Aphrodisiacs at the ready

​The theater of dining is an excellent way to set the stage for an encore, maybe even a standing "O" that extends far into the following day. The only thing you need other than a willing partner is a restaurant up to the task. A perfect date-night dinner is a delicate balance of fine food, complimentary lighting, a skilled server attuned to a guest's needs, and a blooming connection between two people.

Here are our choices for 10 of the best local restaurants for romance.

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The only classy way to start drinking before noon

​Hippocrates, that same genial fellow who gave us the doctors' oath to first do no harm, was one of the first in recorded history to set forth the idea that "like cures like." This in time evolved into such things as a literal belief that if you are bit by a dog, some hair from its tail applied to the wound will fix you right up, which in turn evolved into a belief that if you've made yourself ill from drinking alcohol, the most sensible thing to do is drink more alcohol. And this is how Hippocrates invented the bloody Mary. If he were alive today, and happened to be hung over in the Twin Cities, here's where he might go in search of a cure.

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The margarita: fighting off scurvy for over 50 years

​ The margarita is a classic, no doubt about it. The earliest published recipe we can find is in Esquire magazine in 1953. The recipe called for tequila, orange liqueur, and fresh lime.

As everything else does, this drink evolved in various ways, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. In Mexico you will be hard pressed to find a margarita that doesn't have a splash of orange juice naturally sweetening the drink and rounding out the flavor profile. In America many presweetened products inferior to fresh juice and far more expensive have for some reason become common. These premade "margarita mixes" might make it easier for a person to throw a fiesta at home, but they have no place in a professional bar.

In many bars bartenders have experimented with tequila infusions, alternative natural sweeteners, and various liqueurs.

In our Twin Cities there is no shortage of delicious margaritas, both traditional and experimental. Here are the 10 best.

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photo courtesy Haute Dish

High rent or lowbrow, the meeting of pasta and cheese is just so good

​If ever there was a loaded dish, it is this. A dish full of fat, cream, cheese, and nostalgia, and so hearty it can redeem the saddest, most downtrodden day. When eaters speak of comfort food, so often they speak of macaroni and cheese.  After scouring the Twin Cities for the dishes, armed with buffet pants and giant sporks, we've sussed out the cheesy best.

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Raw fish lovers have many options in the Twin Cities

​The Twin Cities may not be renowned for its fresh seafood, but we do have some respectable options when it comes to sushi. With the Japanese culinary staple becoming more and more ubiquitous, it helps to have an idea of which places consistently offer the freshest, tastiest sushi. A hot dog is often just a hot dog, but there's nothing quite so disappointing as bad sushi. With this in mind, the Hot Dish offers this guide to the top ten sushi restaurants in the metro area.

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There's no wrong season for ice cream

​Who knew that the Twin Cities would become the veritable capital of ice cream? We've got more than our fair share of ice cream shops--including fresh, store-made treats in unique flavors rather than chain stores rescooping tired old flavors day in and day out. The only down side is that many ice cream shops close in the dead of winter, but fear not. Our list of 10 will give you plenty of options for this month, as well as some places to look forward to visiting in the spring.More >>

Out top 10 spots to get your brew on

​The second wave of coffee awareness has seized the Cities.  Where once we happily sipped diner swill for $1.50, when we were introduced to Starbucks the coffee snob revolution began. Now we have single-cup brewing of fair trade beans and elegant surroundings in which to savor them. 

We scoured the Cities to compile a list of coffeehouses that  offered not only the best of the beans but a comfortable room to savor an expertly brewed cup.

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Who has the best Twin Cities tube steaks?

​While the Twin Cities may not exactly be Chicago where hot dogs are concerned, we've still managed to establish a pretty diverse sausage scene. There are a few familiar faces on this list of Top 10 best places to grab a wiener, including past City Pages Best Of winners, but some newcomers have also made the cut. Did your favorite place make the list? If not, we're sure you will let us know in the comments.

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Eat your heart out, Dominos

​The Twin Cities is bursting with killer pizza. Some of the pizzerias on our Top 10 list are cultural institutions that staked out their place in the pizza hall of fame years ago. Others are newcomers, bursting onto the Twin Cities dining scene with all the fury of an 800-degree wood-fired oven. Limiting the list to 10 forced us to leave some favorites off, but they'll be included in a special mention at the end.

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