Proving the power of nostalgia and a good bowl of soup, the answer many longtime Minnesotans give when asked where to find the best wild rice soup is Byerlys and the Oak Grill at Dayton’s (and then Macy’s).
Never mind that the Oak Grill closed in 2017, and Byerlys and its soup recipe have been under the Lunds umbrella for nearly three decades. Both versions of the soup — creamy, decadent and chock-full of Minnesota’s state grain — set the standard for comfort in a bowl.
Once a wintertime luxury, you can now find chicken wild rice soup on menus across the state year-round, cementing its status as a Minnesota icon. There isn’t an official state soup, but there should be. Here are three to try.
Grackle
Over in Maple Grove, aka the “Restaurant Capital of Minnesota,” you’ll find no shortage of soups on offer, but few have the lineage of the chicken wild rice soup at Grackle. Culinary director Diego Chalco — who also oversees sister spot Margie’s Kitchen in Andover — was the onetime chef at all three of Macy’s Twin Cities restaurants, and that experience with Midwestern comfort shows here. A bowl of Grackle’s wild rice soup is impossibly thick and creamy, and contains no surprises — and that’s exactly the point. (S.J.)
11852 Elm Creek Blvd. N., Maple Grove, gracklegrove.com
Wood + Paddle
The fried sunfish on the menu of this downtown Minneapolis restaurant is the first tip that the kitchen prides itself on serving North Woods cuisine. The second? Creamy Minnesota wild rice soup. Here chicken and mushrooms do the heavy lifting, adding texture and heft to the midday staple. The soup is creamy as billed, but not overly rich and heavy, which is important to note if you’re headed back to the office. Available in cup or bowl ($8-$10), we opted to get it as part of the weekday power lunch special ($16), which pairs it with half of a turkey sandwich on wild rice-cranberry bread and will have you in and out in 30 minutes or less. It’s all the comfort of cabin food; if only we could be on cabin time. (N.H.)
PWC Plaza, 31 S. 7th St., Mpls., woodandpaddlemn.com
The Ole Store Restaurant
On a cozy street in this charming town, the idyllic and deeply Minnesotan setting all but demands a restaurant here serve an incredible creamy wild rice soup. The Ole Store understood the assignment. I love to tuck into a cup as part of a soup and sandwich lunch combo, but it can also be a meal on its own ($6.25 cup/$9.25 bowl). Chicken from nearby Tree-Range Farms is folded into a broth made rich with veggies and cream, but the star of the show is the Red Lake Nation wild rice. It carries with it all the toasty, chewy and richness that comes from locally harvested grains. A smart addition of herbs lends a welcome woodsy flavor that emphasizes how beautiful food from our part of the world tastes. (J.S.)
