Even if Jason DeRusha weren’t an early bird to begin with, as an anchor on WCCO’s morning and mid-morning shows, he is now. (As in 2:28 a.m. wake-up call, early.) While Minnesotans know him best for light-hearted segments like “The Good Question” or his current foodie one “DeRusha Eats,” he has convened every type of story in Minnesota, from the joyful to the tragic. If anyone knows the spirit of the Twin Cities, it’s DeRusha.

Kelly A. Pederson

What made you first interested in journalism?

I’ve wanted to be a journalist since I was a kid. I grew up watching the news every night with my family in suburban Chicago, but I vividly remember watching live coverage of the Tiananmen Square uprising and sitting in my living room as journalists are standing there reporting what I knew was going to be in the history books someday. It blew my mind to watch that live coming into my house in my middle class suburb of Chicago. I knew I wanted to be apart of that. I love history, I love telling stories, and that’s really what we do every day. I’m one of those lifers where, from a very early age, this is what I wanted to do.  

When you were first starting out, did you think that you’d be here in the Twin Cities still?

The Twin Cities have a national reputation, so when I started as a reporter in the quad cities of Davenport, Iowa, and Moline, Illinois, and moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, we of course knew the Twin Cities had a reputation of having really high quality TV newsrooms, so I was always interested in coming here, but I never would have guessed that here I would be, almost 15 years later in the Twin Cities.

I think a lot of people in my business end up coming here and think, “Oh, I’ll be here for three years or five years …” That’s kind of how television news works, spend a couple years in one city and then move onto a big city, but when people come here they tend to fall in love with it. It’s a great place to live and a great place to work.

What was your first impression of the Twin Cities?

When I first moved here, my wife and I got married in the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis. So it was 1998, and here I am, this 23-year-old kid standing at the front of one of the nation’s most beautiful churches and the longest aisle you could imagine, my wife-to-be to have to walk up. And that’s the memory.

You know, we took our wedding party pictures in the sculpture garden across the street, which is one of my favorite places to bring people in the Twin Cities. The sculpture garden is so cool. Right? I mean, you have the skyline right there, you can walk to the Walker of course, which is right there, but to have all of these crazy, beautiful, thought-provoking sculptures smack in the middle of downtown Minneapolis is pretty cool.

This year, we went to visit the sculpture garden in Washington, D.C., and I thought, “Oh, it’s going to be pretty good,” right? “It’s in Washington, D.C.” It’s nothing. It’s tiny compared to our sculpture garden, which really is fantastic.

After all of the stories that you have done for the Twin Cities, is there one that you still come back to time after time?

Unfortunately the story that is seared in my mind the most is the worst thing I ever had to cover here,  which is the 35W bridge collapse. I was one of the first reporters on the scene that night. We saw the worst thing that’s ever happened in the history of the state on that night. But we also saw the best, that people regardless of their politics or their race or their background, they jumped in to help, and you saw an incredible response that night that I’ll never forget.

You’ve seen so much of the community here. How would you describe it?

Minnesotans genuinely are friendly and helpful people, so I think of our community as active, friendly, helpful and extremely proud of where we live. if you ask a Minnesotan to tell you about their favorite place to go in their city, you better be in a comfortable chair to hear all of the things they’re going to tell you. People love this place. I know everyone thinks that people love where they live. But I’ve lived in different cities—it’s not always the case. People here are really proud of this state. They’re proud of the natural beauty; they’re excited about the fact that we’re starting to get more national attention for our museums and our restaurants and our beers and our spirits. People are really proud.. That pride is infectious. As a newcomer, you start … It’s hard not to fall in love with it.

Kelly A. Pederson

What do you like about the Twin Cities as far as a place to live?

You’ve got everything you could want here. You’ve got great culture; you’ve got all the sports teams, the professional and the college. I would say that the food scene we have today, I would put up with just about any city in the country. Plus you have all of the urban amenities, and you’re a 20-minute drive from a gorgeous lake—no matter where you live here, you’re 20 minutes from a gorgeous lake. You can enjoy the beautiful nature that you have here in Minnesota as well as the nightlife, the culture, the sports that come with the big city. It’s a very unusual combination. I have kids now, so the schools are amazing here; the neighborhoods are fantastic. I live in a block that has about 15 kids who line up at the bus stop. I mean how great is that when you have kids, where you have that kind of environment for them to grow up in?

You mention the food scene: How did you get started out as a food critic?

Basically I’m an example of somebody who started a Twitter account about food: You know how people say, “Oh, Twitter is just people tweeting pictures of what they had for lunch?” I was tweeting those pictures, and people seemed interested in it, and so I did more of it and more of it. Then I judged that cooking competition (for Minnesota Monthly in 2008). …

In 2008, 2009, I started doing restaurant reviews of suburban spots. Over the years I’ve tried to apply the perspective of an eater and a journalist to my food writing. I’m not a cook, although my wife and I like to cook at home. I’ve never worked at a restaurant unless you count the concessions stand at a swimming pool that I was the manager of when I was in high school. I just try to learn and ask questions and to ask more questions and try to come at it from that perspective.

I’m always thinking of the person who’s eating out. I’m not writing for the chefs; I’m not writing for the culinary community. I’m writing for the average person who might be spending $80 on a babysitter, $10 to park the car and $100 on a special dinner. That’s who I care about.

And on your rare days off, what do you do?

