Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily digest of important, overlooked, and/or interesting Minnesota news stories.
Mamma Mia! That's a Pricey Pastrami.
This Saturday, Target Center will host the Minneapolis DFL Convention, where voters can meet and take in candidate speeches, caucus, and find out who will score party endorsements for the 2025 mayoral, Park Board, and Board of Estimate and Taxation races. It's usually a long day, and Target Center concessions are available at lunch and dinner, with not-particularly-eye-popping prices like $8.99 for nachos and $14.99 for a walking taco.
But if you need halal or kosher options and plan to eat lunch or dinner at this thing, you'd better come prepared. No outside food is allowed (as is typical with Target Center), and the kosher and halal menu is shockingly spendy. Halal options include $55 kabobs or gyro pitas, while the kosher menu has a $56 burger with fries and coleslaw, a schnitzel sammie for $60, and a hot stuffed pastrami sandwich for an eye-watering $70. (Seventy bucks!!! And we thought $22 was kind of a lot!) The site also notes that you have to pre-order those items by 2 p.m. this Wednesday.
The menu has already gotten pushback from folks on Bluesky, because... what the hell is going on here, and are we sure that's not a typo? But people have also pointed out that without any financial help from the state DFL, the Minneapolis DFL was limited in its location options.
The convention website was updated after those wild numbers started making the rounds, and now a "limited number of Kosher and Halal meals" will be provided by Minneapolis DFL on a sliding scale basis thanks to donors who offered to cover the cost; you can email sd62.chair.dfl@gmail.com for more info and to reserve. Alternatively, local journalist Taylor Dahlin suggests keeping a cooler in your car for snack breaks.
A Revival Reboot
Earlier this year, local fried-chicken chain Revival abruptly closed all three of its locations, with co-owner Nick Rancone telling Minnesota Monthly, “We are unable to see a path forward and be financially responsible to our staff and core costs.”
Seven months later, and the restaurant is poised to make a comeback. While former Revival owners Rancone and Thomas Boemer will both consult and will have equity stakes in the reborn business, this go-round, reports J.D. Duggan for the Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal, Jester Concepts has acquired the intellectual property. Revival's two food trucks will return to the road this summer, and Jester is "actively scouting" brick-and-mortar locations for Revival 2.0.
Feels like we've had a lot of part twos in the local restaurant scene lately, huh? Italian Eatery was reborn in February with the Travail team at the helm; Dark Horse in Lowertown just reopened this weekend under new ownership; Chi-Chi's is planning a big return to St. Louis Park; and Steak & Ale came back to Burnsville, 15 years after its last Twin Cities location closed. This isn't even the first revival for Jester Concepts, which brought back Butcher & the Boar two years ago.
Co-owner Brent Frederick tells the Biz Journal that it just makes sense to acquire restaurants that already have a loyal following: “It is really tough to start fresh on some of these brands." That's part of the reason Jester's ever-growing portfolio includes Rustica Bakery, which Frederick & Co. purchased last year.
Mpls Landlord Opens "Private" Homeless Encampment
A local landlord is fed up with the city of Minneapolis's response to homelessness—so, reports the Star Tribune's Susan Du, he's taken matters into his own hands.
"At the risk of angering the city and his neighbors, Minneapolis developer and landlord Hamoudi Sabri last week opened a private homeless encampment in the parking lot of a long-vacant building he owns on E. Lake Street," Du's story begins. "About 20 people have moved in."
Sabri tells the Strib that unhoused folks would break into his properties anyway; he'd rather offer a place with public toilets and regular garbage pickup, and where outreach workers could more easy offer support. The city is unsurprisingly not supportive—police tried to clear the lot just last week, before Sabri showed up—and neighbors have also expressed their concerns, with one nearby apartment resident emailing the Strib to express his worry that there will be "another round of mayhem."
Others nearby, like members of Twin Cities DSA, which has an office overlooking the lot, have handed out water and supplies to the folks staying there. “This is literally our backyard; this is literally our community,” DSA member Jaimi Salone tells the Strib.
Plus-Size Pool Parties Keep Making a Splash
Have you heard of “Fat Splash,” an annual pool party hosted by and for plus-size people? What began in 2018 as a get-together at an Airbnb has grown to four events in 2025, held at aquatic centers in Bloomington and St. Louis Park.
“Being at the pool has been a really tough space for folks sometimes living in larger bodies,” event founder Cat Polivoda tells Anita Li in a profile for MPR. “We wanted to reclaim a pool setting and allow for a space that feels as safe as possible and is affirming and focus on fat joy and plus size folks being together in community.”
Sounds like a good time! In addition to hanging out, the events also feature a cannonball contest, local vendors, and poolside eats. The first gathering was kid-friendly, while the remaining three this summer will be 18+.
