Chicago style stuffed pizza in Minneapolis area (Brooklyn Park, Mankato: dorm, restaurants)

[2blessed2stress]

Originally Posted by JenLee

Minneapolis and St. Paul are two separate towns: just ask a native from either city to go across the river to the other one; and their stomachs knot up in fear about crossing the river to a *foreign* place!

YES! I have friends that visit and they are often amazed that the downtowns are so close together. I tell them, oh. People from Mpls do not go to St Paul and vice versa. It's pretty funny. I go to two places in St. Paul. The salon and the credit union. PLEASE don't ask me to find an address in St Paul!

Originally Posted by JenLee

Oh, and as far as pizza, I guess I never knew that there were specialty pizzas in Chicago when I've been there before. Maybe next time I go I'll check it out and see if it's so much better than anywhere else.

Hey! Chicago has the B-E-S-T Pizza! Ever!

[JenLee]

Originally Posted by 2blessed2stress

YES! I have friends that visit and they are often amazed that the downtowns are so close together. I tell them, oh. People from Mpls do not go to St Paul and vice versa. It's pretty funny. I go to two places in St. Paul. The salon and the credit union. PLEASE don't ask me to find an address in St Paul!

And most people from St. Paul feel the same way about Minneapolis!

I've lived on both sides of the river and it doesn't bother me at all to go to either downtowns; I'm pretty good at finding addresses in either city. They are just laid out a bit different from each other; but neither is laid out much different from any other city in this country. One just has to get the "lay of the land!"

[downlowder]

There used to be an Edwardo's near Southtown Mall in Bloomington. That place was great, but is now a cheap-looking Asian buffet of some kind.

Now we have nothing. Woe is us.

[rcsteiner]

Originally Posted by downlowder

There used to be an Edwardo's near Southtown Mall in Bloomington. That place was great, but is now a cheap-looking Asian buffet of some kind.

I miss that place ... I have a friend who lives close to Southtown, and we used to get the BEST deep-dish veggie pizzas from there. Wonderful food.

[camrynh]

Haven't lived in Mpls for a few years, but used to LOVE Davanni's deep dish. Is that place still around? It was a local chain, had plenty of locations.

And, btw, I've had Giordano's. Wasn't all that impressed, to be honest.

ETA: Looks like they're still around. Here's a link to the menu:

Menu Item Details Display

[MplsTodd]

I'm amazed of how dismissive some folks are of pizza in the Twin Cities. I lived in New Jersey for about five years and, while I loved the widespread availability of Chicken parm sandwiches, the pizza was nothing special at all--it was virtually identical from place to place. In contrast, pizza in the Twin Cities varies significantly. My favorites include:

Leaning Tower
Savoy Red's
Punch & Pizza Nea
Black Sheep
Uptown
Carbone's
Michelangelo's

[Clifford63]

Originally Posted by MplsTodd

I'm amazed of how dismissive some folks are of pizza in the Twin Cities. I lived in New Jersey for about five years and, while I loved the widespread availability of Chicken parm sandwiches, the pizza was nothing special at all--it was virtually identical from place to place. In contrast, pizza in the Twin Cities varies significantly. My favorites include:

Leaning Tower
Savoy Red's
Punch & Pizza Nea
Black Sheep
Uptown
Carbone's
Michelangelo's

Michelangelo's is very good za.
Fireside in Richfield is great if you like thin crust.
New place we like is Randy's in Oakdale. It also goes by the name of Premier Pizza.

Savoy's is a bit greasy for me, but it is pretty good. Have not been to Leaning Tower in quite awhile, but it is good stuff.

[rcsteiner]

I love Carbone's, but also miss Green Mill and Old Chicago tremendously. And Rocky Rococo's, if the one in the northern Twin Cities suburbs (Brooklyn Park?) is still up there...?

I miss nice crunchy thin-crust Shakey's Pizza, too, but those have been gone from the Twin Cities for ... a while.

[Globe199]

The Carbone's on Randolph is great, except there's no beer, so it's take-out only Italian Pie Shoppe is also excellent, similar to Dulono's, which is great.

Pizza Luce makes some great stuff. Pizza Nea is very, very good, but their restaurant in NE has zero atmosphere. It's the kind of place you want to leave as soon as you're done eating.

Regarding Rocky's...I was at that place in Brooklyn Park maybe 3-4 years ago. Their website claims it's still open. I gotta admit, their pizza isn't exactly "good" but there's still something about it I like. I wouldn't make a special trip though. That's an odd chain. I believe they're based in SE Wisconsin, and 95% of their stores are in Wisc. But they have one store in MN, and then one each in KY and WA. Bizarre.

[MplsTodd]

Originally Posted by Globe199

Regarding Rocky's...I was at that place in Brooklyn Park maybe 3-4 years ago. Their website claims it's still open. I gotta admit, their pizza isn't exactly "good" but there's still something about it I like. I wouldn't make a special trip though. That's an odd chain. I believe they're based in SE Wisconsin, and 95% of their stores are in Wisc. But they have one store in MN, and then one each in KY and WA. Bizarre.

I used to work at Rocky Rococo's (in Hopkins) back in the early-mid '80s. Rocky's was the first place that I knew of to offer pizza by the slice. Based in Madison, the chain did well in the '80s expanding into the Twin Cities, but I think they had financial problems when they expanded into the Denver area. Then they started to decrease the number of places. I didn't even know they had a place here in the Twin Cities. I've been to Rocky's in Madison (on State Street) in the past few years--still good pizza!