It's the best time of year, State Fair season, and Southwest Minneapolis is representing itself well.
There are four Southwest Minneapolis restaurants with booths at the Fair, and three of them have new foods. That means that about 9% of the new foods at the Fair are from Southwest.
Southwest food representation at the 2023 Minnesota State Fair
- Union Hmong Kitchen, with a new Hmong-style steamed bun
- Baba's, with a new Al Taco Baba
- French Meadow, with a new Ba-Sants
- Harry Singh's Caribbean Restaurant (a rare chance to eat his food since his restaurant on Eat Street has been closed recently)
Honorable mentions from the greater Minneapolis area:
- Afro Deli, a new State Fair vendor, selling their sambusa
- Herbivorous Butcher, with a new Crunchy Balboa
- Midtown Global Market's Arepa Bar, with a new smoked beef arepa
- Midtown Global Market's MomoDosa, with a new chicken momo with tomato chutney
- Soul Bowl, with new mango pickles
The best crop art is a Southwest legend
Be sure to check out Blue Ribbon winner Jill Moe's Lake Chipotle seed art in the Agriculture and Horticulture building.
Taking transit or your bike to the State Fair from Southwest Minneapolis:
I wish I could tell you there's a good way to get to the Fair from Southwest, but there isn't. I'll be taking an hour-long bus ride with a transfer from my Stevens Square apartment, which is a 12-minute drive to the fairgrounds. Sahan Journal put together a list of options to get to the Fair, including park and rides and express buses. None of the park and rides are in Southwest, but there's one at the U of M East Bank Campus and one on Broadway Street. One new addition to the Fair is bike parking at Gate 9 off Como Avenue.
On Monday, August 28, Judson Church Pastor Travis Norvell is leading a bike ride to the State Fair with MPR's Cathy Wurzer starting at the MPR studios in downtown St. Paul.
