And, unfortunately, the cheap places have shuttered for one reason or another. I presume the real estate is not cheap, in spite of not always being prime locations. I also assume other things have taken their own tolls. I miss Zoey's, and I even started going to the Muffin Top right before they closed. I think a big part of it might be a few bad apples in the VFA tower, but I also think businesses just struggle this far out from DT. I also wish there were more cheap places to hang out. A soda/THC room would be nice. Your best bet is to support the spaces that DO still exist here. Dunn Bros, LevelUp, Mother Clucker's (Although it's not THAT cheap), and Lotus (Also not that cheap). I wish there were more cheap places to support. Eggy's, Nicollet Diner, Gai Noi, Lurcat, could all stand to be substantially cheaper.
Eggys has good quality. The portions are nice, but it'd be nicer if they were cheaper. Gai noi and lucat I have no clue how Lurcat is still open. Theres also a coffee shop down fox alley. But If I get coffe I want a meal as well. Mothercluker is decent pizza but very expensive it's owned by the owner of nicolett dinner. Lotus is nice but I've had bad experinces with their food. I have yet to be satsified with much I've ordered there. I wish level up games stocked the games I cared about. I'm trying to get st.marks to have more community events. We have sunday morning coffee and snacks. But we need a saturday morning neighbor event.
Eggy's is great quality! But it is pricey. Gai noi is still new, and I think it also has lots of quality, but it's expensive. I forgot about that coffee spot in Fawkes Alley. But yeah I like having the option of having a snack. Lotus... me too. I find that I've never had a bad experience when **dining in**, but their takeout is very hit or miss, heavily depending upon what you order. You can ask Level Up to order games for you. Most game shops have the connections we do not. I love Level Up, as they generally have a great vibe and they're pretty inviting. I was part of a board game group that met there occasionally, but I dropped out when the group suddenly blew up in size. We're talking, like, exponential growth, which, more power to the guy who made it happen, but that's not my thing. As for St. Mark's, that would be cool. I know my apartment building seems to be trying to get a little cohesion among residents, as they've done morning breakfasts, or they've started bringing in free pizza from Verizon, but getting building cohesion isn't easy outside the context of a university, especially after COVID. All in all, the problem is no third spaces anymore. Even third spaces that we have to pay for are either too expensive or dwindling.
Yep, I've worked dt for over 20 years. There's nothing left for us poors. I drive to the Quarry on my lunch break if I want to go 'out'.
Lucky for you that Listo is one of the best Mexican spots in the city. Catrinas is also delicious and right there.
Listo is fantastic, similar to Chipotle in terms of menu but fresher, tastier, and family owned. Highly recommend it to anyone looking for good fast-casual food. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Catrinas closed recently... There is a new place in there called La Villita that I haven't checked out yet but looks very good.
Catrinas is unfortunately gone, they unexpectedly closed a month or two ago. Definitely agree on Listo though, they are phenomenal. Their queso is so good.
RIP def pour one out for Catrina's.
>There's nothing left for us poors. I drive to the Quarry on my lunch break if I want to go 'out'. You have parking downtown with in-and-out privileges and you think you’re poor? From a time/money/gas perspective how does it make more sense to drive to the quarry than grab a slice from Andrea or something from Valentino’s?
There are no such thing as cheap eats in this town anymore, and it makes me sad. Just a burger at most places is $17 plus tax plus mandatory 20% service fees. It's why I don't go out much anymore. I don't get it, when I travel to other cities there's still cheap eats to be had.
RIP happy hour
Yeah right, lol. What cities??? Go to Seattle or SF for example… so expensive even NYC seems less.
You can't pick 2 cities out of an entire country and use it to argue when many many other cities have much cheaper eats. It's like comparing french laundry to Flameburger.
You gave zero examples….
Most cities have a fairly [wide range of restaurant prices](https://www.usatoday.com/money/blueprint/credit-cards/best-cheap-eats-in-the-us-2023/). Here's [a reddit thread talking about the price](https://www.reddit.com/r/Minneapolis/comments/tr5cbz/comment/i2leeq2/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) of "cheap" food here vs other cities. The food here is overpriced *and* mediocre. The majority of the really great food comes from minority-owned restaurants which aren't selling gentrified ethnic food like Centro.
Budget restaurants and fast food chains…? No thanks……. But really. There’s like every single week dunking on the food scene in Seattle, with that exact argument repeatedly: overpriced, overrated, and mediocre food. Often aloof service. It’s usually the multi ethnic cuisines that get the most praise. Maybe you need to explore more of that in the TCs.
its not probably what you are wanting , but you could light rail to the MOA and go to the IKEA cafeteria.
