Minneapolis — "Only a bunch of food writers would do this," one woman at our table said with a laugh as a basket of greasy, crisp-oozy cheese curds made the rounds. Pickled fish and mushrooms, a grilled bacon-and-cheese sandwich, a cocktail made with ice cream and dotted with Trix cereal, onion rings like deep-fried Livestrong bands and a martini flavored with cucumber and dill also circulated, and we all dutifully sipped and bit.

Those assembled for this odd repast were a group of about 10 writers and editors from around the country who were in Minneapolis to attend the Association of Food Journalists' annual conference. The strange thing wasn't that we were eating all this food, but that we were eating all this food immediately following a five-course gourmet meal — three caviars! Duck presented by a duck farmer! French burgundies! — for which we had all professed great enjoyment.

Steve Rice/Minneapolis Star Tribune (ENLARGE)

Mixing cocktails is a fine amalgam of art and science for Town Talk Diner owner Aaron Johnson.

TOM WALLACE/Minneapolis Star Tribune (ENLARGE)

Cosmos in the Graves 601 hotel pairs gourmet-to-the-max savory dishes with delights like the Cosmos Tarte.

FIVE NOT TO MISS I departed Minneapolis-St. Paul desperate to go back and fully explore the restaurant and food scene, rather than just glomming on to dinners out. If you get there before I do, here are a few suggestions: • For a hilarious and tasty late-night meal: Town Talk Diner (2707 1/2 E. Lake St., 612-722-1312, www.towntalkdiner.com) • For a flavor of Minnesota: Heartland (1806 St. Clair Ave., St. Paul, 651-699-3536, www.heartlandrestaurant.com) • For some local color and a quick meal or drink downtown: Ike's Food and Cocktails (50 S. Sixth St., 612-746-4537) • For the ol' expense account: La Belle Vie (510 Groveland Ave., 612-874-1572, www.labellevie.us) • For a unique meal in a boutique hotel: Cosmos (601 First Ave. N., 612-677-1100, www.cosmosrestaurant.com) JOHN KESSLER ON FOOD AND MORE E-mail Kessler Related: • More on food and drink • Restaurant reviews and search More Kessler Start with basics at three Buford Highway eateries  Salted cod gives kids whiff of new world (and they like it)  Colorful pumpkins have multiple uses  An iffy food approach: There's a joke in here somewhere  In the end, a bit too much wing think going on  Nibble by nibble, great meal at fancy restaurant redefined  A little midcentury classic we'd hate to be without  Grandfather's old-world life remains a mystery

Why? Rick Nelson, the restaurant reviewer for the Minneapolis Star Tribune, had suggested an after-dinner drink at Town Talk Diner, and when we surveyed its retro/creative menu, we had to try a few bites. That's what we do; we're prandial in perpetuity.

The official agenda for this conference is much like any other — we sit on panels, network and listen to speakers and experts who can help us do our jobs better.

The semi-official agenda is checking out the restaurant scene. Every city has one, and it always helps to shed light on the dining back home. Conference planners bring the best local chefs to us for a taste-around of small plates, then they bring us to restaurants for a series of meals and banquets. The hyperdiligent/masochistic ones in the crowd follow these meals with supplemental table-hopping. Or they just see where fate or group glom leads them.

So how is the food scene in Minneapolis, and how does it compare with Atlanta? Here are a few things I noticed:

• The word is "local": Yeah, it's local everywhere but — good golly — these folks mean it! The farmers markets are huge and glorious, and the chefs avail themselves of Minnesota's finest produce, meat, dairy and grain.

For me, the local-everything highlight was the charcuterie prepared by chef Lenny Russo of Heartland in St. Paul — a man certain to go down in the Locavores Hall of Fame. I loved the elusive/distinctive flavor of his pheasant terrine and his fantastic update of Cumberland sauce — tart, sweet and as adult-tasting as a great cocktail. When he started talking about the sauce made from a wild "chokeberry" he'd foraged, I giggled impulsively.

"I guess it does sound like some sort of auto-erotica," he admitted.

A couple of chefs sighed that of course they had to bring in olive oil, but noted with pride that Minnesota is a state where the flour can be local.

Speaking of which ...

• The culture of pastry runs rampant: It was during a trip to General Mills to bask in the beatitude of Betty Crocker that I started to connect the dots. Take Scandinavian and German immigrants with their great baking traditions. Put them in a city built on the backs of flour mills, populated by farm folk during the Industrial Age, then emptied to the suburbs during the postwar era. It is no wonder this place gave rise to both General Mills and Pillsbury. You'll find more great pastry, lousy pastry, refrigerator-case pastry and pastry that looks lousy but tastes amazing in this city. It also means that under no circumstances do you skip dessert in a restaurant.

Nor can you! I tried after a quick lunch at an old-fashioned downtown tavern called Ike's, but wouldn't you know that two hot, gooey chocolate chip cookies came with the check.

• Fine dining is hitting the skids: A number of the city's most ambitious restaurants closed recently, which has left a lot of Minneapolitans questioning the future of fine dining and raising the old "maybe we're just a meat-and-potatoes town" flag.

One night, a small group of us went to check out La Belle Vie, the remaining standard-bearer of the $80 tasting menu. Set in the lobby of a 1920s hotel-turned-condo, the restaurant offers a formal dining room and a supremely groovy lounge noted for its cocktails and small plates. We opted for the latter, and the food was ... meh. Maybe meh-plus.

Coppa-wrapped rabbit loin had a tame elegance, but lamb sliders were salty and the signature pea tortelli with crab seemed heavy and thick. Of course, you can't judge food of this ambition by a few plates. But, then again, it was interesting to see a top-tier restaurant pulling out the lounge card. I wonder if this is a sign of things to come? After all, a whole generation of diners is coming of age expecting its culinary thrills in a helter-skelter assemblage of small plates rather than in the formal confines of a set course menu.

• But personality is in ample supply: Flip the fine-dining card, and you'll quickly discover that chefs in this city play by their own rules and revel in ideas and dishes that no one else would ever think of copying.

Stephen Trojahn at Cosmos in the Graves 601 hotel pairs spectacular local duck with smoked mustard spaetzle and slivers of pickled cherry that mark the spot like punctuation points. It's one of those great dishes that you can tell has no reference point beyond his own palate and imagination. With a caviar service he serves an iced vodka shot in which is immersed a gelled ball. What is it? Pop! Lemon juice. How nice that he can pull this off without going, "Look at me. I'm Mr. Molecular Gastronomy."