In the interest of have group meals on Saturday night, I’m going to suggest two locations (in the interest of simplicity, I'm reposting the websites and menus of each).
First, Old Spaghetti Factory - Menu
Old Spaghetti Factory is located at the corner of Park and South Washington Avenues about a 0.3-mile walk from the Downtown East station of the Green and Blue light rail lines. Old Spaghetti Factory offers a wide variety of Italian dishes in an informal setting at very reasonable prices. Full bar service is available. Past use of Old Spaghetti Factory locations by Fests indicates that reservations for a small group are possible. Old Spaghetti Factory is probably one of the best dinner values for the money.
Second, Republic, Seven Corners - Menu
Republic is a college-area sports bar-type venue located on South Washington Avenue near the University of Minnesota campus. It is about a 0.2-mile walk from the West Bank station of the light rail Green Line. It has a huge selection of beers. Food offerings include burgers and sandwiches along with a limited selection of dinner entrees. Pricing is also very reasonable. It has both indoor and outdoor seating. The website does not show any reservation options. Given the reduced student population at the university in the summer, I’m hopeful that Saturday night walk-ins would not be a huge issue.
Rather than the “everyone on their own” plan, maybe we could aim at these two, get a preliminary count for both, and make the necessary arrangements? It is possible that only the Old Spaghetti Factory will require advance planning for reservations, with Republic simply a walk-in option. We could maybe even do the count on Saturday during the Mall of America layover and confirm things from there.
It would seem a shame to have a nice sized group riding the trains in MSP all day only to scatter in different directions at dinnertime killing the sort of social interaction that makes the Fests special. I'd be happy to help out as needed.