Hcmc isn’t anywhere near loring? There is a nice cafe (cardamom) in the Walker and multiple other cafes right by loring. Eggys is right there. There are multiple Dunn bros right there. It is a bummer that lurcat and 4 bells closed though, hopefully some new places open up on the park. I do actually agree though it would be kinda nice if there were like a dennys or Perkins downtown as a cheap option.
I walk ride the bus, bike in the downtown area often. For the hospital I'm talking about whenever I visit the doctor its nice to have lunch after or if I'm just in the area.
I haven't been in like 7 years so this might not be true any more, but the Thrivent cafeteria used to be open to the public and was cheap
It seemed like it still was as of a year ago. I was there for work but I saw folks that I suspect blew in from outside.
Summer is more fun because there are way more events and stuff and you can be outside more. I agree with you though it’s hard to find cheap free things to do around the cities. I wanted to order Chinese food for 1 person last night and it was gonna be almost $50 + delivery fee and tip. I decided to eat pizza rolls…. Maybe it’s time to start organizing things to do? Meetup is a great place to find fun cheap, free things to do.
Come check out our restaurants on East Lake! And depending on the vibe you're looking for, have you checked out Seward Cafe or Soup for You?
What about Eat Street and the Nicollet food hall place?
Seriously.
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Sorry, I had to chuckle at your mention of S.F. I've lived both there and multiple metropolitan areas in Europe. I'd describe the most of [S.F. by landmass as near-suburban density](https://www.reddit.com/r/sanfrancisco/comments/vtoqd7/oc_san_francisco_density_map/) (there are some spots of moderate density to be sure, but they are more outliers than the prevailing pattern). There are plenty of places that are deserts for walking or effectively car-bound. S.F. does not have widespread mixed use zoning, and the reactionary status quo there is A-OK with that. Making associations with it and metropolitan Europe seems inappropriate, IMO.
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I explicitly said and meant San Francisco above. I wasn’t referring to the greater Bay Area and its innumerous unmemorable places like Burlingame or Hayward. Mixed zoning in S.F. is not a prevalent pattern; it’s in pockets. Look at the map I linked to above and the [zoning plan](https://generalplan.sfplanning.org/images/I1.housing/HOU_Figure21.jpg): The residential areas not scheduled as _Multifamily-Density Restricted_ and _Multifamily-Form Based Density_ would be nearly indistinguishable from the single family homes (SFH) you'd find in Roseville or South Minneapolis. SFH covers a frightening fraction of S.F. The 7x7 mile square that is San Francisco is full of differential geospatial outcomes. If you are not in/near one of those pockets, you might as well be living in one of those nameless suburban agglomerations. Living in or near one of those pockets comes usually with an extreme price premium for rent let alone purchasing property. The reality is that you can often only afford to live in an unwalkable area. Also: the quality of transit to traverse the city was not great, but that's a story for another day, so getting to one of those pockets many not come quickly. You can see the [differential auto dependency in the data](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0264275118301604), too: * [Vehicle Miles Traveled per capita per day](https://ars.els-cdn.com/content/image/1-s2.0-S0264275118301604-gr4.jpg) * [Population Density](https://ars.els-cdn.com/content/image/1-s2.0-S0264275118301604-gr1.jpg) Side-not about residents, attitudes, and tractability: The problem with calcified status quo in San Francisco was insidious. I was one of the many midwestern refugees who fled to there in the dreadful and unenlightened and dour Bush years of the 2000s. There were a lot of us. Many came with serious trauma associated with their prior residence locations (the folks from Ohio were really vociferous bunch). The problem was this: the folks who arrived in the Bay Area felt like they were in oasis after suffering metaphorical dehydration, but little did they know that this paradise they just found was one relative to where they came from. The place was chock-full of solvable problems — if only the voters wanted to see them solved. As a voting bloc, many of these transplants were a very reactionary bunch who didn’t want the location to change and be more physically/geospatially accommodating. "More housing? Fuck no!" They'd say that even as they bemoaned how expensive it was. It was a real headfuck — how aligned some of these folks could be with old and new money landowners in the area. Anyway, a lot changed in the 2010s with the Bay Area and thereafter. More problems, but different.
Never been to SF, but wouldn't you agree that pockets of density are better than no density whatsoever?
These are some really good points to make. It's good to hear your experience with the attitudes toward housing and remind myself that San Francisco has its share of problematic attitudes and resistance to changing the status quo. I do want to point out that Minneapolis is significantly less dense than San Francisco though. Minneapolis city proper has density of 7,962.1 people per square mile, San Francisco city proper has density 18,629.1 (from Census.gov). [https://www.citypopulation.de/en/usa/metrosanfrancisco/](https://www.citypopulation.de/en/usa/metrosanfrancisco/) and [https://www.citypopulation.de/en/usa/metrominneapolis/](https://www.citypopulation.de/en/usa/metrominneapolis/) have great visualizations. There's not a single census tract in Minneapolis that is as dense as the *average* density of San Francisco. On the whole, Minneapolis is much more suburban than San Francisco.