I love riding my bike. This is something I’ve really started doing these past couple of years. We have an incredible network of trails, even in the suburbs in the Twin Cities. I can ride my bike from my suburb all the way down to downtown Minneapolis on a bike trail, which is pretty crazy if you think about it. But I like to ride my bike through the Elm Creek Park Reserve and around to the Coon Rapids dam. We’ll do that as a family as well, so that’s fun for us.

You know, a calm day off for the DeRusha family would be an absolutely insane, jam-packed day for most people. My wife works at home—she’s a financial analyst for a bank—so the weekends come around and she’s ready to get out. We’re not a big, hang-out-on-the-backyard, kind of family. We like to get out and explore and be doing things in the community.

Richard Roche

Skyway system in downtown Minneapolis

Skyway System

Oh, man, does this come in handy. Everyone knows Minnesota gets cold in the winter, it’s almost always the first talking point in a conversation between a resident and a non-resident when they exchange where they live. It’s almost as if it was born out of necessity rather than convenience (but it was probably a combination of both). Minneapolis is home to the largest contiguous skyway system in the world. The second level bridges between buildings connect 9.5 miles of pathways for a total of 80 city blocks.

Dominic Rivard

Honeycrisp apples

Honeycrisp Apple

These bad boys are crisper than Ryan Reynolds in a fresh suit at the Oscars, and we have the University of Minnesota to thank for that. That’s right, the best tasting apple to ever sprout from a tree (from a totally objective point of view, of course) was grown in our very own backyard.

©Carlos Gonzalez/Minneapolis Star Tribune via Zuma Wire

Museum at Paisley Park

Prince

Before the late music icon Prince became Prince, Alexander Nevermind, The Artist, The Artist Formerly Known as Prince, Camille, Christopher Tracy, Jamie Starr, Joey Coco and Tora Tora, he was born Prince Rogers Nelson in Minneapolis. And even though he may be gone, fans can still tour the superstar’s private estate and production complex, Paisley Park, in Chanhassen.

Courtesy St. Paul Saints

CHS Field

Bill Murray

You’ve seen funny man Bill Murray in “Caddyshack,” “Ghostbusters” and the Saint Paul Saints ticket booth. Yep, you read that right, the Saint Paul Saints ticket booth. But why would he be there, you might be asking yourself. The answer to that is because the side-splitting comedian is actually part owner of the minor league baseball team. So keep your eyes peeled the next time you go to watch America’s favorite pastime; you might just see the legend himself.

Brian Droege

Target Plaza

Number of Fortune 500 Companies

18. It’s the number of years you need under your belt before you can sit in a smoke-filled casino pulling slot machine arms, go to prison or get called for jury duty. How magical. It’s also the number of fortune 500 companies with their headquarters in Minnesota. Big names such as UnitedHealth Group, Target and Best Buy all call the Twin Cities home.

Kent Kanouse

James J. Hill House

Summit Avenue

From the Beaux Arts style of the Cathedral of Saint Paul to the quadriga adorning the top of the Minnesota State Capitol, there’s no doubt St. Paul has some stellar architecture. Adding to this list of marvels are the historic homes lining the streets of Summit Avenue. As the largest stretch of Victorian architecture in the United States, Summit Avenue shows its visitors the past retreats of iconic residents such as James J. Hill, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Frank B. Kellogg.

Ian Freimuth

Minneapolis City Hall

City Hall Clock Tower

Quick! What’s the largest, four-faced chiming clock in the world?! “Big Ben!” *buzzer sound* Wrong! But don’t be too hard on yourself. Even we didn’t know it was the largest, and we live here. The Minneapolis City Hall clock tower actually takes home the gold in this event. Who would’ve thought? While Big Ben’s clock face measures 23 feet in diameter and the tower tops out at 315 feet tall, the Minneapolis City Hall clock tower’s face stretches 24 feet and 4 inches across, and it dwarfs Big Ben with a height of 345 feet (400 if you measure to the tip of the flagstaff).

Linda Owen

St. Anthony Falls

St. Anthony Falls

The Mississippi River: You know it, you love it, you’ve probably driven over it. But did you know that St. Anthony Falls in Minneapolis is the river’s only natural waterfall? Well, it was until it was replaced by a concrete overflow spillway. But don’t let that stop you from enjoying its sights and sounds.

Richie Diesterheft

Nickelodeon Universe

Mall of America

We all know the Mall of America is big. Just how big? 5.6 million square feet big. To help put that number in perspective, that’s as much as:

3 U.S. Bank Stadiums
9 Yankees Stadiums
10 great pyramids
18 Coliseums
24 Sidney Opera Houses
43 Boeing 747s
53 Eifel Towers
103 White Houses
174 Taj Mahals
347 Statues of Liberty
441 Big Bens

The Mall of America also houses Nickelodeon Universe, a 7-acre amusement park—which also happens to be the largest indoor theme park in the nation—featuring 28 rides and attractions, zip line, ropes course and more smack dab in the middle.

Paul VanDerWerf

Spoonbridge and Cherry at the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden.

Minneapolis Sculpture Garden

The Twin Cities is a pretty artsy place, and all it takes is one look at the mammoth-sized collections at any of the museums or the beautifully crafted murals dressing up various buildings around the city to see why. One of the crown jewels of this arts scene is the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. Located outside the Walker Art Center, this outdoor exhibit is the largest urban sculpture garden in the country at 11 acres big. Check out more than 40 artworks around the garden, including the iconic SpoonBridge and Cherry.