Robbinsdale’s best pizza party is ready to roll inside new digs as Pig Ate My Pizza wraps up renovations inside the former Travail location on main street. In addition to the inventive pizza flavors and crushable snacks, the chefs are adding vegan and vegetarian pizzas, even more appetizers, salads, and dessert. The new restaurant will open Wednesday May 15, and operate seven days a week with weekend lunch.
Also very exciting is the news that Nathaniel Smith (formerly of Spoon and Stable) has joined the team as beverage manager. An internationally lauded bartender, he’s creating fun cocktails for expansive bar space. The drinks will be part of a new beverage pairing program at the restaurant, in conjunction with beer coming from a microbrewery built in typical Travailian collaborative spirit by Andy Goettsch, Nate Moser, and Josh Disher. In addition to made just for Pig Ate My Pizza beers from that brewery, there will also be exclusive-to-them beers from Minneapolis’ greatest hits of local breweries like Surly, Fulton, Dangerous Man, among others. Tickets for the new food and beverage program go on sale tomorrow May 10.
In addition to all the fun happening inside, the bigger room means more items will be available for take out. There will be twice as many seats as the old location, plus the addition of what’s being billed as a real deal Minnesota screened-in porch.
The new space is part of the fun-to-follow shell game of locales that Travail has been playing on main street in Robbinsdale. Travail first opened as a small entirely chef-manned restaurant with affordable tasting menu that quickly became the hottest ticket in town. That spot closed, moved down the street, built a whole new building and somehow became and even bigger deal there, earning national acclaim as one of the best restaurants in the country. The original location became Pig Ate My Pizza. Now, PAMP leaves the first location for what was the second Travail location. Travail is in the midst of building a third location that will manage to be even bigger. While all this is going on, there is a pop-up happening in Minneapolis and a brand new barbecue place in Northeast.