Not to be all flyover-state-shoulder-chip about it, but it does seem worth opening this edition of the Racket Restaurant Roundup with some of the big wins for local chefs and restaurants announced this month. Bon Appétit named Oro by Nixta one of the Best New Restaurants of the year, and then Oro made the New York Times' 2024 Restaurant List, along with nearby Vinai. Over in St. Paul, Myriel's Karyn Tomlinson is a Food & Wine Best New Chef.
Hell yeah, everybody. Great stuff. On to the news...
Now Open
Barcelona Wine Bar
The latest location (and first in Minnesota) for this national wine-and-tapas chain is in downtown Minneapolis (508 N. Washington Ave.). It’s been a slow-and-steady expansion since BWB opened in 1996, but the restaurant now has locations in 12 states, and (fittingly for a spot named for Barcelona), the kitchen at this one stays open until 1 a.m. Tuesday through Saturday.
Tono Pizzeria No. 7
On the not-so-slow expansion side of the spectrum, Tono Pizzeria + Cheesesteaks just opened its seventh location (and first in Minneapolis) in the looooooong-vacant former home of Michelangelo’s Masterpizzas at 3002 50th St. W. Owner Shaz Khan tells us there are three more on the way—to think we reported on this “growing pizza and cheesesteak empire” back in 2022!
WildChld
WildChld, sister restaurant to Stepchld, is up and running at 24 University Ave. NE. The Minneapolis bar is a collab between Stepchld’s Kamal Mohamed (who also owns Parcelle on the same block) and Dampfwerk Distillery’s Bridgit Loeffelholz, and it should be a nice little spot to grab a cocktail or a snack while you wait for a table to open up next door.
Hey Bear Cafe
The former Foxy Falafel spot at 791 Raymond Ave. in St. Paul is now a cute little breakfast and lunch takeout spot called Hey Bear Cafe. They’ve got coffee, tea, and baked goods, too, and everything on the menu is 10 bucks or less.
Small Hours
Northeast’s new “hi-fi wine bar,” Small Hours, emphasizes what’s going in your glass as much as what’s going in your ears… our clunky way of saying the music experience here is front and center. You can browse their website and play “is it a wine or a fancy sound system component?” with terms like Klipsch La Scala, Ayler Kupp 8, Luxman, Ultreia Godello, and Varia. (Answer key: component, wine, component, wine, component.) Located at 2201 NE Second St., Minneapolis, they’ve also got a snack menu of assorted tinned fishes.
Du Nord Cocktail Room
Lake Street’s Coliseum Building (2700 E. Lake St., Minneapolis), recently rebuilt and reopened after being damaged during the uprising in 2020, is now home to Du Nord Social Spirits’ cocktail room, with a menu of po’ boy sandwiches, snacks—and of course, lots of drinks. Lagniappe, the more upscale New Orleans-style restaurant planned for the BIPOC business-incubating building, opens October 11.
MOMO Korean Egg Drop
Bober Tea and Mochi Dough in Dinkytown (405 14th Ave. SE., Minneapolis) now has a third small shop inside: MOMO Korean Eggdrop. The local franchise serves breakfast sandwiches on fresh milk bread, and they look good as hell.
Hola Coffee
Earlier this year, Hola Coffee’s Vanessa Palestino told Downtown Voices about her desire “to bring that romance back to coffee, make it approachable and fun, and add a little bit of culture to it in the process.” She’ll do just that at her freshly opened shop (326 Central Ave. SE., Minneapolis), which serves single-origin coffee from small farmers in Latin America.
Closed, Closing, or Changing
Barrio
Lowertown’s Barrio closed abruptly this month, with owner Ryan Burnet telling Minnesota Monthly’s Jason DeRusha, “It was a lack of foot traffic/sales situation. We were able to survive for a while despite low sales in the hopes that St. Paul would revive itself, but that day hasn’t come yet and it was untenable.” Its locations in Minneapolis and Edina remain open.
