Best Restaurants for Wine Lovers in Minneapolis
Five restaurants on this list hold a Wine Spectator award. Manny’s Steakhouse and 801 Chophouse, both in WeDo, hold Best of Award of Excellence. Bûcheron in King Field, Tavola in Elliot Park, and 112 Eatery in WeDo hold Award of Excellence. Manny’s Steakhouse, 801 Chophouse, and Tavola run exceptional programs. The list at 112 Eatery is France-forward and runs to 200 selections.
Small Hours in Northeast Minneapolis and Bar Brava in Near North pour natural wine, and both programs are exceptional. Small Hours is sommelier-led, with an extensive list, zero-proof drinks, and a Wine Enthusiast Best Wine Restaurants listing for 2025. Bar Brava was a 2025 James Beard Award semifinalist for Outstanding Wine and Other Beverages Program.
How this list is chosen: Restaurants holding a Wine Spectator Restaurant Award or rated as having an exceptional wine program, listed alphabetically. Updated October 8, 2026.
112 Eatery
Wine Spectator Award of Excellence
112 Eatery brings a French-influenced Italian sensibility to Minneapolis's North Loop, with a wine list of 200 selections France-forward and priced accessibly, and an Opinionated About Dining ranking that places it among the continent's most respected casual dining rooms. Chef Isaac Becker leads a room that runs Tuesday through Saturday, drawing a consistent crowd to one of the neighbourhood's most credible dinner addresses.
801 Chophouse
Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence · Exceptional wine program
The format is classic American steakhouse — serious cuts, a wine program built for longer evenings, and a room that rewards those who know what they want before they sit down.
Bar Brava
Exceptional wine program
Bar Brava belongs to Minneapolis’s more serious beverage conversation: a wine-led room recognized as a 2025 James Beard Award semifinalist for Outstanding Wine and Other Beverages Program. The draw is not spectacle but sourcing logic, with the beverage program carrying the editorial weight in a city where independent restaurants and bars increasingly define taste through producers, farming, and low-intervention choices.
Bûcheron
Wine Spectator Award of Excellence
Opened in January 2024 on Nicollet Avenue, Bûcheron applies French bistro technique to the flavors of the Upper Midwest, drawing on Scandinavian American pantry traditions, North Woods ingredients, and the kind of neighborhood reliability that most destination restaurants sacrifice for ambition. Chef Adam Ritter's fall cooking, built around root vegetables and foraged accents, has drawn particular attention from critics as a serious contribution to the Twin Cities dining scene.
Manny’s Steakhouse
Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence · Exceptional wine program
Ranked #135 on Opinionated About Dining's 2024 Casual North America list and recognized by Esquire for the country's best martinis in 2025, it draws a consistent crowd of dealmakers, out-of-town visitors, and serious carnivores. Chef Jason Smith leads the kitchen through a format built on directness: beef, fire, and little else getting in the way.
Small Hours
Exceptional wine program
Small Hours belongs to Minneapolis’s growing wine-restaurant conversation: casual in posture, serious in its cellar signals, and part of a Northeast dining district that has moved beyond brewery-adjacent snacking. Its inclusion in Wine Enthusiast’s Best Wine Restaurants 2025 list places it in a national frame without turning the room into a formal tasting-menu temple.
Tavola
Wine Spectator Award of Excellence · Exceptional wine program
Tavola occupies a considered address on Fifth Avenue South in Minneapolis, where the city's Italian-leaning dining tradition meets a wine-focused approach that rewards patience and repeat visits. The room draws a local crowd that treats it as a serious neighborhood anchor rather than a destination flex. For visitors, it sits comfortably within the tier of Minneapolis restaurants worth planning around.
Planning restaurants for wine lovers in Minneapolis
- Which restaurants on this list hold a Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence?
- Manny’s Steakhouse in WeDo and 801 Chophouse in WeDo hold a Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence, both dated 2026. Each runs an exceptional, extensive, sommelier-led wine program with craft cocktails, and each serves steak a la carte. Manny’s Steakhouse serves dry-aged, center-cut USDA beef with a meat cart presentation, and chef Jason Smith leads the kitchen. 801 Chophouse serves 100 percent aged USDA Prime beef from an exclusive in-house meat program, with fresh seafood.
- Which neighborhood has the most restaurants on this list?
- WeDo has the most restaurants on this list, with three: Manny’s Steakhouse, 112 Eatery, and 801 Chophouse. Manny’s Steakhouse and 801 Chophouse hold Best of Award of Excellence. 112 Eatery holds Award of Excellence, and its curated list is France-forward at 200 selections. King Field, Elliot Park, Northeast Minneapolis, and Near North each have one restaurant on this list.
- Which restaurants on this list state a cellar style?
- 112 Eatery in WeDo pours a France-forward list of 200 selections. Small Hours in Northeast Minneapolis and Bar Brava in Near North pour natural wine. Small Hours pairs that natural-wine list with zero-proof drinks, and the list is extensive and sommelier-led. Bar Brava pairs natural wine with a beer program, and the list is extensive.
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