Post: #1

Open offer to anybody in MSP area - I head there for work regularly and would like to game downtown based out of my hotel. Could schedule visit anytime.

Post: #2

(12-25-2012 12:14 PM)MikeinMKE Wrote:  Open offer to anybody in MSP area - I head there for work regularly and would like to game downtown based out of my hotel. Could schedule visit anytime.

How is it during winter? I can shoot down for an overnight stay anytime. Let me know if it's still easy to pull this time of year and I can shoot for a late Jan/early Feb visit.

Post: #3

(12-25-2012 12:38 PM)Hencredible Casanova Wrote:  

(12-25-2012 12:14 PM)MikeinMKE Wrote:  Open offer to anybody in MSP area - I head there for work regularly and would like to game downtown based out of my hotel. Could schedule visit anytime.

How is it during winter? I can shoot down for an overnight stay anytime. Let me know if it's still easy to pull this time of year and I can shoot for a late Jan/early Feb visit.

Winter in MSP is pretty miserable. Freezing and bone-chilling winds outside. Some of the clubs can be popping (I recommend anything in the Foshay Tower) but the night life is very isolated from its different instances due to the cold weather. Venue changing is troublesome due to this.

Post: #4

(12-25-2012 02:16 PM)Vicious Wrote:  

(12-25-2012 12:38 PM)Hencredible Casanova Wrote:  

(12-25-2012 12:14 PM)MikeinMKE Wrote:  Open offer to anybody in MSP area - I head there for work regularly and would like to game downtown based out of my hotel. Could schedule visit anytime.

How is it during winter? I can shoot down for an overnight stay anytime. Let me know if it's still easy to pull this time of year and I can shoot for a late Jan/early Feb visit.

Winter in MSP is pretty miserable. Freezing and bone-chilling winds outside. Some of the clubs can be popping (I recommend anything in the Foshay Tower) but the night life is very isolated from its different instances due to the cold weather. Venue changing is troublesome due to this.

How about during better weather? Is MSP worth a visit?

Post: #5

My thoughts on MSP in general can be found in full in this thread: /thread-4655.h...inneapolis

Post: #6

My thoughts on MSO in general can be found un dull in this thread: /thread-4655.h...inneapolis

Post: #7

The Twin Cities are home to loads of good-looking women who have a pretty uninhibited vibe (especially for the Midwest.) I lived there for two years. Unfortunately, I was a complete beta, had no real clue what I was doing with women, and managed precisely one ONS in the whole time I lived there. I think a player could clean up, especially with college game: there's the huge U of M, and loads of smaller, private universities. There's also a well-established drinking culture, with a great number of small neighborhood bars.

The winters are brutal though; you quickly figure out why the indoor shopping mall was invented there. (Mall of America would be a good place for day game, considering the sheer amount of hot girls who are always to be found there.)

In the clubs in downtown Minneapolis, parking can be a bitch unless you know the area well. The city isn't big enough to have decent public transit, though this may be changing with the new light rail that will connect the city centers of Mpls and St. Paul. For now, though, one has little choice but to drive to get around. Cabs aren't usually common enough to be hailed on street corners, and are expensive because the cities and suburbs are pretty spread out. There are buses, but my acquaintances all assured me that they were pretty ghetto, and taking one was not a great idea if it could be avoided at all -so I never did. We always drove everywhere. Anyway, there's nothing quite like walking 10 blocks in 0 degree temps or trudging through ice and snow in leather soled dress shoes trying to find a place. Point being, in the typically-long winters up there, just getting to the venue can be an adventure in itself.

Minneapolis was settled by Lutherans, and is larger and more of a party city than St. Paul. Minneapolis is where most of the decent clubs are located. St. Paul is the state capital, was settled by Catholics, and has a quieter and more sedate atmosphere. Good spots for day game in St. Paul include Grand Avenue, which is a fairly upscale street with numerous restaurants and shops, as well as University Avenue, which runs roughly parallel to it some blocks away on the other side of I-94. Grand Avenue passes through McAlester College, which means there are always hot college chicks in the vicinity. There's also a Whole Foods and another upscale grocery store, Kowalski's Market.

