This Beloved Neighborhood Eatery in Minnesota Is Back—and It’s Still Delicious!

Convention Grill in Edina, Minnesota, is a venerable institution that's been making folks happy since 1934. I paid my first visit back in the Paleolithic period—or during what I sometimes refer to as my undergrad years at the University of Minnesota. Anyway, my point is that it has been a fixture in much of my adult life, too. My kids' mom worked at Convention Grill when she was in high school (yes, she went to Edina), and as a family-friendly eatery, we regularly took the kids there to eat throughout their childhoods. So you can imagine our collective sadness when Convention Grill shut down in March of 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, of course, and didn't reopen... for a very. long. time. Of course, when the restaurant announced its reopening in 2024, I was overjoyed but also a little trepidatious: Would it be the same after all the years it spent shuttered? Not to mention, while it was closed, its long-time owner had passed away, and his family reopened it. Needless to say, I had concerns.

Recently, the stars aligned and both my now-adult children (See? I implied I was old) were in town at the same time, and they agreed to accompany me to assay Convention Grill in its reincarnated form. To keep things scientific, we decided that we would each order our "usuals" to see if they were as good as we remembered.

Walking into the restaurant, the vibe felt the same. It still exuded old-school diner, and the wooden booths, tile floors, tile walls, and mirrors were spic-and-span: They had definitely been maintained, if not refurbished, during the closure.

I was a little torn because in the "olden days," I would alternate between the eatery's famous chicken noodle soup and one of its specialties, the Plaza Burger. I wasn't feeling that kind of capacity, so I convinced the kids to share a bowl with me—and it was just like I remembered: big chunks of celery, tomatoes, and onions; pulled white meat chicken; and wide, tender noodles. As always, it needed a healthy dose of pepper to be just right.

Then on to the main course, the thing I'd been dreaming about, my Convention Grill holy grail: a Plaza Burger. On paper, the Plaza Burger is a beef patty with sour cream and chopped onions on a pumpernickel roll—but I always juice it up with lettuce, tomato, and sautéed mushrooms, and I love the extra-savory flavors that emerge. The kids got standard cheeseburgers, and we shared a basket of the grill's hand-cut fries. Everything was sublime and wonderful.

I was full, but tradition is tradition, and we decided we had to share one of the renowned hot fudge sundaes (small!) and, of course, with nuts and bananas. Another winner!

Convention Grill still gets three thumbs up from us, and I am particularly impressed how it managed to skip four years and maintain the same level of consistent quality—across the board—that I remembered for the (ahem) many years that I'd been visiting. Visit Convention Grill on the web to take a look at the menu—and definitely go in person if you love burgers and nostalgia.

What are some of your standby Minnesota eateries that have maintained their quality over the decades? We'd love to hear about them!