Al's Breakfast

This 14-seat diner has been helping the University of Minnesota community wake up for 69 years with such delicacies as buttermilk pancakes studded with blueberries and walnuts, tender waffles filled with strips of smoky bacon (be sure to order the made-in-Minnesota maple syrup, a $1 bonus that’s worth the investment), hearty scrambles and eggs Benedict topped with lemony hollandaise. The hash browns are the stuff of legend. Al’s — named for its founder, the late Al Bergstrom — has a lovable culture all of its own (and a strict cash-only policy), one reason why the James Beard Foundation recognized the 10-foot-wide institution as one of its “America’s Classics.”