A new restaurant with roots in St. Paul’s Karen community just opened in Frogtown. Mandalay Kitchen weaves together Burmese, Thai, and Karen cuisines, throwing in a chapli Juicy Lucy for good measure. Chef and owner Chris Tunbaw knows Frogtown well — he grew up eating at the neighborhood’s wealth of Southeast Asian restaurants, after his family left Myanmar when he was 10. Now he’s finally opened his own. Come for tea leaf salad, Bangkok-style boat noodles, crispy samosas, and steaming bowls of mohinga (a peppery catfish chowder, the unofficial Burmese national dish).

Sammy’s Avenue Eatery, a cornerstone sandwich spot on the Northside’s Broadway Avenue, has opened a second shop in St. Paul. The turkey pastramis, chicken melts, and simple, impeccable breakfast sandwiches are a few highlights on this menu — though Sammy’s is a place where people come as much for the juicy sandwiches as for the sense of community. Save room for chef Sammy McDowell’s banana pudding, too.

Soul Lao — the St. Paul-based food truck known for its pork belly baguette sandwiches, red curry-topped branzino, and fiery khaopoon — has opened a permanent location at Sibley Plaza. Owners Sabrina Boualaphanh and Eric Phothisanh’s new menu features khao gee pâté (a Lao sausage baguette sandwich), papaya salad, and Soul Lao’s super-popular crispy pork belly and wings, among other dishes, plus a beer collab with next-door Wandering Leaf Brewery. This winter, Soul Lao will offer a noodle soup menu, too, featuring khao poon and khao soi. 

The headline for this new bar and restaurant on 1st Avenue NE? The kitchen stays open until 1 a.m. That’s a big deal these days, especially when the menu includes small plates like charred shishitos and green pea falafel served with citrus yogurt and spicy carrot and sultana salad; bigger plates like watermelon salad with shrimp; and sandwiches like a grass-fed burger with grilled pineapple, pickled beet, and a sunny side up egg. Eric Odness and partners, who also own neighborhood dive bars in Brooklyn, opened Zhora Darling at the end of September, bringing a cool, promising spot for food, cocktails, pool, and live music to town.

This is the second location for St. Paul’s popular La Boulangerie Marguerite, a friendly, family-owned spot from Francois Kiemde and Melissa Borgmann-Kiemde. Equally popular for both croissants and old-fashioned doughnuts, the bakery’s offerings reflect Kiemde’s French training with baguettes, patisseries, and viennoiseries, but the effect at the new location next to The Anchor Fish & Chips is pure Northeast.

Visit this new north Minneapolis hotspot for elevated bar bites and cocktails — or puff on a cigar from a selection curated by Kathryn and Alfonso Mayfield, the couple behind Allure Cigars. The Mayfields have teamed up with Brittany and Gerard Klass of Soul Bowl for the gathering spot and restaurant, with a kitchen led by Antonio Murray. Sleek and stylish, a menu of collard greens dip, charred broccoli Caesar salad, Guyanese filet tips, and smoked salmon croquettes is served late.

Chef Dani del Prado’s new steakhouse, Porzana, serves an array of Argentinian and classic American cuts (think pincanha and vacio alongside ribeye and flat iron) in the former Bachelor Farmer space. In the States, del Prado says, tender, melt-in-your mouth steak tends to be the most sought after — in Argentina, having a little “bite” and denser flavor is appreciated. The menu spans from $19 hangers to $290 44-ounce tomahawks, and also includes pastas, snack-like small dishes, vegetable sides, salads, and a seafood cold bar. The Flora Room is Porzana’s adjoining, low-lit cocktail bar.

LITT Pinball Bar is finally open in the old Liquor Lyle’s space on Lyndale Avenue. Out with the jukebox and red vinyl booths; in with 40-some pinball machines, from a circa 1981 Eight Ball Deluxe to a Stranger Things-themed machine. There’s a menu of bar bites, too: smoked onion dip and Bavarian pretzels, chili cheese dogs, chicken tinga nachos, etc., plus beer and cocktails.

Chef Tomme Beevas’s Jamaican favorite, Pimento, is now open at the Bde Maka Ska pavilion. There’s a covered patio with heaters, so sneak in Kingston-style jerk chicken, curry veggies and braised oxtail before the snow returns. Make sure to try the coco bread — a sweet, pillowy Jamaican milk bread — too.

Chef Ann Kim’s Korean American restaurant, Kim’s, is open in Uptown. Start with snacks — fluffy hotteok, bubbling egg soufflé, beef and kimchi mandu — before moving onto a main course (stone bowl bibimbap, gochujang grilled prawns, sakura pork belly, etc.). Grab a seat at the bar for corn tea whiskey highballs and lychee tinis — or head downstairs to Bronto Bar, which opens Thursday November 9. Bronto’s cocktail list is divided into three sections (savory, bright, and spirited) with full, low, and no-proof options for each. Order a burger, a scratch-made Spam patty, or egg custard on a pillowy hotteok bun.

Mi Mexico Querido is finally open on Minnehaha Avenue, serving buttery camarones zarandeados, chilaquiles verdes, tall glasses of agua jamaica and horchata, and burritos with fries. For something sweet, try the sugar-dusted concha, split open and stuffed with whipped cream and strawberries. 

New sandwich alert: South Lyndale Liquors hopped a few blocks south to a new location with a full cheese and charcuterie shop and deli. There are 12 sandwiches on this menu — think roast pork with broccoli rabe, smoked turkey, butter brie studded with radishes and golden beets — and they’re getting rave reviews so far. Wine on tap is in the works.