Vellee Deli
On the same weekend of Barrio’s closure, all three Vellee Deli locations shuttered due to a dispute over unpaid rent with their landlord in NE Minneapolis. That location is still closed, as is the one in Brooklyn Park, but the downtown Minneapolis location (in the skyway of the Baker Center) has since reopened. Click here to hear the Racket team debate whether Vellee's owners should have crowdfunded or not.
Soul Bowl
It was an opening tenant at Graze Provisions + Libations food hall in the North Loop, but Gerard Klass’s Soul Bowl is leaving its longtime home and moving to north Minneapolis, reports J.D. Duggan at the Business Journal. The restaurant is opening in the V3 Center athletic facility as soon as next month.
Chicago’s Taste Authority
Rent hikes: They’re not just screwing you over! Chicago Taste Authority in south Minneapolis closed this month after 20 years, citing rent that “soared higher than a foul ball at Wrigley Field.” Specifically, he tells MN Monthly, his initial rent of about $1,800 a month is now over $6,000. We liked their Italian beef!
La La Ice Cream
Uptown’s La La Ice Cream (which recently rebranded as Sugar & Salt) has announced it’ll close permanently on Friday, according to a sign on the door spotted by Mike Norton. For more on Uptown’s woes, read Norton’s recent 5,000-ish word dispatch on the beleaguered Minneapolis area here.
Just Announced and Coming Soon
The Rabbit Hole
They're gonna have 40 screens at this new sports bar, which'll move into the old Axe Bridge Winery spot in the North Loop (411 Washington Ave. N., Minneapolis) later this year. No relation to The Rabbit Hole that once existed at Midtown Global Market, this one'll also host cover bands and DJs and private events, according to the North Loop Neighborhood Association.
Cafe Yoko
Downtown Voices has the scoop on Cafe Yoko, a new counter-service Japanese joint from Kado no Mise chef Yo Hasegawa. Cafe Yoko will open in the Duffey building (548 N. Washington Ave., Minneapolis), in the former home of Stalk & Spade, next month, with a focus on online and takeout orders.
Stargazer
Since Vinai opened in the former Dangerous Man Brewing address in northeast Minneapolis, the adjacent growler picking room has been closed. That'll change with the arrival of Stargazer, a pint-sized (or growler-sized, I guess), 40-person bar from the minds behind Travail and Meteor. The Strib has the scoop.
19 to Reopen
Thank god: Minneapolis’s 19 Bar, the first gay bar in the city and one of the oldest in the country, is still planning to reopen, according to Zoë Jackson at the Star Tribune. Better yet? It could open its doors by New Year's Eve.
Burnt Chicken
I loved Burnt Chicken’s sandwiches and tendies when I tried them at First Draft in 2022. But First Draft has since closed, and that chicken has been missed. Fun, then, to see owner Bernard Collins’s announcement that the restaurant has found a new location in the former home of East Side Bar. To quote the chef, “Bawk! Bawk!”
In the Works
As previously reported in the Racket Restaurant Roundup…
Francis No. 2
Fun! Vegan burger joint Francis, which has a hoppin' spot in northeast Minneapolis, will head for East Lake Street soon, according to a scoop from Longfellow Whatever. It'll have a similar menu focused on meat-free burgers, chicken, fries, and milkshakes, and it could open up as soon as this fall.
Animales Brick and Mortar
This is the one we’ve all been waiting for, folks. After… oh, a year? of copy-pasting Animales’ tentative plans for a brick-and-mortar restaurant into the Racket Restaurant Roundup’s “In the Works” section month after month, we got confirmation that it is in fact happening! Founder and co-owner Jon Wipfli announced on August 6 that Animales will head for the former Royal Foundry Distillery in the Harrison neighborhood (241 Fremont Ave. N, Minneapolis), with a 300-seat, family-friendly restaurant; a full bar; a patio; and even a dedicated play area for kids. HYFR. Look for it to open in 2025.
