Photos courtesy of Devil's Advocate
In 2011, Erik Forsberg set out on a mission to bring the neighborhood bar feel to downtown Minneapolis. At the time, the Minneapolis bar scene lacked a place that both locals and visitors could feel at home in, so he went right to work on a new addition to the cityscape.
The result was Devil’s Advocate, a place all about striking up conversation, educating customers, and creating a place for individuals to celebrate their differences. The menu and beer selection are extensive, ensuring that you’ll have a memorable dining experience no matter what you’re craving.
After years of success in the Twin Cities, Devil’s Advocate has opened their new location in Stillwater, about a half hour east of Minneapolis/St. Paul. Devil’s Advocate is an elevated, approachable dining experience that offers a range of unique flavors fused with locally sourced ingredients to make meals made from scratch, giving their pizza and pasta dishes a deliciously local touch that you can taste.
For Forsberg, this new location is an extension of the original Devil’s Advocate mission to inspire challenging dialogue between friends and strangers, whether it be about expanding their palates by trying new flavors or by expanding their minds by listening to one another.
“Restaurants and bars are the last place we still talk to each other,” Forsberg says. This is truer than ever after social distancing and work-from-home lifestyles have become new norms. Forsberg hopes that Devil’s Advocate can be that community space where people can reconnect and better understand one another. As Forsberg likes to say, “America was born in a bar!” And he wants customers to feel like they can be free to share ideas and work through issues over a coffee, a beer, or a meal.
After the pandemic wreaked havoc through the restaurant industry, Forsberg adapted the Devil’s Advocate experience that patrons know and love to be more malleable. The Stillwater location has an incredible selection of craft beers, a rosé bar, a small café, and of course, its excellent menu of pizza and pastas. Here, Devil’s Advocate patrons can pick up their morning coffee, grab a beer after work, and sit down for a family meal, all in the same place where they’ve grown to know to expect excellent food quality and service.
Forsberg wants to make sure that no matter what the future holds, Stillwater’s Devil’s Advocate can do what it does best; make great food and serve great drinks over which friends and family can sit down and have a real conversation and make lasting connections.
