Rooftop patio above The Nicollet Diner

On the Rox sits above the diner. Two outdoor patios. Real skyline. The kind of view that makes people from out of town say "I didn't know Minneapolis looked like this," which is both flattering and a little insulting to the buildings.

Patio season here is not Los Angeles patio season. Patio season in downtown Minneapolis is a negotiation with the wind. You will see people in short sleeves in April and parkas in June. You will see a table order a Bloody Mary flight at brunch and a hot coffee twenty minutes later because a cloud remembered its job. We open the patios when the weather permits. "Permits" is doing a lot of work in that sentence.

The food upstairs is the diner menu. That matters. You can sit outside with a burger, wings, a milkshake, or breakfast if it is that kind of morning. Saturday and Sunday we run a breakfast buffet up there with the usual suspects — eggs, bacon, sausage, hash brown casserole, dollar cakes, French toast, fruit — and a Bloody Mary bar for the people who came to commit. Weekday happy hour still exists because downtown employees deserve a small trophy.

I like the patio best in that sliver of October when the air is sharp and the light is gold and everyone looks slightly proud of themselves for being outside. Minnesota pride is fifty percent weather endurance and fifty percent refusing to give the weather the last word.

If you are meeting friends, this is the easy yes. If you are on a date, this is the version of downtown that still feels like a city. If you are alone with a book and a plate of fries, we will not make it weird. The diner downstairs will still be open when the patio closes, which is the whole architecture of this building: eat upstairs while the sky is doing something pretty. Come down when you want fluorescent honesty and a malt.

— Sam