The Atlas Obscura Guide To Minneapolis

56 Cool, Hidden, and Unusual Things to Do in Minneapolis, Minnesota

Updated February 2, 2023

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Unusual Attractions in Minneapolis

The anechoic chamber

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Orfield Labs Quiet Chamber

This lab's maddening silence is good for business but bad for sanity.

Minneapolis, Minnesota

City Salvage

An architecturally-focused antique shop.

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum

20,000 pieces in a Frank Gehry-designed building.

House of Balls

Minneapolis, Minnesota

House of Balls

Funhouse of found art and participatory sculpture.

Spoonbridge and Cherry

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Spoonbridge and Cherry

A toweringly silly piece of modern art has been delighting locals since the 1980s.

Rib options

Minneapolis, Minnesota

The Herbivorous Butcher

A butcher shop in Minneapolis has all the meats and cheeses you’d expect from any of its kind—except that all the products are vegan.

The Sidewalk Harp.

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Sidewalk Harp

A whimsical sensor instrument for Minneapolitans to play on their walks to work.

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Elf Door at Deming Heights Park

Enter the Forest of the Elves.

See All 56 Things To Do in Minneapolis

Cool Places to Eat & Drink in Minneapolis

Rib options

Minneapolis, Minnesota

The Herbivorous Butcher

A butcher shop in Minneapolis has all the meats and cheeses you’d expect from any of its kind—except that all the products are vegan.

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Gatherings Cafe

An eatery within the Minneapolis American Indian Center writes colonial ingredients out of the story of Native American cuisine.

Gold Medal Flour Mill

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Mill City Museum and site of "The Great Mill Disaster"

When flour explodes, it's not a pretty sight.

The entrance to Owamni.

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Owamni

The dishes at this restaurant by The Sioux Chef celebrate indigenous heritage.

See all 5 Places to Eat in Minneapolis

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Atlas Obscura Itineraries

8 Places to Get Musical in Minnesota

Two 20th-century musical figures tower over the state of Minnesota: Prince Rogers Nelson and Robert Allen Zimmerman. (That's Prince and Dylan to us mere mortals.) And while the Gopher State definitely celebrates its favorite musical sons, much of the state has a musical bent to it, from a singing beach to a room so devoid of sound is makes a musical madness all its own.

Basshenge is a big homage to a big instrument.

Explore Minneapolis, Minnesota

Architectural Oddities 10

Art 7

Sculptures 6

Outsider Art 5

Music 4

Sacred Spaces 4

Water 4

Minneapolis Leaderboard

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Recent Minneapolis Activity

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The Boys From Milwaukee

wants to go to Twelve Vultures
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The Boys From Milwaukee

wants to go to Hollywood Theater
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caroaddogchai71

wants to go to Orfield Labs Quiet Chamber
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The Boys From Milwaukee

wants to go to Svedberg Studios
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kylerlarson

wants to go to House of Balls

Stories About Minneapolis

Podcast: The Westgate With Rico Gagliano

The inside story of a flop that changed one theater's history.

by The Podcast Team

February 2, 2023

A packed Betty Crocker test kitchen in 1935.

The Unsung Women of the Betty Crocker Test Kitchens

For many Crockettes, the job was glamorous, fulfilling, and "almost subversive."

Podcast: Gold Medal Flour

Join us for a daily celebration of the world’s most wondrous, unexpected, even strange places.

by The Podcast Team

December 27, 2021

Podcast: The World’s Quietest Room

Join us for a daily celebration of the world’s most wondrous, unexpected, even strange places.

by The Podcast Team

October 18, 2021

Podcast: Gold Medal Flour

Join us for a daily celebration of the world’s most wondrous, unexpected, even strange places.

by The Podcast Team

A young Bob Dylan, not long after leaving Minnesota.

For Sale: A Hidden Trove of Correspondence With Bob Dylan

The papers of Tony Glover, "musician's musician" and journalist, include many other luminaries as well.

by Matthew Taub

November 18, 2020

#CreativesAfterCurfew includes over 40 artists in a decentralized power structure, without a clear leader. But most of their murals have the same theme: fighting racial injustice and systemic racism.

How Street Artists Honor George Floyd and Magnify a Movement

Muralists across the country are painting new visions of Black liberation.

by Giulia Heyward

A bartender serves pear ratafia, inspired by an early-modern European recipe, at Tattersall's 2019 event.

The 1700s Plague Cure That Inspired an Uncannily Contemporary Cocktail

An art historian, a culinary researcher, and a Twin Cities distillery teamed up to recreate the herbaceous drink.

by Reina Gattuso

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