November is when downtown Minneapolis moves indoors and, oddly, gets busier. The Timberwolves play ten home games at Target Center. The Vikings host Monday Night Football and a Thanksgiving-weekend game at U.S. Bank Stadium. Steve Martin and Martin Short are at the Orpheum, Jack White is at the Armory, and Orchestra Hall runs a two-week Nordic festival. Every one of those venues is a short walk from the front door of Oakland’s on 9th at 215 South 9th Street — which makes a furnished studio here a better November base than a hotel room you have to leave by the weekend. Here is the month, venue by venue, with everything pulled from the official calendars in mid-September.
Timberwolves at Target Center: ten home games
Ten home games, per the Target Center calendar: Milwaukee on Monday, November 2; Utah on Sunday the 8th; Dallas on Thursday the 12th; Chicago on Saturday the 14th; a back-to-back against Portland on Monday the 16th and Tuesday the 17th; New York on Thursday the 19th; Memphis on Saturday the 21st; Brooklyn on Monday the 23rd; and Memphis again on Friday the 27th, the night after Thanksgiving. Most tip at 7 PM; Sunday the 8th is 6 PM and the Nets game is 6:30. Target Center also has concerts between the games — SOMBR on November 1, KATSEYE on the 7th, Motionless In White on the 10th and MercyMe on the 15th.
If you are in town for a week of basketball, take the studio by the week: you get a full kitchen for the mornings after, which no hotel room on the block can offer. We covered the walk to the arena in our October guide, which also has the season opener.
Vikings at U.S. Bank Stadium: Monday night and Thanksgiving weekend
Two home games this month, and both are the kind that fill downtown. On Monday, November 9 the Vikings host the Buffalo Bills on Monday Night Football, 7:15 PM kickoff — a weeknight game, which means the crowd stays downtown afterward. On Sunday, November 29 it is the Atlanta Falcons at noon, the last day of Thanksgiving weekend. One thing to know before you book around the November 22 game against San Francisco: per the Vikings’ official schedule, that one is being played in Mexico City, not Minneapolis, so downtown will be quiet that Sunday night. The stadium is a walk east along 9th Street from our door — our game-day post has the route.
Hennepin Avenue: Steve Martin and Martin Short, a Broadway run, and the Jayhawks
The three historic theatres on Hennepin are a short walk west of the building. The November lineup on the Hennepin Arts calendar is unusually strong:
- Thursday, November 5 — magician Justin Willman at the State Theatre.
- Sunday, November 8 — Neil deGrasse Tyson, Science as a Way of Knowing, at the State.
- Wednesday, November 11 — Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox at the State.
- Saturday, November 14 — The Best of Steve Martin and Martin Short at the Orpheum.
- November 17–22 — the Broadway tour of Maybe Happy Ending at the Orpheum.
- Saturday, November 21 — Marc Maron at the Pantages and, the same night, the Jayhawks celebrating forty years at the State.
- Tuesday, November 24 — Dolly Parton’s Smoky Mountain Christmas Carol at the State.
The Armory: Orville Peck, Jack White, and a weekend residency
The Armory on 6th Street is a few blocks north of us, and its November calendar leans on weeknights: Orville Peck on Tuesday, November 3; Prof on Saturday the 7th; Jack White on Sunday the 8th; Russell Dickerson on Friday the 13th; Tape B for two nights on the 20th and 21st; and Underoath on Monday the 23rd. If you are coming for a Tuesday or Monday show, book the studio for the week around it — midweek rates are the quiet secret of this building.
Orchestra Hall: two weeks of Nordic music, then Andrew Bird and a dragon
Orchestra Hall on Nicollet Mall is the nearest concert hall of all. The Minnesota Orchestra runs its Nordic Soundscapes Festival from November 5 to 14 — Sibelius the first weekend, Nielsen with Osmo Vänskä the second, and a family concert of Hans Christian Andersen tales on Sunday the 8th — then Elgar and Dvořák on the 19th and 20th, Andrew Bird with the orchestra on Saturday the 21st, and How to Train Your Dragon in Concert over Thanksgiving weekend, November 28 and 29. Our season preview has the fall in full, and the Guthrie’s fall season runs through the month as well.
Thanksgiving week in a studio with a kitchen
Thanksgiving is Thursday, November 26, and the weekend that follows is one of the busiest of the year downtown: the Wolves on Friday, the Vikings on Sunday, the orchestra playing a film score on Saturday and Sunday. This is the week the full kitchen earns its keep. Every studio at Oakland’s on 9th has one, along with all utilities, WiFi and free laundry, and Target on Nicollet Mall is two blocks away for whatever you forgot. Families in town for the holiday take a studio for the week and skip the restaurant reservations entirely.
A word about the weather: November is the month downtown Minneapolis starts using the skyway in earnest. Oakland’s on 9th is not connected to it — you walk a block to the nearest entrance — but from there the skyway reaches much of the downtown core. If this is your first cold-weather stay, our honest winter guide covers what to pack, and this one gets you here from the airport without a car.
Book the week, not the night
Every studio comes furnished, with a full kitchen, and you can stay a night, a week or a month with no lease. Some units are pet friendly. Check dates and rates at our booking page, or call (612) 314-5124 and we will help you line the studio up with the game, the show, or the whole month. See you in November.