University Avenue (on the Saint Paul side) is a bit rough. In the Wal-Mart there, you can run into poorer whites, Latinos, American blacks, Somalis, and Southeast Asians. (I liked going there for entertainment: once I saw these two huge black women going at it in the housewares department. There were always cops on hand but it still took many minutes for things to get broken up.) University has many delicious ethnic restaurants. A few I particularly recommend are Trieu Chow (delicious pho) and Little Szechuan, which is about a block away and offers very tasty and authentic Chinese food. There's a place about six blocks down from there (if memory serves) called Trung Nam French Bakery, located in what looks to be an old Popeye's Chicken building, which has some of the most delicious croissants I have ever eaten.

On the other side of downtown St. Paul, there's a bar called Red's Savoy with pizza good enough to write home about. If you like German food, The Glockenspiel in St. Paul and Gasthof in Minneapolis are worth checking out. I can vouch for the food in the former and beer in both. Gasthof has an Oktoberfest party that is well worth attending if you are in town during that time of year. With no game, I was still opened by multiple girls and almost pulled a married 8 (cockblocked by my drunk friend.) If you're in the Cathedral Hill district of St. Paul, Costello's, Fabulous Fern's, The Muddy Pig, and the Happy Gnome are all good local bars with a decent beer selection, often packed to the gills at night. Moscow on the Hill is a tad bit more upscale, and has decent Russian food as well as a lot of different vodkas. All these bars are within easy walking distance of one another.

The Twin Cities are home to a number of major corporations (Target, Best Buy, and Cargill come to mind) as well as a lot of people who are of Scandinavian descent, so the atmosphere is a little bit like that of the Nordic countries -wealth, pretty girls, and permissive social attitudes. All in all, not a bad combination at all.

I wish I could drop some better data about the night venues but unfortunately I don't remember too much. I will say that I drove home to St. Paul from Minneapolis hammered many times in the wee hours of the morning with no problems, but that my friends who were originally from the area generally all managed to get a DUI at some point in their lives, and there is a pretty big police presence.

Post: #8

I'm from the Twin Cities and spent waaaaay too much of my life there. I can help with this one a bit.

1: Stay the hell away from St. Paul. There's not much there worth visiting besides couple good restaurants, the Excel Energy Center, and the Science Museum (which occasionally hosts things like home brewing parties). St Paul is notorious for being a rat's nest of streets that go all four directions and spontaneous dead ends. Plenty of good dive bars scattered all over if that's your scene. Anything on University Ave near that damn Walmart is a shithole. The Applebees across the street went under because they the majority of people who ate their didn't pay, even adding two armed officers at the door didn't discourage people from just walking out without paying. The new lightrail addition through that neighborhood might bring some economic success to that area, but that's still some ways away. None of this matters because you should stay the hell out of St. Paul - this city is the reason GPS is available on your phone.

2: Stay in Minneapolis. The streets are laid out on a grid because Minneapolis actually invested in city planning. First Avenue (the street, not the club) is where you want to go for night game. Most of the major nightclubs and popular bars are located in this area because it sits between the Target Center (Timberwolves), Target Field (Twins), and the Metrodome (Vikings).

There's usually ample parking in this area between 6-10:30pm, but good luck with that on a game day. After 10:30pm finding parking is going to be hard, especially on the weekends. Be ready for a long, cold walk. If you're worried about parking in downtown, park at a light rail stop outside of downtown and catch the train there, it'll take you 15 minutes and you'll stay warm in the process, just be careful because the trains stop around 1am and bar close is at 2am. A rise in violence over the past few years has led both Minneapolis Police and the county sheriffs office to aggressively clear the streets after bar close (horses and copious amounts of pepper spray), so don't plan on doing much last minute parking lot pimping.

Other areas to check out would be the beaches at any of the lakes (there's close to a dozen in the city proper, countless more on the outskirts and suburbs) in the summer, and Minnehaha Falls which you can find people at year round. The beaches at Lake Calhoun are where most girls looking to show off are going to be found. One of the lakes has a place called "hidden beach" (I forget where it is, I haven't been there since I turned 18) which is an informal nude beach, but the cops know about it and sweep through pretty often.

Dinkytown near the UofM has a number of cheap bars and restaurants, it's usually packed with loads of college girls escaping smallville to come live in the big city.

Uptown is a more trendy area that has some trouble deciding if it's going to cater to the up and coming yuppie or the starving artist. It's near the chain of lakes, which makes it a pretty successful place for day game.

