Minnesota Game Road Trip Recommendations
- Thread starter Leonard23
- Start date
Would regularly travel to Minneapolis for business pre covid. The city and the community were fabulous. Went to a conference in June of this year and the city is an absolute ghost town. Many businesses failed and with many businesses and government with limited back to work mandates have left the business district and downtown in shambles. Not like I didn’t feel safe ( many of the women did not) but there were very few lunch/ happy hour late night options available. The streets were very empty of pedestrian and vehicular traffic. I hope things are different near the university.
Dangerous Man Brewing is a great spot. Recommend Butcher and the Board for dinner. I have been a vegetarian for 6 years and this was literally the last place I ate meat.so much food came out to the table that I said I had enough.If you are into music, Turnstile is playing the same weekend RU is in town.
Highly recommend this road trip though. Would have done it again this year but going to Purdue instead. Minneapolis is a great midwestern city with great beer and food. You will have sticker shock on the other direction when you see the prices when you are out.
Highly recommend this road trip though. Would have done it again this year but going to Purdue instead. Minneapolis is a great midwestern city with great beer and food. You will have sticker shock on the other direction when you see the prices when you are out.
Richie posted this earlier, but it sank to the bottom in a sea of useless posts.
September 27th at Minnesota
BringMeTheNews.com’s Tony Liebert
Places to eat…
- If you’re looking for breakfast while you’re in town for a Gophers game you have plenty of options. Al’s Breakfast is a quaint old school diner with only one row of seats.
- If you don’t wanna wait in line, Tony’s Diner is a worthy replacement.
- If you want a sit down burger joint near the stadium, Blue Door Pub is your best choice.
- If you’re in the mood for Chinese food, Shaung Cheng is a Dinkytown staple.
- If you’re looking for variety The Market at Malcolm Yards is an efficient and unique way to find something for everyone.
- Stub & Herbs is a University of Minnesota staple that is older than the stadium and a perfect place for a drink before the game.
- If you’re looking to get away from campus Surly Brewing Co. is a great local brewery with tremendous pizza.
- Sally’s Saloon is more of a traditional college bar with a younger crowd, but still a great pregame spot.
- The Corner Bar and Town Hall Brewery are on the other side of the river, but two great spots for food and drinks if you want to get away from the campus craziness.
- If you have time to kill before the game, a walk to Stone Arch Bridge is a must when in Minneapolis.
- The Walker Art Center is more off campus, but a fun activity if you’re into art.
- A walk around the Minneapolis chain of lakes is a personal favorite, but the location more near south Minneapolis makes it more of a Friday activity or maybe Sunday morning if you’re in town for the weekend.
- The Mall of America has something for just about everyone and a great activity on a Friday or Sunday as well
Rutgers Football Travel Guide 2025: Eats, drinks and places to visit on road trips
A look at bars, restaurants, and sight seeing spots for Rutgers Football fans hitting the road to see their Scarlet Knights in 2025.
Arch bridge was under renovation when I was there in June and was scheduled to be completed in August. So hopefully complete. The river walk and mill district along the river is very cool. Used to be a vibrant bar and restaurant scene but was hit or miss. I would stay closer to campus versus across the river in downtown Minneapolis.Richie posted this earlier, but it sank to the bottom in a sea of useless posts.
September 27th at Minnesota
BringMeTheNews.com’s Tony Liebert
Places to eat…
Drinks…
- If you’re looking for breakfast while you’re in town for a Gophers game you have plenty of options. Al’s Breakfast is a quaint old school diner with only one row of seats.
- If you don’t wanna wait in line, Tony’s Diner is a worthy replacement.
- If you want a sit down burger joint near the stadium, Blue Door Pub is your best choice.
- If you’re in the mood for Chinese food, Shaung Cheng is a Dinkytown staple.
- If you’re looking for variety The Market at Malcolm Yards is an efficient and unique way to find something for everyone.
Places To Visit…
- Stub & Herbs is a University of Minnesota staple that is older than the stadium and a perfect place for a drink before the game.
- If you’re looking to get away from campus Surly Brewing Co. is a great local brewery with tremendous pizza.