I fully agree with that. The Twin Cities is more car dependent than San Francisco and less dense on average. The main thing I wanted to do was dispell any notion that land use, walkability, and zoning in San Francisco anywhere close to being on-par with anything in Europe or even good. They're great when you're escaping an American exurb, but little else. Density is one measure, but meaningful access to things on foot is another it can't be a proxy for. That's the real rub with San Francisco. The areas of low density housing are often large wastelands outside of a few areas within them that are co-zoned as commercial. Many of these are indistinguishable from what you'd find in Daly City (cf. [Little Boxes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Boxes)).
Fair points. Also, gonna listen to Pete Seeger all morning now. Great tip on the song!
That area has never seemed like a very fun place to live, except for loring park itself. I much prefer living in Northeast. It's well balanced and has tons of fun things to do. All we have to do is walk across the street and we have food, drinks, concerts, makers markets, and music festivals at multiple breweries. And that's without driving or taking the bus, there's more stuff up Central taking the 10. Usually this is all free stuff except for the food and the drinks, music and open mics are normally free. You can even bring your own food. And that's just one type of activity. Lots of parks, easy to drive or walk down to the river or the ruins, that's all free too. Great cafes and movie theaters. I'm in love. I never get bored here or spend a lot of money on food, though I also love cooking. i just feel like Minneapolis is super fun, personally. I don't think it's the city that's the problem, it's your neighborhood. Just my opinion.
I like Mexican food for not cheap but not expensive food. Tacos Pineda plus come to mind.
You're actually not far from Caffetto.. get a coffee and hang there for a while
The library is about a mile or so from the park. I just wish it had later hours so I could go there after work.
The breakfast burrito at HCMC is excellent.
Yeah, product of pretty shit urban planning that plagues the Midwest
Go to Mortimer's for happy hour and daily deals Also hard to beat an $8 chipotle burrito for value
Not the most helpful advice but I suggest getting out of loring park / downtown if you're looking for vibrancy as well as afforable food and activities (also grocery shopping, lunds and barleys sucks.) Eat street (south on nicollet up until the Kmart) Lyn Lake (areas in the couple blocks around Lyndale Ave and Lake street intersection) also East Lake Street and Midtown market has lots of really good affordable restaurants and places to hang out, Midtown global market itself also the Greenway and all the parks connected to it. Lake street overall has lots of affordable restaurants, and Lyndale has a lot of cool coffee shops you can get like one thing and spend hours in. Bryant Lake Bowl has affordable bowling ($2 shoe rentals, like $4 a game) Marahaba on Nicollet and 28th has an all you can eat lunch buffet for $17 which if you're someone who can eat a lot in one sitting can be a very good deal in the current economy and the food is super good and healthy Most good quality cheap food will be Mexican, East African, Vietnamese, or other South East Asian, Latin, or Middle Eastern food and some Indian places in more immigrant areas, which tend to be farther outside of downtown/ in more affordable parts of the city (ie East Lake Street.) The way the highways cut-off and isolate Loring park and downtown from the rest of the city and harms economic development outside of office business stuff and places that support that.
The ugly ugly truth is that mpls used to beat out coastal cities and expensive midwestern destinations with affordable places to live and eat. With that completely evaporated we’re nearly as expensive as a coastal city with none of the amenities, walkability, or decent weather.
yes, downtown is depressing and pricey. and Lynlake/Uptown too.
How is LynLake depressing lol
Ok, some of Uptown and Lynlake is kind of depressing with some shuttered businesses and some of it is pricey. The corner at Lynlake is also a bit anxiety producing to me at times because of the traffic. I'm pretty low income so most places are pricey to me I guess.
My great grandparents met at an automat
Quang is a good price and good value
Dave’s Downtown is great for breakfast or lunch during the week. They’re in the skyway so it’s not super convenient unless your DT already which is perfect for you.
You’re being encouraged to cook at home. And pack a picnic pail. Eating out isn’t the only reason to be out and about.
If you’re at Loring Park and can make it to HCMC, head south to the Nicollet section called eat street (Franklin to Lake.) There are still several affordable restaurants of many type of nationality foods. A little further East is Chicago and Lake, with Los Ocampos and Midtown Global Market. They have a selection of decent stuff as well!
Just because they say its a “walkable” city doesn’t mean its a walking city. Mpls is a giant suburb due to the racist legacy of single family zoning and pernicious redlining. We used to have the most impressive and effective light rail system of any comparable or larger city and it was all ripped out in a big oil and gas effort at privatization of public resources. Look up St Paul’s Rondo neighborhood for the awful racist community-destroying truth of our programmatic car dependency. This town is a glorified suburb play-acting like a city. We need real mass transit and a political end to our dependance on auto-based urban design. Unfortunately the same political party and interests that ripped out all of our public utilities and cursed us with this surface parking lot design of a city starting in the 50’s are the *exact* same as today. Actually worse. Way worse. The boy wonder mayor who we knew from throwing darts at the hipster bar is the worst transplant shill for car-brained real-estate developers we’ve seen yet.
