While I'm not the best guide for the west side of town, I can give you some good spots in both downtowns. Decided to respond in your thread instead of a pm, so the current loclas can add in. Here's my hit list.
St Paul
My favorite steak place is Mancini's. I concede it may not be the best place, but it is a landmark in St Paul, and has a real old skool vibe to it. Plus, my grandpa did the plumbing in it way back when, so there's that. Lots of history there.
Fun bar/restaurants
Lucky's 13
Ox cart (great patio in the summer)
Brunsons pub
Shamrocks (ask for a "westy")
Sweeney's
The Gopher bar (a real St Paul shit house bar, hold on to your hat, the drinks are stroooong, and the employees/ clientele are great people watching)
Carbones pizza on Randolph Ave is another St Paul landmark
Places to visit
I love the science museum, and the MN historical museum. Always something cool there.
Minnesota music cafe- always some good music in there.
Lots of old Chicago mob connections, Google for interesting spots to see.
Minneapolis
I'm a Nordeast guy. You can go down there, walk around, and take days finding all kinds of fun bars/ interesting spots. It's a real cool, old skool town. If you have a bicycle, there's trails that can take you anywhere. Along the riverfront on Washington ave, there's some real cool artsy stuff to see.
Jimmy's- My favorite bar around. Id move it here if i could. Working class joint, lots of fun people, a jack and coke is a jack with a splash of coke just to say it's there. And you can get cheesy poofs and cocktail weeners to complete your fine dining experience.
Psycho suzies- fun place
Tony Jarros- see Jimmy's above. Have a couple greenies/ call Uber
Draft Horse- hole in the wall/ food is fan_tas_tic. I feel like Anthony Bourdain in there. The cheesy broccoli is so good, I'd send for it here if I could
Mayslacks - no one beats Stan's meat (you'll get if you go there ) great sammies, bands play there, cool vibe
331 club- some good bands roll through
Mckenzies downtown- just a hole in the wall with absolutely fantastic burgers/sammies
Bunkers music bar and grill- some crazy good local bands go there. Sunday nights you get a lot of blues rock stuff. A must see
My favorite Italian place is in Ramsey, it's called Buena Serra. It's not much to look at, but it's got real good food.
First Ave - MN music landmark, lots of good music. Bunch of other good venues I can't remember the names of for music down there. Grab the city pages, it tells where stuff is happening.
You should try and get a hold of the DOOM guys on Facebook. Bunch of ducati wierdos, they get together for races and stuff like that. John Meyer is the dark lord of DOOM, I'd bet they would like to meet a guy that has your stories. I'm sure Ray can hook you up.
I'm forgetting a bunch, feel free to ask aboot anything. And if you're in SOCAL, look me up. I usually have two of the three in the fleet running. You're welcome to go for a ride with me out to Julian or Idyl wild.
Good luck, stay warm (sucker:grin2