- Sally’s Saloon is more of a traditional college bar with a younger crowd, but still a great pregame spot.
- The Corner Bar and Town Hall Brewery are on the other side of the river, but two great spots for food and drinks if you want to get away from the campus craziness.
- If you have time to kill before the game, a walk to Stone Arch Bridge is a must when in Minneapolis.
- The Walker Art Center is more off campus, but a fun activity if you’re into art.
- A walk around the Minneapolis chain of lakes is a personal favorite, but the location more near south Minneapolis makes it more of a Friday activity or maybe Sunday morning if you’re in town for the weekend.
- The Mall of America has something for just about everyone and a great activity on a Friday or Sunday as well
Rutgers Football Travel Guide 2025: Eats, drinks and places to visit on road trips
A look at bars, restaurants, and sight seeing spots for Rutgers Football fans hitting the road to see their Scarlet Knights in 2025.www.on3.com
Richie posted this earlier, but it sank to the bottom in a sea of useless posts.
September 27th at Minnesota
BringMeTheNews.com’s Tony Liebert
Places to eat…
Drinks…
- If you’re looking for breakfast while you’re in town for a Gophers game you have plenty of options. Al’s Breakfast is a quaint old school diner with only one row of seats.
- If you don’t wanna wait in line, Tony’s Diner is a worthy replacement.
- If you want a sit down burger joint near the stadium, Blue Door Pub is your best choice.
- If you’re in the mood for Chinese food, Shaung Cheng is a Dinkytown staple.
- If you’re looking for variety The Market at Malcolm Yards is an efficient and unique way to find something for everyone.
Places To Visit…
- Stub & Herbs is a University of Minnesota staple that is older than the stadium and a perfect place for a drink before the game.
- If you’re looking to get away from campus Surly Brewing Co. is a great local brewery with tremendous pizza.
- Sally’s Saloon is more of a traditional college bar with a younger crowd, but still a great pregame spot.
- The Corner Bar and Town Hall Brewery are on the other side of the river, but two great spots for food and drinks if you want to get away from the campus craziness.
- If you have time to kill before the game, a walk to Stone Arch Bridge is a must when in Minneapolis.
- The Walker Art Center is more off campus, but a fun activity if you’re into art.
- A walk around the Minneapolis chain of lakes is a personal favorite, but the location more near south Minneapolis makes it more of a Friday activity or maybe Sunday morning if you’re in town for the weekend.
- The Mall of America has something for just about everyone and a great activity on a Friday or Sunday as well
Rutgers Football Travel Guide 2025: Eats, drinks and places to visit on road trips
A look at bars, restaurants, and sight seeing spots for Rutgers Football fans hitting the road to see their Scarlet Knights in 2025.
I have good luck with skimming reviewing from Google Maps, confirmed with Yelp, and Trip Advisor.
Porzana seems to be one steakhouse to go to. It ain't cheap:
Google Maps
Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.
maps.app.goo.gl
But if I had to choose, might lean towards Manny's or Fogo de Chão Brazilian Steakhouse
Me and Mrs. Shift are going, but we are going with a travel group. Not sure how much freedom we have for meals.
Had a dinner at porzana in June (limited menu because we were a large group) Very good! Went to one of their other restaurants Colita multiple times and it is some of the best Mexican I have ever had. Can’t go wrong with Capital Grill and there’s a place that had great food and atmosphere Butcher and the Boar.I have good luck with skimming reviewing from Google Maps, confirmed with Yelp, and Trip Advisor.
Porzana seems to be one steakhouse to go to. It ain't cheap:
Google Maps
Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.
But if I had to choose, might lean towards Manny's or Fogo de Chão Brazilian Steakhouse
Me and Mrs. Shift are going, but we are going with a travel group. Not sure how much freedom we have for meals.
Last edited:
I have good luck with skimming reviewing from Google Maps, confirmed with Yelp, and Trip Advisor.
Porzana seems to be one steakhouse to go to. It ain't cheap:
Google Maps
Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.