Mall of America is fucking massive, and most locals just refer to it as "The Mall". It has a fully functional amusement park inside, in addition to countless stores, a movie theater that serves alcohol, a number of restaurants ranging from McDonald's to quality food, a couple bars, a bowling alley and a few arcades. You can hop the lightrail and ride it from MOA to downtown Minneapolis (maybe 30min). There's a 24 Ihop across the street from the mall, in addition to Ikea on the opposite side.

3:The suburbs are typical, the occasional amazing find of a restaurant or bar, but nothing to brag about. Bloomington is the biggest and has some standard hotels, so there's a decent amount of restaurants and bars. Brooklyn Center on the edge of North Minneapolis gets almost as many 911 calls on the weekends as all of Minneapolis, so head that way at your own risk.

When it comes to the cold make sure to dress in layers and have your transportation planned out. Don't get stranded somewhere without a plan to get somewhere warm.

Post: #9

Good data so far. Mostly agree with what's been said.

My perspective: Relatively recent grad. Studied here for 4 years. Moved away. Been back for half a year. Starting with game. Recovering beta. Standing around in dinkytown bars / frat parties was apparently bad training for the real world.

First - on Saint Paul. If you're here on a limited time frame, I agree you should just avoid it. No need to expand on this. Personally like STP, but makes no sense for outsiders.

Random thoughts: Sizeable disparity in people and venues here, which is good. Logistics are important. Cabs royally suck. Uber just came here. Green public biking system is okay one way (good alone, and also a very good date idea) in decent weather. Mnpls loves biking. Different areas are all rather isolated. Don't plan on jumping between downtown / uptown / northeast / university in the same night.

Best Bet? Downtown or Uptown. Other places are a pain in the ass. Too much risk.

For venue / people styles.

1) Downtown party bars - Pour House, Sneaky Pete's, Cowboy Jacks, Brothers, Uncle Bucks. Pour house is your best bet. Relatively new opening. Big venue. These can be sausage fests. A lot of the dudes dress bad. Good for college students, young post-grad students, and sluts.

These places are also the main venues for out-of-towners that want to 'hit up the town' (Non Minneapolis Minnesotans, Dakotans, some Wisconsinites). A lot of people come to THE CITY for Twins, Vikings, Timberwolves games, and top 40 concerts.

I prefer these places for game. Not sure why. Probably because I'm young yet. I find them comfortable for rolling dolo.

2) Uptown. Uptown is the somewhat more trendy, professional area of Minneapolis. Just off downtown. More tame scene, in general. Broken down into party and hipster. For Party, Stellas (w/roof), Abilene, and the Cafeteria (w/roof). Bar Louie is the *new* hot spot, which I haven't checked out. Lines were too long when I tried right away. I prefer the Cafeteria and Stellas during non-roof periods. In nice weather, you have to be early to get on the roof given the capacity limit.

3) Hipsters - Wouldn't really recommend most to outsiders. Too many hipster bars to name. Otter Stop (Northeast), Psycho Suzies (in Northeast), CC Club, Lyle's, Williams, Mackenzies (downtown), VFW, et al. Williams is the best, but it's very group/table oriented. Check out thriftyhipster.com for hipster bars.

4) College bars - Wouldn't recommend them. College scene is a bit insulated, like many things in Minnesota. If you're not a student you'll probably feel out of place. Dinkytown bars are generally shit shows - Library, Blarney, Burrito Loco. Library is packed. Super cheap drink specials all the time. An early happy hour wouldn't be a bad idea. West Bank U of M bars (pretty close to downtown) cater to Law school and business school, if anyone. Slightly more sophisticated but a lot more tame. Wouldn't mess with it.

5) Northeast - Awesome places. Horrible logistics. Way too spread out. Places around St. Anthony Main / Northeast - The Front is the loud party bar. Nye's was once upon a time Esquire's top bar in America. Apparently Josh Hartnett is there every other weekend nowadays. Made out with my (girl) friends. I'd probably skip it. If you're staying on the edge of Downtown you could make it over to the Front and Nye's easily, but probably not worth it on a very short schedule.

6) Events - Tons of events in Minneapolis when the weather's nice. Good way to kill a day. Art festivals, beer festivals, bike festivals, concerts. Good music scene. CityPages.com or Vita.mn are a good places that give a rundown on the day's events.

7) (other) Downtown Bars - Several good pubs around. Local, Britt's Pub, Mackenzies (hipster), and Kieran's are all popular pubs. Would only consider Britt's or Kieran's for talking to females though.