House of Hue
Ouro Pizzaria at Eat Street Crossing is no more, making way for House of Hue, which the Strib reports will be “the first restaurant [in Minnesota] specializing in bun bo Hue,” according to ESC partner Marshall Nguyen. His relatives, Henry and Pamela Tran, ran a bun bo Hue restaurant in Houston before moving to Wisconsin; now, after a successful ESC pop-up earlier this year, it’ll become a fixture at the food hall.
Mothership Pizza Paradise
The former Arezzo Ristorante space (5057 France Ave. S., Minneapolis) has been empty since that Italian restaurant closed in early 2023, but it’ll come back to life soon as Mothership Pizza Paradise. From the folks behind Mr. Paul’s Supper Club in Edina and Mr. Paul’s Po Boy's and Jams at Malcolm Yards, it’ll have pizza, salads, sandwiches, and the like, with a neighborhood vibe and televisions, according to Bring Me the News.
Le Burger
Le Burger 4304, which will open in Linden Hills at 4304 Upton Ave. S. later this year, is what you’d get "if a couple American guys went to Paris and opened a burger place," chef Jonathan Gans tells the Star Tribune. That means family friendly with high-quality ingredients and Frenchy flavors, like chicken cordon bleu and French onion soup. He and co-creator Josh Hoyt are both Bachelor Farmer alums; look for their south Minneapolis burger spot to open this fall.
Tiny Diner
Tiny Diner closed “for the season” in September, with its ownership announcing plans at the time to reopen in March. But March, you may have noticed, has come and gone, and although Bring Me the News reported in February that the Southside restaurant would reopen despite hitting the market, it… has not. A message on the TD website reads “Hoping to open Summer 2024."
Khue’s Kitchen
Eater has the scoop on Khue’s Kitchen, a new St. Paul Vietnamese restaurant from chef Eric Pham, which’ll open in the former Ngon Bistro space on University Avenue this summer. Pham’s grandmother opened Quang, where his mother still works; Pham you might know from his Khue’s Kitchen pop-up at Bar Brava. The brick-and-mortar should open this fall—a fire set back their progress when they were just about to open in August.
Saturday Dumpling Co.
Saturday Dumpling Co. is going brick and mortar. After years as one of the area’s most successful pop-ups, owners Peter Bian and Linda Cao announced in a release this week that they’re heading for the former Glam Dolls Donut shop at 519 Central Ave. NE in Minneapolis. They’ll have dumplings, rice bowls—and, of course, that scallion pancake breakfast burrito. They’re planning to open early this fall.
Bubble Line Brewery
You’ll have to wait until 2025, but Brittney Mikell—currently the assistant brewer at La Doña Cervecería—is readying to open the state’s first Black-owned brewery in the Rondo neighborhood of St. Paul. Bubble Line Brewery is currently in the crowdfunding stage, and you can chip in (and watch their very cute campaign video) here.
Walkin’ Dog
Downtown Minneapolis skyway staple Walkin’ Dog is (kinda) coming back! Northstar Center shared the news on LinkedIn (LinkedIn!), saying you’ll soon be able to “enjoy dogs, malts, sides and camaraderie in an updated version of this Minneapolis classic that honors Dave & Cindy Magnuson’s legacy.”
Jade Dynasty Restaurant and Bar
Not far from the new NY Gyro, there’s finally good news for the old Fuji Ya space at 600 W. Lake St. Southwest Voices reports that a new hot pot and dim sum spot called Jade Dynasty Restaurant and Bar is planned to open there sometime this winter. The new Minneapolis restaurant comes from Chuen Sai “Paul” Wu and Eric Zeng, and will specialize in Cantonese dishes and authentic Asian cuisine.
Minari
No, not the tear-jerking, critically acclaimed film about the struggle for the American dream—this Minari comes from Daniel del Prado student Jeff Watson, per the Star Tribune. It’ll open in the old Erté & the Peacock Lounge space (323 13th Ave. NE, Minneapolis), with a focus on Korean food, this summer.