But if I had to choose, might lean towards Manny's or Fogo de Chão Brazilian Steakhouse
Me and Mrs. Shift are going, but we are going with a travel group. Not sure how much freedom we have for meals.
Thanks. Those prices are interesting. Looks like Porzana, Capital Grille, Manny's, Butcher & The Boar are the places to hit.
Hotels closest to the stadium are more expensive, but surprisingly there's still availability at the Graduate, Hilton Garden Inn, and Home2Suites. Just across the river closer to US Bank stadium and downtown Minneapolis, hotels are 2x-3x less with plenty of availability. It's ~2-3 miles to the game/campus, and I'd guess Uber and Lyft will be available, but someone can let us know.
Surprised we don't have more activity in this thread with restaurant recommendations, etc.
Thanks and I agree about the lack of traction. It seems this type of discussion is way down recently.
PS - does anyone know what section and rows Rutgers fans have been allocated? The Minny ticket office wasn’t sure on the details (seemed like their ticket office was manned by disinterested students).
Last edited:
You're welcome. Yeah we need more discussions here. Rutgers sections look to be upper corners, back rows of Sections 201-206 and 215-220 according to this site.
Big 10 stadiums where I haven't seen Rutgers in reverse level of interest:
- Michigan State - E. Lansing - no interest
- Minnesota - never been to Minneapolis. Maybe someday.
- Purdue - W. Lafayette - maybe for a basketball game.
- Indiana - Bloomington - Have heard good things about Indy which is nearby. But not super interested.
- Illlinois - Champaign - have heard good things. Would like to at some point. Just hasn't reached the top of the list yet.
- Oregon - definitely will go when we have an away game there.
- UCLA - definitely will go when we have an away game there.
- Northwestern - going next year when they unveil the new stadium
- Washington - going this year
I've seen RU play at the other 9.
- Michigan State - E. Lansing - no interest
- Minnesota - never been to Minneapolis. Maybe someday.
- Purdue - W. Lafayette - maybe for a basketball game.
- Indiana - Bloomington - Have heard good things about Indy which is nearby. But not super interested.
- Illlinois - Champaign - have heard good things. Would like to at some point. Just hasn't reached the top of the list yet.
- Oregon - definitely will go when we have an away game there.
- UCLA - definitely will go when we have an away game there.
- Northwestern - going next year when they unveil the new stadium
- Washington - going this year
I've seen RU play at the other 9.
Last edited:
Rutgers Football Travel Guide 2025: Eats, drinks and places to visit on road trips
A look at bars, restaurants, and sight seeing spots for Rutgers Football fans hitting the road to see their Scarlet Knights in 2025.
Could you share the On3 travel guide for games at Rutgers. Probably exists but I couldn’t find it.Rutgers Football Travel Guide 2025: Eats, drinks and places to visit on road trips
A look at bars, restaurants, and sight seeing spots for Rutgers Football fans hitting the road to see their Scarlet Knights in 2025.
There isn't one, I made this on my own by reaching out to several beat writers. You can use this....
Game Day and Travel Advice for Visiting Fans - Forums
So we are getting a lot of interest from visitors who are coming out for some of our home games, particularly the one against Iowa. So I thought it would be good to aggregate links to these threads as a kind of one stop shop for them. If you know of others, PM the links to me. Question from an...
Thanks. Saw that. Any idea how many visiting fans come to Rutgers versus Rutgers fans going to away games?There isn't one, I made this on my own by reaching out to several beat writers. You can use this....
Game Day and Travel Advice for Visiting Fans - Forums
So we are getting a lot of interest from visitors who are coming out for some of our home games, particularly the one against Iowa. So I thought it would be good to aggregate links to these threads as a kind of one stop shop for them. If you know of others, PM the links to me. Question from an...
Seems like pairing a Rutgers game with a long weekend to New :York City would be a bucket list vacation for a lot of families in many B1G markets.
Rutgers unfortunately doesn't travel as well as some other B1G programs.
Me and the Mrs are doing our part. Traveling to at least 2 away games per season in the past 2 seasons. Still not sure if we will ever visit Penn State for various reasons. Not too enthused about Ohio State or Michigan either, but will eventually make it.
