Escape From Charlotte In Search of Snow: The Twin Cities

MILES FROM CHARLOTTE: 1,168

TRAVEL TIME: 2-hour, 45-minute direct flight

You must think me insane for suggesting you visit the Twin Cities in winter. I get it. I lived there for five years, and this Southern gal started out with a hatred for the winters that ran as deep as the freeze in the ground. I felt like I’d been dropped on a solo Arctic expedition with no training and only a light jacket. I almost called it quits my first winter. And my second. And maybe a little of my third. Because, yeah, it’s dang-blasted cold up there, and it’s hard to notice the beauty around you when you’re focused on maintaining circulation in your extremities.

After a few years, though, I gained the attire and knowledge to live in a state that’s frozen half the year. To my own shock, I began to adore it for its winters. It’s a Thomas Kincade landscape, not the ninth circle of hell. Twin Citians also radiate a Midwestern warmth that combats the temps—and dream up all kinds of activities, both indoors and out, to fill the long winters. 

With each passing year, Charlotte is less likely to give us a snow day. So, pack a down parka and a proper pair of snow boots and head north for your fix while also enjoying top-tier food, beverages, music, arts, retail, and sports scenes. I bet you’ll love the darn place, too.

Hewing Hotel

STAY

The Hewing Hotel is a boutique hotel in Minneapolis’ North Loop neighborhood. It’s classically Minnesotan in its combination of rustic and historic elements with contemporary comforts. (Condé Nast Traveler has repeatedly named it one of the best hotels in the Midwest.) Amenities include a fitness center with Peloton bikes, a rooftop sauna, and a Nordic, farm-to-table restaurant called Tullibee. Each bed in The Hewing’s 124 rooms and 14 suites has a down duvet and a locally made Faribault Woolen Mills blanket to keep you snug.

EAT

The Twin Cities’ diversity is reflected in its award-winning restaurant scene. Owamni, which the James Beard Foundation named Best New Restaurant in the United States a year after its 2021 opening, is an Indigenous restaurant with a “decolonized menu.” Chef Sean Sherman doesn’t use ingredients brought to the U.S. by colonizers—like dairy, cane sugar, wheat flour, beef, pork, and chicken—and instead sources from Indigenous food producers. The menu changes seasonally, and you won’t miss any ingredients that aren’t there. You’ll need a reservation for dinner, but it’s easy to walk in for lunch.

Hai Hai serves Southeast Asian street food in a modern, tropical-themed restaurant in Northeast Minneapolis. Start with a fruity cocktail, then try the Laksa Shrimp & Grits, with Malaysian coconut milk laksa curry, grits, Chinese broccoli, peanuts, lime, herbs, and coconut chili crisp. For some of the best pizzas in the Cities, visit Young Joni, where chef Ann Kim cooks everything over an open flame. You’ll need a reservation, but its casual sister restaurant, Pizzeria Lola in southwest Minneapolis, serves many of the same dishes. Whichever location you choose, chase your pizza with homemade soft-serve ice cream drizzled with olive oil and sea salt.

Young Joni, Courtesy Rau+Barber

Since leaving the Twin Cities, I’ve been chasing a ramen that can live up to the spicy miso pork Karamiso Ramen at Ramen Kazama. The chill, counter-service restaurant has two Minneapolis locations, in the Como and Lyndale neighborhoods.

You can’t go to Minneapolis and not try a Juicy Lucy, a cheese-stuffed burger that’s famous in the city. Locals argue which is the original and the best—the one from Matt’s Bar in the Powderhorn neighborhood or 5-8 Club in Nokomis. (The correct answer is 5-8 Club. The patty and cheese are too thin at Matt’s.) Blue Door Pub, which has four locations, isn’t a contender for inventor, but it does make some of the best Juicy Lucys around.

DRINK

The higher the ABV, the warmer you’ll stay. The menu at Norseman Distillery may be constantly in flux, but the quality is consistent, and you can enjoy your drinks below the cozy string lights in the refurbished Northeast warehouse.

The Twin Cities was brewing craft beer a good 15 years before Charlotte. Some of the best breweries there today are Insight Brewing & Taproom, Pryes Brewing Co., HeadFlyer Brewing, Bauhaus Brew Labs, and Venn Brewing Co. If you wish to savor your snowy surroundings while imbibing, Waldmann Brewery in St. Paul has an
outdoor biergarten heated by 10 super-efficient natural gas heaters and plentiful fire pits.

Prefer a different kind of brew? The Twin Cities has independent coffee shops aplenty. Standouts include Dogwood Coffee, Rustica Bakery, Café Cerés, The Get Down Coffee Company, and Abogados Café. 

Courtesy, Winter Carnival

PLAY

Minnesotans don’t let a little snow keep them indoors. Follow their lead. Each year, they host numerous events that celebrate the great Northern outdoors. The annual Luminary Loppet on Lake of the Isles is on Feb. 8 this winter. Wait until dark, and then walk, snowshoe, or cross-country ski along a candlelit trail on the frozen lake to enjoy ice sculptures, refreshments, and live performances, including music and fire dancing. Or head just a half-hour outside the Cities to the suburb of Maple Grove to tour an Ice Castle, which looks like a sandcastle made of icicles. The castle’s rooms, slides, caverns, and tunnels are all made of ice. It’s beautiful day or night, but at night, the icicles are illuminated with colorful lights. The Saint Paul Winter Carnival, from Jan. 23-Feb. 2, has been around since 1886, making it the oldest winter festival in the country. It hosts all kinds of contests and tournaments from ice fishing to puzzles, plus parades, races, snow sculptures, performances, and more.

Ice fishing at Fort Snelling State Park. Courtesy, Explore Min

No winter activity is as classically Minnesotan as ice fishing on one of the state’s 10,000-plus lakes. If you have no clue what you’re doing or don’t have the necessary equipment, book a guided trip with Minnesota Fishing Guide Service, Jasper Guide Services, or Ice Fishing Warriors. 

Visitors to 740-acre Theodore Wirth Regional Park in Minneapolis can cross-country ski, snowshoe, sled, tube, or ride fat-tire bikes. Visit The Trailhead center for equipment rentals, lessons, food and drink, and more.

When you’re ready to thaw, book a sauna at The Great Northern Sauna Village. It’s outside The Market at Malcolm Yards food hall in Minneapolis’ Prospect Park neighborhood, and you can try out all kinds of saunas. Or visit Minneapolis’ modern and very-Scandinavian-looking Watershed Spa. The spa and bathhouse has saunas, steam rooms, cold plunge pools, and heated soaking pools, plus services like acupuncture, facials, reiki, and massages.

Winter is also a great time to catch a concert downtown at First Avenue, made famous in the ’80s by Prince, who frequently performed there, and one of the best music venues in the country according to Rolling Stone. (A smaller venue in the same building, 7th Street Entry, is a great place to catch a more intimate show.) 

You don’t have to make the Iditarod to experience a dogsled ride. If you’re willing to venture just 45 minutes south of the Twin Cities to Cannon Falls, family-owned HHH Ranch offers them. (They’ll sometimes meet you in parks closer to the Cities.) Visitors get an introductory lesson in dogsledding, can help harness and hook up the dog-team, and then get zipped into the sled’s “basket” for an energizing dog-pulled trail ride. And yes, you absolutely are allowed—encouraged, even—to snuggle the dogs after your ride.