Any time our magazine creates a service piece—in the case of this issue, my picks for the edible essentials that make up Minnesota’s culinary canon (“The Foodie 40“)—we wrestle with curating the list. Sometimes the hardest part isn’t what to include, but what to leave out. So I’ve included a few extra items here that I hated leaving on the cutting-room floor.
Heggies Pizza
This Milaca-made frozen ’za popularized in dive bars has such a cult following that cops have been known to pull over the deliverymen to buy pies off the truck. I’ve visited the factory and watched crusts travel down a conveyer belt where they were squirted with sauce, piled with meat and cheese, then ferried into a minus-70-degree freezer. I appreciated the owner’s quality-control mantra: “If you wouldn’t pay 10 bucks for this pizza, don’t let it go out.” • heggiespizza.com [Can’t compete with Galactic Pizza’s full-body spandex uniforms!]
Oreo Ice Cream at Sebastian Joe’s
One of my former roommates used to tunnel the chunks out of ice cream, leaving the remains bereft of any peanut-butter cups or chocolate-chip cookie dough. Sebastian Joe’s Oreo is the only flavor capable of stopping her, because it’s basically one big chunk—the ice cream contains so many cookies that it’s nearly asphalt-colored. • sebastianjoesicecream.com [Sonny’s is older—and its namesake turned down a chance to play for the Cubs to stay in Minneapolis and make ice cream]
The Wienery
All the Wienery’s dogs, including the veggie varieties, are delicious. I once took the editor of The Best American Travel Writing to this West-Bank dive, and even he was impressed. • wienery.com [But remember when the “restroom” was a toilet sitting in the middle of the unfinished basement?]
A Jell-O Salad Recipe
Every Minnesotan should have one, filed in the recipe box under “Salads,” as my mom does, not “Desserts.” [Bonus item! Consider it #41]
