bar

Well, cuisine isn't exactly the right word, but the new Amsterdam Bar & Hall in downtown St. Paul does have a nice selection of Dutch broodjes (sandwiches) and appetizers, as well as Dutch and Belgian beers. It also offers its own version of one culinary specialty that the coffeehouses of Amsterdam are famous for: pot brownies.

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My mother-in-law Elmarie loves jazz. Elmarie is 88 years old, and still lives on the family farm near Decorah, Iowa, but she is willing to travel a long ways to hear good jazz. A few years ago, Elmarie went all the way to Iowa City to hear the Glenn Miller Orchestra. So when Elmarie came to the Twin Cities over the Memorial Day weekend, we searched for a place where she could hear jazz on a Sunday night. Thanks to Pam Espeland's excellent jazz calendar, Bebopified, we found some excellent options.

Moore by Four's show at the Dakota was already sold out, so we opted instead for the Riverview Wine Bar, which features the Zacc Harris Trio on Sunday nights, (Zacc Harris on guitar, Matt Peterson on bass, Pete Hennig on drums) with no cover. Harris also plays with the Atlantis Quartet, which City Pages named the Best Jazz Artist of 2011. The music - mostly jazz standards - was great, though the place was packed and the ambient noise level was a little high for Elmarie.MORE »