Download: Win A Trip to London! 🇬🇧 Bring Ya A** Overload?
Bring Ya A**! To asterisk or to not asterisk? To have fun or to be a cynic? If you spend a lot of time online, it’s easy to forget that normal people like to have fun. Normal people like to believe in the possible, and normal people like to tell everyone what they love about their state. At Target Center for Game 1, the BYA vibe has been an absolute joy. In a time when people seem to gleefully take a dump on where we live - hasn’t the response to Anthony Edwards telling Charles Barkley to “bring ya ass” to Minnesota been fun? So much to celebrate - Jason@JasonDeRusha.com
TOO BUSY TO DOWNLOAD?:
Uber Stays, Junk Fees Go
Top Happy Hours & Top Patios
We are a small town, it’s ok
A progressive dinner with one chef’s restaurants
Great podcast links for the weekend
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WIN A TRIP TO LONDON TO WATCH THE VIKINGS: The Vikings asked me to help give away a trip for 4 to London to watch the Vikings play the NY Jets! WOW! Round-trip airfare, hotel and 4 tickets, ENTER TO WIN: https://fluence-media.co/3QYGyE3
DIALOGUE: Is the “BringYaAss” dialogue out of control? Is this typical Minnesota - taking a good thing and running it into the ground?
No. It’s great.
A friend texted me and told me we were acting like Fargo, we were acting small town. Newsflash: we are a small town. Minneapolis has around 420,000-430,000 residents. We are around Tulsa and Raleigh. We’re a big metropolitan area - but our separate identities as Minneapolis and Saint Paul and suburbs has us existing more like the 45th largest city rather than the 15th largest metro area. AND IT’S FINE. Who cares about acting like we’ve been here before? Who cares about being cool? Let’s be exuberant! Let’s be ridiculous!
[I made a silly mock tourism ad for DriveTime that’s been played more than 400,000 times on X and Instagram]
Let’s tell Charles Barkley he should go to Gus Gus in St. Paul and some random spot in Rochester and pretend that he should sit down for a 2 hour meal at Demi or Owamni. (Here are my realistic suggestions for downtown: https://fluence-media.co/44TCeM5 )
So far he’s been to Manny’s, Red Cow (for the Barkley Burger - great idea Luke Shimp & Chef Adam Lerner), and Thursday night dinner at J.D. Hoyt’s! But these recommendations are not really for Charles. They’re really for us. And to me it’s been a good reminder of how many things and places we’re proud of and really love. It’s more powerful to be joyful instead of cynical. So yeah, bringyaass!
GRILL FEST: Minnesota Monthly’s GrillFest is Saturday and Sunday June 1 & 2 at CHS Field in St. Paul. Lots of food, tons of grills, lots of beer and CBD seltzer samples too. USE CODE JASON to save 25% on tickets: https://fluence-media.co/4brYmzN
MYRIEL: Wild opportunity to dine with a couple of the best chefs from overseas at Karyn Tomlinson’s Myriel in Saint Paul. June 25th and 26th: Jae Bang from Freyja in Melbourne, Australia and Alejandra Espinoza from Somos in Quito, Ecuador. Karyn met Alejandra and Jae at a business/leadership course at MAD Academy in Copenhagen (founded by Rene Redzepi), and the proceeds of this dinner will go toward academy scholarships. This is the first ever alumni-led fundraiser for MAD and their Copenhagen team is excited to support. Seatings at 5:15 and 7:45p. TICKETS:
https://fluence-media.co/4ax21uH
JUNK FEES BANNED: Expect restaurant prices to rise (probably more than the 3-5% in those wellness fees) as the state legislature banned “junk fees” in hotels, rental cars, ticketing and restaurants. The law does allow the 18-21% mandatory gratuity: “if in every offer or advertisement for the purchase of a good or service that includes pricing information, the total price of the good or service being offered or advertised includes a clear and conspicuous disclosure of the percentage of any automatic and mandatory gratuities charged.” Most restaurants are using that fee as a way to pay kitchen staff more, I’m not sure if the law would still allow that. A gratuity goes to the server, by MN law, and mandatory tip pooling isn’t allowed. So we’ll see. This takes effect January 1, 2025. MN REFORMER: https://fluence-media.co/4bPkcNr
UBER/LYFT WILL STAY IN MN: The legislature agreed on a statewide minimum wage for rideshare companies (a minimum that is almost identical to what Mayor Jacob Frey originally proposed). The companies have said they’ll comply. The new wage takes effect in December, prices will likely rise although because of dynamic pricing it’s sort of hard to know what’s going on with these services.