8) CLUBS - A faction I'm not too familiar with. The bar at the W and Seven (sushi joint) are the upscale places. If you're looking to suit up, you have an easy decision. Been to them for work events. Good talent. Expensive cocktails. Pro-athlete sightings common here.

The other lounges (elixer lounge?) and other CLUBS I'm not sure about. I need to figure this scene out.

People
Average. White. Scandinavian. German. Black people at certain club-esqe venues. Large Somalian and Hmong populations. Large Ethiopian population. Very highly dependent on venue selection, imo.

Potential Biases
I live 1 mile from Downtown and 1 mile from main Uptown venues. Tend to hit up these areas more. Also can't afford the top tier clubs night in night out, so not much insight on those.

If anyone's in the area and staying downtown, message me and I'd probably be willing to meet up.

Post: #10

I don't know anyone out there so I already told myself, be prepared to game solo. I have successfully before, so I don't mind too much. But hey, if one of you guys are around, that'd be cool as well.

I'm going to try and hit there sometime in March. It's one of the three (may narrow it down to two) places that I plan on visiting before deciding where to relocate. Even though the logistics of making both the visit, and the move, happen are now a little bit tougher than it was a couple of weeks ago because of a recent purchase I just made.

But after talking online to girls from those places on my list including Minneapolis.. all I can say is, what a difference compared to doing the same exact thing with the ones where I live. If that's the same vibe I get scoping out the town in person, then I will definitely still make the move happen somehow.

Post: #11

Hey Trader or anybody familiar, I'm coming to Minny around 4th of July. Is there anything of note going on around then?

Post: #12

(01-09-2013 11:49 PM)iWin Wrote:  Hey Trader or anybody familiar, I'm coming to Minny around 4th of July. Is there anything of note going on around then?

Umm..nothing that remarkable. Minneapolis shoots off a bunch of fireworks. There's a festival down by the Mississippi River (called Red White and Boom). A lot of people, good scenery, but it seems more family/friends oriented.

A lot of Minnesota natives spend quite a bit of summer time at their family cabins around the Cities or in Wisconsin.

Post: #13

Here's what I sent as a PM to someone else awhile back. Figured I could share it with the rest of you. I grew up and lived in the Twin Cities for most of my life, the least I can do is share my experience with you.

Parking isn't much of a problem compared to other cities. The only place you'll run into much of a parking problem is right in the middle of downtown and by the UofM.

Restaurants:
* Bona - Vietnamese restaurant located by the UofM. Best eggrolls ever.
* 508 - Restaurant/bar/club depending on the time of day. Damn good food and waitresses who love to flirt with customers.
* The 5-8 Club on Cedar Ave has the original (and best) Juicy Lucy's, the signature dish of Minneapolis (cheeseburger with the cheese inside the hamburger).
* Psycho Suzi's - Absolutely amazing food smashed together with THREE bars inside. If you go nowhere else, go here. I'd disagree with the hipster comment, when it first opened it was big on the hipster scene but the last few times I was there it was catching on with other people too.

Bars:
* Brothers - Great drink specials. Located on 1st Ave, downtown.
* Kieran's Irish Pub - Located downtown, a local favorite. Always has people but it's rarely completely packed (except on St. Patrick's Day).
There's a host of others to check out along 1st Ave in downtown.

Clubs:
The only one I've been to lately besides 508 is called Aqua, located about a block away. Pretty decent but you won't find the massive nightlife scenes you find in bigger cities.
Most of the clubs come and go with different names on a regular basis as their bought out and sold yet again. Everywhere is fine, just stay the hell out of the Imperial Room. Never had a good time there.

Strip Clubs:
You'll find the girls with massive fake breasts working at Deja Vu one Washington Ave, but if you're into normal looking girls getting down for a better price head to Choice just down the street. Another joint called Sinners is right around the corner.

Shopping:
Mall of America. Mall of America. Mall of America.

I'd definitely take a drive around the chain of lakes and the uptown area, though be warned you might get stuck on a loop for awhile. Dinkytown by the UofM is worth checking out for its plethora of cheap restaurants and bars.

Generally I'd stay out of North Minneapolis, it's the only area of the city that lives up to the "urban shithole" stereotype. Luckily unless you work there there's no real reason to go there.

Weather: Don't complain about the cold to Minnesota natives. We've seen it all (except hurricanes). The record high in Minneapolis is 108F, the record low is -41F, which gets down to -61F with windchill included.

