Thanks to a tight-knit community determined to make their town whole again, the small Canadian city of Saskatoon made the New York Times’ ’52 places to go in 2018′ list. Kristin Kent goes for a look.

Saskatoon has never been on my list of places to go. In fact, I’d wager no Canadian in history has ever said, “Saskatoon, man, I have to get there someday!” So why, in 2018, am I hearing so much buzz about it?

Once a city to run away from, the kids are now coming back. Culture is brewing. The music is getting louder. The art, more experimental. Young chefs, brewers and distillers are using hyper-local ingredients you’ve never heard of: Mis-ask-wat-o-mina. See?

“It’s an embarrassment of riches for a city this size,” says Shawn Moen, co-owner of 9 Mile Legacy, Saskatoon’s first nanobrewery in the revitalized Riversdale neighborhood. “And there’s very little bullshit, we’re authentically friends with each other,” he says of the multicultural and socioeconomically diverse community.