I’ve been back and forth to the Minneapolis for work, but was only recently able to spend a little bit of time checking out a few of the sights around the area. Here are a few of the highlights:

Minnehaha Park

I only came to this park because the Sea Salt restaurant nearby came highly recommended, and I wanted to kill some time before dinner. It turns out that this park was absolutely amazing!

After a brief walk and a trip down a few flights of stairs, I was surprised to find that the park housed a great waterfall, which I later found out is Minnehaha Falls, with tons of great viewing and seating areas that were perfect for snapping some pics from, or just hanging out and enjoying the view.

In addition to the waterfall, there were a lot of scenic paths throughout the park to wander around on and I took full advantage of those walking paths after dinner. I also ran into a musician performing to a small audience in one corner of the park – not sure if it was planned or not, but it was cool to see.

Sea Salt

I had high expectations for this place since a few people had said it was a fantastic place to check out if I’ve got limited time in the city. Unfortunately, in order to get there from Minnehaha Falls, you have to trek back up the same number of steps that you used to get down to the base of the falls… but at least there are several “rest” areas along the stairs with benches so that you can take a break, if you, like me, are overly hot and feeling weak with hunger.

So, I was told to expect a crowd, but on a weekday evening, I was the third person in line to order, so I guess I got lucky with my timing. I started with a gazpacho, which I’ll have to say is one of the better gazpachos I’ve had in my life! They keep the ingredients pretty chunky, and the spices they used along with the veggies was spectacular. The texture was more that of a chunky salsa, than the usual more blended gazpachos I’ve had in the past. The chips that came with the soup were a thick, housemade variety, sprinkled with sea salt and accompanied the gazpacho perfectly.

The remainder of my meal consisted of grilled Mahi tacos, pickled herring & sangria. The Mahi tacos were pretty good, the sangria was great, but the pickled herring wasn’t my favorite.

The atmosphere of the restaurant was fantastic! There was live music, more than enough outdoor seating, and also indoor seating against windows that faced the outdoor area.

Louis Italian Restaurant

The meal started off with a little bruschetta, which was light and flavorful. The place was fairly busy, so it was a great idea to immediately start out with an appetizer while waiting for our server to get back around to us for our meal orders.

For my meal, I ordered a couple of small plates: the Misticanza salad & Carpaccio Alla Cipriani. Both were delicious and I didn’t come close to finishing them. I topped everything off with their special pistachio gelato for dessert, which immediately brought back fond memories of eating a ridiculous amount of it in Venice last year.

Overall, I enjoyed the little bit of Minneapolis that I was able to experience in a couple of days, and am looking forward to checking out some more parks and restaurants on my next trip!