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I live in Portland but my wife's family is in Minneapolis, so I thought I'd contrast the 2 a bit: In Portland you can go out for a wonderful $50+ per plate mea

I live in Portland but my wife's family is in Minneapolis, so I thought I'd contrast the 2 a bit: In Portland you can go out for a wonderful $50+ per plate meal in t-shirt, jeans, and a multi-inch-long beard. In Minneapolis the only other bearded guy in the bar I was at was the drunk that wandered in off the street and promptly got thrown out, and I think his beard was better groomed than mine. Definitely the cleanest city I've ever been in. However, when I asked for local beer, I was given a bottle some fairly unexciting porter from New York for $8. A 22oz bottle of Deschutes Abyss costs $11 in Portland...I didn't want to become a beer snob; it's just hard not to. Minneapolis is (or at least seems) far more diverse than Portland. Except for certain areas in North and far SE, Portland is excruciatingly white. There may not be any 14k foot mountains in the Midwest, but pretty much the entire northeast corner of Minnesota is covered in forests, lakes, and parks. Not the Pacific Northwest but still impressive. Minneapolis also recently stole Bicycling Magazine's #1 Bike City award from Portland. I think that was enough to scare our mayor into raiding the sewer fund to improve the bike infrastructure. I saw a hipster in Minneapolis riding his fixie in just a hoodie (no gloves) in sub-20 degree weather with snow on the ground... It may be cold there, but the natives don't seem to mind.

dasil003 16y ago
> However, when I asked for local beer, I was given a bottle some fairly unexciting porter from New York for $8. Not sure where you went, because even most chains have Summit in the twin cities. And you can definitely find places that at least come close to stacking up against the Colorado/Oregon scenes. > I saw a hipster in Minneapolis riding his fixie in just a hoodie (no gloves) in sub-20 degree weather with snow on the ground... It may be cold there, but the natives don't seem to mind. Also, they plow the bike paths with bobcats, often faster than the roads. Studded tires are rarely needed, although watch out for hardened ice shelves flinging you into the middle of the lane :)

dasil003 16y ago

> However, when I asked for local beer, I was given a bottle some fairly unexciting porter from New York for $8. Not sure where you went, because even most chains have Summit in the twin cities. And you can definitely find places that at least come close to stacking up against the Colorado/Oregon scenes. > I saw a hipster in Minneapolis riding his fixie in just a hoodie (no gloves) in sub-20 degree weather with snow on the ground... It may be cold there, but the natives don't seem to mind. Also, they plow the bike paths with bobcats, often faster than the roads. Studded tires are rarely needed, although watch out for hardened ice shelves flinging you into the middle of the lane :)