Minneapolis marks Veterans Day at a cemetery, not on a parade route. What the day is built around here is a very large field of white marble at the south end of the city, three minutes from the airport, and that is where the day actually happens. Fort Snelling National Cemetery is open on Veterans Day, one of only two federal holidays its office does not close for. Veterans Day itself is Wednesday, November 11. The other half of the day, the free meals, is less settled than the internet suggests: every list you will find today is last year’s list. We checked.
Fort Snelling, and why the rifles are quiet on the eleventh
The cemetery is at 7601 34th Avenue South, inside Minneapolis, off the Highway 5 side of the airport. From November through March the gates open at 7.30 a.m. on an ordinary weekday and close at five. On a federal holiday they open at eight instead and still close at five, so Veterans Day is an eight to five day. The office is shut on federal holidays with two exceptions, Memorial Day and Veterans Day, so there will be someone there.
Here is the part that surprises people. Fort Snelling is home to the first all-volunteer Memorial Rifle Squad in the National Cemetery Administration, and it is one of the reasons the place is spoken about the way it is. Twenty or more volunteers turn out for each service, all of them veterans, and they will do as many as fourteen a day between nine and two: colour guard, rifle volley, the flag folded and handed over, and a live bugler rather than a recording. As of February 2024 they had rendered that salute more than 89,000 times, and they have never missed a scheduled service because of Minnesota weather, which in this state is a serious claim.
But the squad does not schedule services on Saturdays, Sundays or federal holidays. So on Veterans Day itself, the one day a year you might expect to hear them, you will not. If you want to see the squad work, it is a weekday.
A note on the ground you are standing on. The cemetery exists because Minnesota veterans’ groups spent the 1930s petitioning Congress for one; there was no national cemetery anywhere in the region. In 1937 the War Department was authorised to take 180 acres off the southwest corner of the Fort Snelling Military Reservation, and WPA labourers broke ground that summer. Of the national cemeteries built between the wars, Fort Snelling is the only one built purely to serve the veteran population rather than around an existing battlefield or post.
Free meals: what is actually confirmed for 2026
Same problem, different subject. Search for Veterans Day free meals right now and you will find long lists with 2026 in the headline. Open the restaurants’ own pages and the offers are from 2025. Applebee’s Veterans Day page, as this was written in mid-September, still says the free entree is available on Tuesday, November 11, which was last year’s date.
So we are not going to publish a list of offers that no restaurant has agreed to. What we can tell you is the pattern, because it is remarkably stable. The chains that run a free Veterans Day meal have run it for years, most announce in the last week of October, and the terms rarely move: dine-in only, one meal per veteran, a limited menu to choose from, drinks and tip not included, and participating locations only, which matters across a metro spread this wide. Applebee’s has run its offer for eighteen consecutive years. Golden Corral, Texas Roadhouse, Chili’s, Denny’s, Red Robin, Cracker Barrel, Bob Evans and Buffalo Wild Wings have all been regular participants.
We are checking the chains’ own pages weekly and will list each 2026 offer here as the restaurant confirms it, with the date we confirmed it. Nothing goes on this page from an aggregator.
What counts as proof of service
This is the question that actually causes trouble at the door, and the answer is broader than most people expect. Applebee’s published terms accept a Uniformed Services ID card, a Uniformed Services retired ID card, a current Leave and Earnings Statement, a veterans organization card such as American Legion or VFW, a DD214, a citation or commendation, and, simply, a photograph of yourself in uniform. Most chains use a similar list. If you served and you do not carry a card, a DD214 or a photo is usually enough. Call the specific location first, because the offer is franchise-level and the person answering the phone is the one who will be working the door.
Gifts for the veteran in your family
The veteran in your house is reading the top half of this page. If you are the one buying for him or her, this is the half that matters. These are the things that actually get worn and kept: the branch cap, the case for the flag that came off the casket, the box the medals finally come out of the drawer for. Twelve picks, all five branches, every one of them rated by people who bought it.
Army Veteran CapOfficially licensed, embroidered emblem. The cap half the column was wearing on Harbor Drive.4.8 stars, 508 ratings
Navy Veteran CapProudly Served, USN. The most-reviewed branch cap on this list by a wide margin.4.8 stars, 3,300 ratings
Marine Corps Veteran CapRothco, black, USMC. Built heavier than the novelty caps and it holds its shape.4.8 stars, 614 ratings
Air Force Veteran CapEagle Emblems, cotton, embroidered branch logo rather than a printed patch.4.8 stars, 1,200 ratings
Coast Guard Veteran CapProudly Served, USCG. The branch everyone else forgets to stock.4.8 stars, 383 ratings
Burial Flag Display CaseSized for the folded 5 by 9.5 foot interment flag. If the flag is still in the box it came home in, this is the gift.4.7 stars, 11,000 ratings
Engraved Flag CaseThe same case, engraved with the name, branch and years served. Every branch available.4.7 stars, 6,900 ratings
Medal and Ribbon Shadow BoxNineteen by fourteen inches, UV-protected front. For the medals that have been in a drawer for thirty years.4.6 stars, 554 ratings
Challenge Coin CabinetHolds seventy coins, lockable, wall mounted. Most veterans already have the coins and nowhere to put them.4.6 stars, 129 ratings
Thank You Challenge CoinsA set of twenty. What VFW posts and parade organizers hand out on the eleventh.4.8 stars, 357 ratings
DD-214 ShirtThe form that proves it, on a shirt. Also the document that gets you the free meal on the eleventh.4.6 stars, 227 ratings
Outdoor American FlagThree by five feet, made in the USA, embroidered stars and sewn stripes rather than printed.4.6 stars, 38,300 ratingsNot what you were after? Amazon carries far more than twelve things, and every branch, unit and era is in there somewhere.
Browse all veteran gifts on Amazon
Straight to your branch: Army / Navy / Marines / Air Force / Coast Guard
Top of Minneapolis is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. We earn a commission on qualifying purchases made through the links above, at no extra cost to you. Ratings shown were read on September 16, 2026. We do not list a product we have not checked.
Where to eat after
Leave the cemetery heading north and you are on Cedar Avenue, which our burger guide calls the Cedar Avenue Burger Mile for a reason: the two bars that have argued for seventy years about who invented the stuffed cheeseburger are both on it, and they cannot even agree how to spell it. These are ranked by Insider Score, and all four are open at lunchtime on a Wednesday. One that is not: Martina in Linden Hills scores 9.5, the highest in the city, but it does not unlock the door until five.
Pizzeria Lola
Insider Score9.2
Pizza · 5557 Xerxes Ave S
Southwest Minneapolis, about fifteen minutes west of the cemetery. The highest score here that will actually feed you at midday, and the only one on this list you would call a destination.
Matt’s Bar and Grill
Insider Score7.9
Burgers · 3500 Cedar Ave S
Straight up Cedar from Fort Snelling. Matt’s spells it Jucy Lucy, with no i, and has done since the fifties. Open daily from eleven to eleven, which makes it the safest bet on the whole list.
Hell’s Kitchen
Insider Score7.0
American · 80 S 9th St
Downtown in the basement on Ninth. Doors at 7.30 in the morning, so this is the one if you want to eat before you drive out to the cemetery rather than after.
5-8 Club
Insider Score5.6
Burgers · 5800 Cedar Ave
The closest table to Fort Snelling, barely two miles up Cedar, and the other half of the argument. The 5-8 spells it Juicy Lucy, with the i. Open from eleven.
Scores are Top of Minneapolis Insider Scores. Restaurant photographs from Yelp.