The Most Anticipated Restaurant Openings in the Twin Cities This Fall

There’s a whole crop of new restaurants just over the horizon, prepping and readying new dining destinations that will open as the leaves fall. This PSL time of year is bringing a suburban Chinese restaurant from our own exported food celebrity, a giant fire hearth inside an old brewery, Mexican in an old gas station and steaks in the grandest dining room in Minneapolis. Buckle up for all the exciting new details on the most exciting openings of fall 2018.

In Bloom and Revival Smoked Meats at Keg & Case

Location: 928 West 7th Street, St. Paul

Key Players: Nick Rancone and Thomas Boemer

Projected Opening: Mid September

Keg & Case will be the revitalized Schmidt Brewery food hall on West 7th. In addition to food stalls and shops like the Sweet Science Ice Cream scoop shop and a Five Watt Coffee shop there will be an anchor restaurant of rustic fine dining from the duo that also operate Revival and Corner Table.

In Bloom will continue to get ingredients from the small family farms and foragers that these guys already work with and prepare everything over a massive wood-fire fueled hearth. The restaurant will be large with fine-dining roasted dishes by chef Thomas Boemer.

Revival Smoked Meats is the next step in evolution from the Revival St. Paul location. The chef has a massive smoker and will sell barbecue by the pound in a casual environment.

After a year of anticipation, the two restaurants are nearly ready to open in a matter of weeks.

510 Lounge/Facebook

Steakhouse at 510 Groveland

Location: 510 Groveland/the former La Belle Vie restaurant space

Key Players: Jesse Held, Michael DeCamp, Jester Concepts

Projected Opening: Late fall/early winter

La Belle Vie’s longtime chef de cuisine is returning to the address where he built his stellar reputation. Mike DeCamp, now culinary director for the company that owns Monello, Borough, the Parlours and Earl Giles will open a new restaurant with a focus on steaks and game birds. The lounge, which recently underwent a remodel for the short-lived 510 Lounge will receive only a slight facelift. Meanwhile, the second dining room, on the other end of the first floor and separated by the lobby and a hallway, will get a second bar. Both bars will have drinks from Jester’s head bar man, Jesse Held.

Andrew Zimmern/Instagram

Lucky Cricket

Location: 1621 West End Blvd, The Shops at West End St. Louis Park

Key Players: Andrew Zimmern

Projected Opening: Fall 2018

The global food star is pausing his world travels for just a moment to open a new Chinese street food inspired restaurant with tiki bar in the Shops at West End. Shea Design is creating a room with a riot of color, mix of found items and 115 seats. The host stand will include a large-scale dragon painted onto the concrete floor and an over-sized yellow cricket cage nearby. The space should feel like a street market with dangling fishing baskets, bamboo poles, images from Zimmern’s travels and a wall separating the tiki bar.

Beyond that wall is a 72 seat tiki bar covered in a thatched straw roof surrounded by yellow bar chairs. Two large Polynesian masks on the back bar disguise slushie machines on either end. Tabletops are covered in a collage of vintage tiki album covers and other kitch from the 40’s and 50’s.

On AZ’s Instagram, he’s been teasing test dishes like lacy potstickers and saucy dumplings.

Kevin Kramer / Eater Twin Cities

Colita

Location: 5400 Penn Avenue, Minneapolis

Key Players: Daniel del Prado, Marco Zappia

Projected Opening: Early fall

Initial dishes will be non-traditional takes on Oaxacan cuisine with a few dashes of Tex Mex in the mix. This means raw seafood dishes, botanas (small plates), a wide variety of vegetables, and smoked meats served with moles and tortillas made with Colita’s own made masa. Likely the menu will change to highlight different regions of Mexico, a country del Prado visits frequently.

In addition to treating and grinding the corn for tortillas, bar man Marco Zappia is also playing with ideas on how to use masa. Zappia is tinkering with a nearly-savory fermented masa cocktail.

Geneoh Photography / Kickstarter

The Copper Cow

Location: 5445 Eden Prairie Road, Minnetonka

Key Players: Danielle and Chris Bjorling

Projected Opening: September

This counterpart to the couple’s The Copper Hen on Eat Street is moving forward with an ambitious construction plan to convert an old Dairy Queen into a quaint little eatery with some cool indoor/outdoor features. The flavors will be a bit bolder, portions a bit heaftier than the first restaurant and instead of all manner of boozy cupcakes, there will be boozy milkshakes. All the permits have been cleared and construction has just started to gain steam. There will be lunch and dinner served on weekdays with an additional weekend brunch. The outdoor patio with the roaring firepit will be ready in time to savor some long summer nights outside.

Joy Summers/Eater Twin Cities

Red Rabbit, Grand Avenue

Location: 788 Grand Avenue

Key Players: Luke Shimp, Todd Macdonald

Projected Opening: October

The second Red Rabbit will land in the former Wild Onion spot on St. Paul’s little shop-loving stretch of Grand Avenue. Restaurant owner Luke Shimp is again partnering with chef Todd Macdonald to bring a huge selection of cocktail/wine/beer and family friendly foods like fresh pasta, pizzas, roasted whole cauliflower heads and more. The Onion has just closed, so the building process is just getting going.