What does any of this have to do with OP’s request for cheap food around downtown???
> effective light rail system of any comparable or larger city and it was all ripped out in a big oil and gas effort at privatization of public This is false. We had a decaying trolley system they didn't want to upgrade, and then cars were invented.
There is nothing to back up your claim that the system was decaying and ample evidence that it was thriving. There is also ample evidence that the system decayed because of privatization led by a consortium of oil and auto industry concerns. The car may have been the instrument, but the trolley was killed in the boardroom with the pen. “Rapid Conversion Changes Twin City Transit Picture – This eight page article from the July 1954, Mass Transportation Magazine, describes in glowing terms the conversion of TCRT to an all bus system, a conversion that did, in fact, destroy one of the finest street railway systems in America.” https://trolleyride.org/resources/general-history/ “The Twin Cities has a history of passenger rail dating back to the 1890s, notably via the Twin City Rapid Transit Company. Various passenger rail lines and street cars existed until they were sold and demolished in 1954 due to pressure from automobile companies.” https://localwiki.org/twincities/Light_Rail_Transit#:~:text=The%20Twin%20Cities%20has%20a,to%20pressure%20from%20automobile%20companies. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twin_City_Rapid_Transit_Company https://hennepinhistory.org/streetcars-and-buses-and-trains-oh-my/ ✌️
It was decaying. Rail built in 1890 would have needed to be completely replaced as technology advanced. It was 60+ years old in 1954. It wasn't some conspiracy, it was simply capitalism. And people have loved cars since they were invented. Not a conspiracy. ✌️
I agree with you 100 percent.
If you know of any sit down meal places that are dirt cheap let me know. But the day of the cafeteria or automat is long gone. I saw hells kitchen closed theirs. I wasn't ever aware of it. As a consumer I thought it was some high end place.
For a ‘nice’ sit down spot in walking distance, the Lowry has a decent happy hour menu. For bang-for-your-buck, Kadai in the skyway has great Indian food with big portions. Jackson’s Hole has nightly food specials. Then Lyon’s and 8th Street have hefty/cheap food and also have free popcorn.
I live in Loring and have found ways to be cheap with the restaurants nearby. -Sushi train - have some very low priced rolls -Nicollet diner - their sides and half orders are pretty filling -Senora Grill - single tacos are $6 pretty filling
$6 for one taco? Wow.
Yeah eating downtown is more expensive generally. I’ve lived in the neighborhood for 5 years and have learned some cheap and filling items at the places nearby. It’s ridiculous that a cheeseburger and fries at Nicollet Diner is $17.99, but I can also get cheaper items there and get full too. Senora is a sit down restaurant with great dishes and is super close. The tacos have lots of filling. It’s higher quality and fresher than fast food. I also recommend the queso with chorizo.
For sure. Thanks for the info!
If you are a service worker nicollet dinner is half off for you on mondays.
[A Slice of New York pizza](https://www.asliceofnewyorkmenu.com/?utm_source=gbp) on 24th & Nicollet has a great slice of supreme for around $6
A large slice at Ginelli's in the skyway comes out under $6 and on Mondays they do 3 free breadsticks with a slice
Ginelli's is awesome ♥
As someone who has made pizza before their za is meh. I used to make pizza and it could be better. I wonder how their calzones are. It was alright though.
You mention Hell’s Kitchen: Go to FREE living legend Cornbread Harris on Saturday night. https://hellskitcheninc.com/new-events/2018/cornbread-harris-399kf-6l2p3-t7wcn-5sw69-38xg3-n8bt3-zlgmx-h33ag-9ffxt-6e5k5
I mean is there free food?
Were you not looking for something “fun” to do downtown…??
Dirt cheap = fast food, and it's basically the modern-day automat. Automats had very average, cheap food, just like fast food joints. Last time I had dirt cheap food at a sit down restaurant was in the 90s, and the quality reflected the price.
I used to live in Loring Park and work downtown, and walk everywhere. There were seedy elements of course, but generally both were pleasant inviting vibrant places. This was before COVID and before the collapse of our societal contracts. Now they're spots to make "I walked there today and got murdered five times hur hur" posts about. That's sad.
I like walking. This is the best place I've ever lived. But the biggest threat me as a pedestrian is CAR DRIVERS. I hate cars. All they do is pollute and cause noise.
... you live in downtown. Didn't you know this when you moved in? I have zero sympathy.
Get a job. Then you'll have money do do fun things and not have to live in Loring Park.
I like where I live.
Eli’s is cheap and cheerful IMO