46. Twin Cities Green
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (612) 374-4581
Address: 2405 Hennepin Ave. South
Description: Twin Cities Green is an eco-friendly boutique, most notable for its products made from creatively reused items like license plates (lampshades), bike tires (wallets), and paperback book covers (postcards). As headquarters for Do It Green! Twin Cities, the store also houses an information resource and environmental action center.
47. Holy Land Bakery, Grocery And Deli
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (612) 781-2627
Address: 2513 Central Ave. NE
Description: This Mediterranean deli and grocery store sells everything you need to make your own lamb kebabs, hummus, spinach pie, and falafel, although chances are you probably won’t be able to make them quite as well as the Holy Land deli counter does. The store stocks items such as pita (made fresh in the bakery every day), meats, gigantic bags of basmati rice, roasted and dried chickpeas, at least six types of feta cheese, black and green olives, specialty coffees, and a wide selection of Middle Eastern cookies, candies, and specialty chocolates.
48. Midtown Global Market
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (612) 872-4041
Address: 920 East Lake St.
Description: Opened in 2006 in an attempt to give Minneapolis a multiethnic urban market like Pike Place in Seattle or Quincy Market in Boston, the Midtown Global Market is a colorful and tasty collection of Hispanic, Arabic, Hmong, African American, Scandinavian, and Tibetan, among others, markets, shops, and casual eateries in the heart of south Minneapolis. There is no other place in the Twin Cities where you can eat jerk chicken, buy hand-sewn Hmong wall hangings, and learn to salsa in quick succession. The marketplace is also a particularly good spot to find unusual gifts (tree-trunk sculpture and stretchy, frilly, tubetop-like shirts, for example) and to shop for spices and foods from Latin America, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and elsewhere.
49. Shuang Hur Oriental Market
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (612) 872-8606
Address: 2710 Nicollet Ave. South
Description: Shuang Hur carries thousands of products from China, Taiwan, and Thailand. The full-service grocery store has a large fresh-produce section with melons, bean sprouts, and crates of aged duck eggs; freezers full of egg roll and spring roll wraps and desserts; and a Chinese BBQ deli that carries whole roasted pigs and BBQ duck and chicken meat. In the dry goods sections are rows and rows of dried mushrooms, noodles, soups, spices, rice, and shrimp crackers.
50. Surdyk’S
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (612) 379-3232
Address: 303 East Hennepin Ave.
Description: This Minneapolis shop is a wine connoisseur’s dream come true—if you’re actually going to sample all the wines available for taste-testing on weekends, you’d better have someone else do the driving. Surdyk’s carries a wide selection of wines and other spirits, plus a gourmet cheese shop that makes this the place to consider when planning cocktail or dinner parties. Cigar smokers will appreciate the large humidor, which was a part of the store long before puffing cigars became trendy.
51. Alternative Bike & Board Shop
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (612) 374-3635
Address: 3013 Lyndale Ave. South
Description: Alternative Bike & Board Shop carries all the respected bicycle, skateboard, and snowboard brands like Burton, Clicker, Nitro, and K2. It also carries clothing, accessories, and gear and has a knowledgeable staff that can help set you up with anything you need to get out on the road or on the slopes. The store also offers bike repairs.
52. Erik’S Bike Shop
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (612) 617-8002
Address: 11 additional Twin Cities locations
Description: This chain of local shops offers an excellent selection of equipment and a knowledgeable staff. Cyclists will find an extensive assortment of mountain, road, touring, and BMX bikes from such companies as Cannondale, Specialized, and Haro, as well as accessories, including car racks, helmets, parts, and apparel. Winter sports enthusiasts will be pleased by Erik’s selection of snowboards, clothing, and boots. Erik’s also has a full-service bike shop for quickie to major repairs.
53. The Hub Bike Co-Op
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (612) 238-3593
Address: 301 Cedar Ave. South
Description: A disproportionate number of bicyclists are also idealists, especially in Minnesota, and the Hub manages its two shops with a socially responsible cooperative model in which the stores are worker-owned and worker-managed. New bikes and components are sold at the Cedar-Riverside shop, while used bikes are matched with new owners down at the Minnehaha shop. Not just a gimmick for buyers with a conscience, the Hub has a wide selection of makes and models to suit bikers from recreational to dead-serious.
54. Freewheel Bike
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (612) 339-2219
Address: 1812 South Sixth St.
Description: Freewheel Bike carries mountain, road, and tandem bikes from Trek, Fisher, LeMond, Schwinn, Univega, Bontrager, Klein, and Santana, but its best feature is arguably the Public Shop, where, for under $10 an hour you can use the store’s racks and tools to fix your bike—if you get in over your head, the staff is on hand to offer assistance. Freewheel also hosts maintenance classes jointly with the University of Minnesota’s Open U, rents bikes, and sponsors riding groups and teams.
55. Midwest Mountaineering
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (612) 339-3433
Address: 309 Cedar Ave. South
Description: Midwest Mountaineering takes up nearly an entire block of Cedar Avenue on the University of Minnesota’s West Bank and is one of the most complete retail stores for brand-name outdoor adventure gear (including a giant outdoors-related book section) and one of the few outfitters to rent kayaks, canoes, and other paddling gear. The store’s bouldering cave allows novices and seasoned climbers to try out equipment or practice their skills. Once you sign a waiver, you’re free to hit the walls. The store’s staff is extremely helpful and can direct you to some of the better climbing, rafting, or hiking opportunities in the region.
56. Blacklist Vintage
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (612) 872-8552
Address: 2 East 27th St.
Description: Proprietors Jennifer Mumm and Vanessa Messersmith (wife of singer-songwriter Jeremy Messersmith) run one of the sharpest vintage shops in the Twin Cities, where men and women can choose from the best of the past when assembling their out-on-the-town looks. In addition to the “redistribution” of retro trends, the shop also offers free games on a tabletop Ms. Pac-Man machine. What more can you ask?
57. Everyday People Clothing Exchange
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (612) 623-9095
Address: 323 14th Ave. SE
Description: This vintage and resale store, with locations in Dinkytown and Uptown, carries an eclectic (and sometimes hilarious) collection of disco clothes, old band T-shirts, go-go boots, comfortably broken-in Levis, and studded leather and plastic belts.
58. Ragstock
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (612) 823-6690
Address: 1433 West Lake St.
Description: Ragstock is the Target of vintage stores: It’s the big chain that stocks seemingly everything. Hats? Walls of ‘em. Belts? Racks and racks. Shirts? And shirts and shirts and shirts. It makes for good shopping when you’re shooting for a specific look, but it’s also a spot to pick up everyday wear. The remaindered-books rule applies, though: In general, this is stuff where the supply exceeds demand. Often there’s a reason for that.
59. Tatters
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (612) 823-5285
Address: 2928 Lyndale Ave. South
Description: Originally called Tatters and Platters, a retailer selling apparel and vinyl records, Tatters has been a Twin Cities retro-alternative clothing establishment for many years. Tatters offers freshly laundered used and vintage clothing that spans decades, carrying seasoned motorcycle and letter jackets, Hawaiian and bowling shirts, party dresses from the 1940s onward, and lots and lots of Levis. It also stocks new apparel ranging from partywear to T-shirts and underwear.
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Shopping
Address: 1011 Washington Ave. South