FWIW, the travel group we are going with has booked 801 Chophouse for dinner. Reviews are pretty solid for this place.
Already did PSU and UM, but haven't gone to tOSU yet...will eventually get there. If you don't like the volume in our stadium, your ears will bleed in Happy Valley. On the flip side, UM is much quieter, as the bowl allows a lot of noise to escape. Both good places to visit with UM fans being much nicer (obviously).
Leaning towards Porzana for MN but 801 also looked good along with Butcher's Tale, Manny's and Capital Grille.
Going to at least 2 away games this year- Minnesota and Illinois.
Other than the end result, Minnesota was a good trip. Stadium is very nice with the brick exterior, chairbacks on the lower sideline seats, and wide concourses. I wish our exterior was redone in brick/stone. Fans were friendly and welcomed us to tailgates, and were mostly fine in the stadium, except for a few idiots. Tailgate scene was nice, and was spread out to a lot of smaller lots further away too. They feel like they're in a similar situation as us.
Porzana, The Market At Malcolm Yards, and Surly were good. Downtown Minneapolis seemed pretty quiet Fri and Sat.
Porzana, The Market At Malcolm Yards, and Surly were good. Downtown Minneapolis seemed pretty quiet Fri and Sat.
Fans were all cordial to us. Gopher fans up their with Nebraska fans for nicest fans in B1G.
Totally agree on the stadium. Felt like a smaller and newer version of the LA Coliseum. Seats with chairbacks were a welcome pleasure.
Hardly had time to explore downtown. Walked through the Mall of America, which was quite nice.
Fans were friendly, even a bit nerdy 
. Outside of the color scheme I really liked the stadium … plenty of room in the concourse, good concessions, 40+ urinals and 25 sinks in the men’s rooms (almost no wait!!). The game day experience was very collegiate (much more band and much less blaring loud music and we were close to the scoreboard).
The fans were pretty subdued and on the polite side as far as cheering goes (the stadium was not loud). The tailgate scene was good but scattered across many small paved lots (many private) … nothing at all like our yellow, blue, green, scarlet situation and nothing like the Boardwalk, the Beer Garden, or the bandstand.
We did the Stone Arch Bridge, Mill museum, Mall of America, Minehaha falls, the Market at Malcom Yards (loved it), drove to Hudson Wisconsin to grab some New Glarus Spotted Cow and have Culver’s Butter Burgers for lunch, and drove around town.
I’ll go back again to see a hoops game at the Barn, but nothing there was more than OK. Probably because we coupled this with a 10 day trip to ND, MT WY, and SD (3 National Parks, plus Devils Tower, Mt Rushmore, Custer St Park, Minuteman Missile NHP, Deadwood, scenic drives, and more). Great hiking, a lot of wildlife, awesome weather, very unique geology and scenery.
Damn we should have won that game
.
. Outside of the color scheme I really liked the stadium … plenty of room in the concourse, good concessions, 40+ urinals and 25 sinks in the men’s rooms (almost no wait!!). The game day experience was very collegiate (much more band and much less blaring loud music and we were close to the scoreboard).The fans were pretty subdued and on the polite side as far as cheering goes (the stadium was not loud). The tailgate scene was good but scattered across many small paved lots (many private) … nothing at all like our yellow, blue, green, scarlet situation and nothing like the Boardwalk, the Beer Garden, or the bandstand.
We did the Stone Arch Bridge, Mill museum, Mall of America, Minehaha falls, the Market at Malcom Yards (loved it), drove to Hudson Wisconsin to grab some New Glarus Spotted Cow and have Culver’s Butter Burgers for lunch, and drove around town.
I’ll go back again to see a hoops game at the Barn, but nothing there was more than OK. Probably because we coupled this with a 10 day trip to ND, MT WY, and SD (3 National Parks, plus Devils Tower, Mt Rushmore, Custer St Park, Minuteman Missile NHP, Deadwood, scenic drives, and more). Great hiking, a lot of wildlife, awesome weather, very unique geology and scenery.
Damn we should have won that game
.