What to Eat, Drink and Do on a Road Trip from Minneapolis to the Iron Range

The A.W. Johnson Family has owned and operated Leader since 1918, but its restaurant space is more of a recent development spurred on by fourth generation owners Grant and Michelle Johnson. The couple sees Leader as a cornerstone of their Cambridge community — a place to shop for locally sourced goods and tuck into terrific all-day breakfast dishes like a salmon popover scramble and Swedish pancakes with lingonberry jam and powdered sugar.  

Lunch is also lovely here, whether you’re sipping on wild rice soup with garlic chives, puffed grains, and pulled chicken, or crushing a Canadian perch sandwich that’s been smeared with tangy North Shore tartar sauce and brightened up by Nordic pickles. 

Find more top food & drink spots.

There’s a reason why Mike Kempenich, a.k.a. the Gentleman Forager, calls himself “The Most Interesting Man in the Woods”. As one of the region’s chief foraging experts — see also: such fellow Minnesotans as Ironwood Foraging founder Tim Clemens, James Beard Award-winning chef Alan Bergo, and ethnobotanist/TikTok phenomenon Linda Black Elk — he supplies many restaurants with wild ingredients and hosts everything from mushroom identification classes to special events centered around chanterelles, morels and porcini.

Check out his current schedule over at gentlemanforager.com. and our complete guide to foraging in Minnesota, or trace Mosteller and Hon’s journey off the grid in the mystical woods of Eveleth.  

While he was born in Duluth — one of Minnesota’s most treasured cities — the singer-songwriter once known as Bobby Zimmerman spent his formative years (1948-1959) in Hibbing. The small Iron Range town is where Dylan became obsessed with music, started his first bands, and graduated high school. Take a trip back in time by reliving such landmarksas Dylan’s childhood home and the building where he learned how to play the guitar (Braman Music, now the site of a massage school).  

Keep those selfies coming by driving over to nearby Chisholm and standing in front of the 85-foot “Iron Man” statue that welcomes visitors to the Minnesota Discovery Center. A nod to the mining boom that put the Iron Range on the map, it’s the country’s fifth largest free-standing statue — a brass and copper behemoth that more than lives up to its solemn official name, “The Emergence of Man Through Steel”.  

Redhead Mountain Bike Park at the Minnesota Discovery Center boasts 25 miles of world class trails specifically made for mountain bikers. What was once a barren landscape is now a shining example of how to restore and reclaim our natural world, Minnesota style. If you’re not into coasting across gravity-defying peaks and valleys, the free park also offers incredible kayaking opportunities in crystal-clear water that runs as deep as 250 feet.

Another otherworldly vantage point is the vast open pit at Hull Rust Mine, a historic landmark at Hibbing’s Tourist Senior Center.  

Read our Where to Go Mountain Biking in Minnesota guide. 

Since most domestic and international flights leave from the metro area’s peerless MSP Airport, any trip out to the Iron Range should tack on at least a few more days in downtown Minneapolis. Its riverside Mill District is the perfect homebase. Canopy by Hilton is in the heart of it all and within a short walk of local highlights like the iconic Stone Arch Bridge. The former railroad path is being repaired over the next couple years, but it’s partially open to bikers, pedestrians, and anyone who can’t resist swinging by to bask its golden hour glow or see one of Minneapolis’ best farmers markets during the summer.  

Chef Sean Sherman’s revelatory Mill City restaurant hasn’t stopped reinventing the rules of fine dining since its long-awaited 2021 opening or subsequent James Beard award for the nation’s best new eatery. With dishes that lean heavily on corn, wild rice and other hand-harvested ingredients rather than dairy, beef, pork, chicken, wheat flour and sugar, Owamni celebrates the culinary roots of Minnesota’s 11 Native American tribes and more than earns its mark as one of Minneapolis’ best restaurants.  

One of the most remarkable developments of Daniel del Prado’s ever-growing restaurant empire (Colita, Martina, Cardamom… the list goes on) has been the breakout success of his former pastry chef from a Portland fish shop, Shawn McKenzie. The James Beard nominee is the co-owner / croissant whisperer at the local chain Café Cerés, a prime spot for unique pastries like Turkish bagels, chocolate chip tahini cookies, and pistachio croissants. Not to mention dynamic coffee drinks like dukkah-dusted and ras el hanout-spiked lattes and a mocha that’s made with carob powder. 

Few things in the world are as quintessentially Minnesotan as the State Fairthat caps every summer with crop art, butter sculptures, and a revolving door of Giant Slide riders. Anyone who’s been to the beloved event in the lead up to Labor Day knows it’s one of the country’s most rewarding food and drink experiences.  

Aside from long-running local favorites like the Corn Roast, Sweet Martha’s Cookie Jar, and the corn dog-adjacent Pronto Pups (made with pancake batter instead of cornbread), the fair is a welcome celebration of the many cultural groups that make our state so distinct and diverse.

Where else would you be able to snack on lutefisk steam buns, best-in-class sambusas, masala-stuffed dosas and walleye on a stick? As Hon said with a smile during his visit, “only in Minnesota.” 

Check out more Star of the North itineraries, including road trips to the Walleye Capital of the World and Grand Marais.