From The Editor: Our Daily Bread

Every year, we center our April Dine and Drink issue around Dining Out For Life. This fundraiser supports the great efforts of the Aliveness Project in their mission to provide services and support to people with HIV/AIDS across the Twin Cities and beyond. Now in its 30^th year, Dining Out For Life has been a successful effort towards meeting the goals towards eliminating this virus and disease from our society.

This is not an easy task. No task is easy. It is easier to select a restaurant that participates in Dining Out For Life and make reservations for that day or evening than tackling the virus.

Actually, it is easier to get an HIV test. It is easy to talk to your date, partner, or spouse about ways to make sure no one is spreading it.

Hopefully, this will spur you on to select a place to dine and give towards ending HIV in our community and society. In this issue, we’re featuring Nico’s Tacos – all three locations!

Last year, my efforts took me across the Twin Cities. A public “thank you” is in order to the Mason Jar Kitchen & Bar in Eagan and Angelo’s Italian Restaurant in South Saint Paul for their hospitality, participation, and support for Dining Out For Life. I’m happy to report that they are participating again this year!

Sometimes, it takes a fundraising event to prompt your discovery of new places to eat. Rather, new places to gather and enjoy your favorite beverage. Or, to try a new one on.

This issue only scratches the surface. We also feature the good Seward Co-Op does for the community. How about one of the hottest, hippest food halls in the Twin Cities? What about one of the newest gathering spots for our community? As usual, we are packing plenty into this issue!

However, I’d give the following plug to a restaurant I am enjoying lately. It is in Saint Cloud on West St. Germain right in the thick of a resurgent downtown. It is a Thai-Filipino place called Arroy run by the lovely LGBTQ+ couple who serves up some familiar and new dishes worth trying. Someday, we will do a breakout story on that restaurant…but, spoiler alert, it’s good and worth the drive to support our community’s business!

One day, we will feature your favorite dining spot, along with your favorite place for drinks and social life. There are so many places to uncover across our region – not just in the Twin Cities.

For now, Bon Appetit!