Sculpture Garden Eats
A restaurant for the Walker’s Sculpture Garden? Total no-brainer. Kind of can’t believe there isn’t one already. Mpls.St.Paul Mag’s Stephanie March had a great scoop on the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board and the Walker’s teaming up to bring this new concession stand to life.
Saffron
Just know this news has the foodie in your life all a-tingle: Saffron, Sameh Wadi’s popular, groundbreaking, and much-missed Middle Eastern fine-dining restaurant, which closed in 2017, will make a return. That’s according to this scoop from Mpls-St.Paul Mag, whose Stephanie March caught up with Wadi earlier this month to talk about opening Saffron, closing Saffron, and the yearslong process it’s been to bring it back. (Did you know he was just 23 when Saffron opened? Wild stuff.) No lease yet, but it’s reportedly in the works.
Razava Bread Co.
A new bakery will open on Grand Avenue in St. Paul later this year, according to the Biz Journal, with “old-world” sourdoughs, bagels, challah, and coffee. Razava Bread Co. comes from owner Steve Baldinger, whose family has been in the bread business for more than 130 (!) years, and baker Omri Zin-Tamir, formerly of The Bakery on 22nd Street.
Mad Chicken
Is that like mad cow? Downtown Voices reports that chicken chain Mad Chicken, which got its start in Wisconsin and has locations in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, and Maryland, will open its first Minnesota location in the vacant building at First Avenue North and Fourth Street North that formerly housed American Army Navy Surplus Store.
Russell’s Bar & Grill
So Tavern on Grand still plans to close in June—that’s the bad news. The good news is that the restaurant at 656 Grand Ave. in St. Paul won’t be empty for long: Russell’s Bar and Grill, from owner Todd Russell (who also owns the building) will open there this fall, according to the Pioneer Press.
Hope Breakfast Bar North Loop + Salt & Flour
The new North Loop Green development (that’s the big one you could watch going up from Target Field) is welcoming residents, and soon, according to the North Loop neighborhood org, it’ll have a pair of new restaurants, both from chef Brian Ingram of Purpose Restaurants. One will be another location of his already popular Hope Breakfast Bar; the second is an Italian eatery, Salt & Flour.
La Madre
The Vicinity, a mixed-use building on the corner of Washington Street and Park Avenue in the Mill District, is getting a bar and restaurant specializing in Mexican street food, per The Development Tracker. La Madre comes from Abe Ponce Delgadillo of La Tapatia in Roseville, and is aiming to open in late August or early September.
Sip Society Cafe
Uptown’s Inspire Apartments will soon get a coffee shop called Sip Society, according to the Business Journal. Expect coffee drinks, Somali tea, wraps, breakfast sandwiches, juices, and smoothies, and look for it to open in June.
Asia Village
Here’s some news that has the North Metro friend in your life ecstatic: The group behind Asia Mall in Eden Prairie has announced a similar concept called Asia Village slated for the Northtown Mall in Blaine (301 Northtown Drive NE). They’re teaming up with the folks behind Pho Mai and Keefer Court to bring the 130,000 square foot space to life, with hot pot, all-you-can-eat sushi, a Korean BBQ, and a grocery store. Renovations will start this August; it’s scheduled to open by late 2025.
Catzen Coffee Bar & Den
A cat cafe and coffee lab is heading for Grand Avenue (1416 Grand Ave., St. Paul, to be exact). They’ll have lots of local treats: Dogwood Coffee, pastries from Hot Hands Pie and Biscuits, and snacks from Re-Mix Popcorn and Soul Grain granola. They'll open this fall, according to the latest update on their website.
New North Loop Project from Tim McKee
James Beard Award-winning chef Tim McKee (La Belle Vie, Sea Change, Octo Fishbar) has his eyes set on the North Loop for a new project inspired by the Basque region of Spain. He's being tight-lipped about the new Minneapolis endeavor for now, but has revealed that it'll be somewhere on First Street and open sometime... sometime. Read more via the Strib.
