“The Tiny Diner was created using a ‘whole-system design’ framework. The restaurant showcases bio-intensive urban farming methods and efficient water use strategies through its edible gardens and complex rainwater catchments systems. With a solar paneled patio roof, the Diner offsets a good portion of its energy usage. Tiny Diner sports rooftop honey bees and grows on-site annual crops in our garden beds to foster pollinator habitat and soil fertility. Permaculture classes and other growing classes are offered for free (or for materials costs) year-round. Oh, and good food, beer, and wine! Specials are inspired by different American cities and their hometown diners. What can we say? This Tiny Diner does a lot, because we’re passionate about food and where it comes from.”

Peterson Farms Limousin beef burgers; macrobiotic and ultra-seasonal macro bowl.

Not many American flapjack-and-burger diners have their own urban vegetable farm, but Tiny Diner does – as well as rooftop bees, house-made cucumber mint soda, and a pretty flower garden with a woven-vine house in the middle for kids to play in once they’ve finished their breakfast. It’s a place where the oldest American urban traditions meet the most forward-looking urban, environmentally sustainable vision.

"The grass-fed burger, meaty and juicy, is solid, craveable, everything you want in your corner diner. The beet terrine is prettily composed, fresh, light, just right in every way ... Onion rings are light as balloons and some of the best in the Twin Cities." –Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl, Mpls Saint Paul