BEST HAPPY HOURS: Happy Hour is back, baby! I’ve gathered some great ones from different areas: downtown Minneapolis/North Loop, Saint Paul, Suburbs - check it out: https://fluence-media.co/4bsjOos
ROSE ALL DAY: Mark your calendars!! Rosé tastings are soon:
1010 Washington: June 1, 2-5pm, FREE. About 30 of the best Roses of the season open to taste.
Surdyk’s Liquor: June 8, 12p-6p, FREE. More than 100 roses open to taste.
Solo Vino Bottle Shop: June 8, 4-8pm, Kellogg Mall Park, St. Paul, VIP Tickets: $125 ( early admission at 3 pm) GA Tickets: $60. https://fluence-media.co/3Qoi9rk
TOP PATIOS: A refreshed version of my list from a couple years ago - these are some of my favorite patios around town. A list of NEW patios for 2024 will be in your in-box soon. https://fluence-media.co/3QvS89K
KOWALSKI’S EDINA: Ok not open, but opening Thursday, May 30th. Kowalski’s is opening in Southdale in the former Herberger’s space, part of an expansion into the western suburbs. They’re working on a store at Ridgedale too, right across the street from a busy Lund’s & Byerly’s. I’m most excited to bring the best deep dish pizza in the state to the west - there will be a Pezzo Pizzeria in the Edina shop. (I did a TV story years ago on how the Kowalski’s family recruited the chef who founded Pezzo to Minnesota, and then his sudden death pre-opening: WCCO https://fluence-media.co/4dWsTHu
MORE HEALTHIER FOOD: We’re in a new healthy food moment. Parcelle in Northeast and now Fitchn from the team behind Cobble Social House. It’s softly open now at Bridgewater Lofts, officially opens Wednesday, in a part of Minneapolis without a lot of great lunch options. From IG: “We cannot wait to be serving up fuel-good fare everyday from 11am-8pm. We have 5 main menu groups packed with nutritious, thoughtfully sourced ingredients: Salads, Pita Sandwiches, Grain Bowls, Fresh Juices, and House Smoothies.” INSTA: https://fluence-media.co/3VcOfce
ANN KIM PIZZA TOUR: My wife’s birthday was this week and she had the idea to do a progressive dinner of Ann Kim restaurants. Our good friends Sunny & Tiffany Han planned it out: we ordered in Hello Pizza, went to the Bronto Bar in Uptown, then Kim’s for food, then headed to Young Joni where we had Uber deliver us a Pizzeria Lola pie and had some of my favorite YJ sweet potatoes, and called it a night. WATCH my video recap on IG: https://fluence-media.co/3WTl9A1
Question: Design a progressive dinner for our readers! Email me Jason@JasonDeRusha.com
DRIVETIME ON DEMAND
MASTER IMPRESSIONIST? My fake interview with Justice Alito’s wife about flying the flag upside down. https://fluence-media.co/4bzYvBd
DFL DEFENDS CHAOS AT SESSION: Rep. Melissa Hortman https://fluence-media.co/3ypbbvZ
GOP MAD AT CHAOS AT SESSION: Rep. Lisa Demuth https://fluence-media.co/3ULGsRq
RYAN TANKE on WOLVES BACK & ROMANCE: The Wolves COO talks about his first date with his now wife 20 years ago. https://fluence-media.co/451ZsQj
DIANE MOUA: She talks Diane’s Place and has inspiring thoughts on representing her fellow Hmong-Americans. https://fluence-media.co/3wXzdxL
SUN COUNTRY FINALLY HAS AN APP: I ask COO Colton Snow what took so long. https://fluence-media.co/3Kbh4j4
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