Post: #14

(01-14-2013 01:20 AM)Osiris Wrote:  Weather: Don't complain about the cold to Minnesota natives. We've seen it all...

Now I see why. Wow!!

Post: #15

That doesn't even factor in the windchill. Yesterday it was -45 with windchill. That's frostbite in under 5 min for unprotected skin. The timeline from exposure to death from hypothermia can be measured in minutes if you're underdressed.

It's not really cold until your eyelashes freeze.

Post: #16

Just had to hit up this thread real quick. Should be making my way to visit Minneapolis in a few weeks. At least, that's what the plan is. Can't afford to stay longer than a couple days or so though. I still haven't figured out the logistics yet, as far as how I'm gonna get there. Driving myself, I can at least avoid paying to rent a car. But, $170 in gas, 19-20 hours, 1200 miles, and that's all just one way.. ehh.. so we'll see what happens.

What's funny is that when I've mentioned going up there to some people I know, just because I guess it wasn't a big name tourist city like Florida or Los Angeles or something, they've all had the same reaction, like, "Minnesota? Why do you want to go there? What do they have?". In my mind, I'm thinking.. people might say the same thing about coming to where we live. Lol.

I'm looking forward to it though. No family or friends up there, so I'm trying to get one of my boys to come with me. Worse case scenario, solo. I would imagine the girls are dying to rock their spring/summer clothes out from the winter spell, so that should be good. Lol. I'm trying to think of where to do a combination of both walking and driving in the city, but not too much of the latter since I don't know how parking is, etc. The mall, of course, is the default plan b.

Post: #17

You can always go for a drive along the Mississippi, beautiful scenery, especially in spring. The river runs right past downtown, so it'd be easy to park and walk around when you're done. Just know that the speed limit along the river is 25mph, and it is enforced. Lots of bridges for squad cars to hide under and pop out tagging someone for speeding.

You can always walk around downtown then take the light rail to the mall. It's about 30 minutes from downtown, so not too bad.

Post: #18

I asked someone on here, but I figured I might as well spread the word. I'm about 90% tentatively leaning to making the drive down to Minneapolis / St. Paul tomorrow (Tuesday) morning. I'm hesitant because it will be a LONG drive (can't afford air fare right now), but rather than just going on what I've been hearing about certain places for the last 7-8 months, might as well starting seeing them for myself. Especially with all the talk for years about black guys apparently doing pretty good out there dating-wise. I asked a couple random Twin Cities chicks on Twitter, questions about that, as well as places to visit. Was very similar to everything said on this forum. So I guess this site has some accurate info after all. Lol. I can only be out there for a couple days, so if anyone will be in the area to game on Wednesday or Thursday, let me know.

Post: #19

I'll still be in China. Best of luck to you, dly.

Post: #20

Thanks, Osiris. After talking to a few people I know, three of them being girls, I may postpone the drive. For a lot of reasons, mostly the timing and logistics. I think I'm gonna shoot for a few days either during the first or second week of July. I'll know for sure next week and will keep y'all posted. Or vice-versa if you guys know of anything going on or any tips, etc.

Post: #21

Osiris nailed everything. 508 is my favorite bar to game, also like Drink in uptown but think it has new name now. Marquette ave has free parking at night. Come here June-September, don't bother the rest of the year. And yeah we had snow into May this year, ridiculous.

Post: #22

Good info, btw how is life at university of Minnesota twin cities for undergrad?

Post: #23

(06-28-2013 04:31 PM)delrake Wrote:  Osiris nailed everything. 508 is my favorite bar to game, also like Drink in uptown but think it has new name now. Marquette ave has free parking at night. Come here June-September, don't bother the rest of the year. And yeah we had snow into May this year, ridiculous.

Yeah, the snow situation seems to be more than just a rumor. Lol. I'm 90% sure I'll be swinging by the Twin Cities for a couple days next week. See how the scene is.

Post: #24

Sexual Harassment Panda - I went there. Loved it. Do you have specific questions?

Post: #25

After all this time, I finally made it to the Twin Cities this morning, for the first time. St. Paul to be exact. Didn't swing by Minneapolis yet. I get the vibe though that St. Paul will probably end up being the more residential, quiet section of the two. And that comment about the city's road setup seems to be true. Lol. But I can honestly say I am NEVER doing a drive like this again. Only because airfare expenses are no joke. But damn, I'm tired. Got to run a couple errands before I head back in 2-3 days, but anyone that feels like gaming while I'm in town, drop a line on here.