A major Twin Cities restaurateur team will be opening a new eatery in the former Sapor Cafe and Bar location in Minneapolis' North Loop soon.

Raise your hand if you've heard this one before.

But here's the twist: Instead of Jamie Malone and Erik Anderson with their anticipated collaboration, Brut — the former Sea Change chefs announced they had nabbed the site last year — it will be Bar La Grassa's Ryan Burnet and partners who will take over the space.

Burnet — who also owns Burch Steak, Barrio and Eastside — announced on Tuesday that his awaited fast-casual-healthy cafe in downtown Wayzata would be called Crisp & Green. At the same time, he pinpointed another new location for the concept — the former Sapor space at 428 N. Washington Av.

Burnet said he heard the corner location was available through the grapevine.

"Given that it's a small town, I heard that [Malone and Anderson] were not moving forward and [the landlord] was going to be going to market," Burnet said. "I contacted the landlord, and we went straight to lease."

So what happened to plans for Brut? When contacted Tuesday, Anderson remained cryptic. He wouldn't confirm that he and Malone had found a new location for Brut, saying only that "the plan hasn't changed."

As for Burnet, he's barreling ahead opening two restaurants simultaneously, despite his jokes that the timing might impair him from finding time to eat or sleep. The Wayzata cafe will land at 765 E. Lake St., which until last July was a Peoples Organic outlet. That location is expected to open in early 2017, with the North Loop cafe to follow later next spring.

"It wasn't in the game plan initially, but I don't necessarily do well with long-term planning," Burnet said. "I fell in love with the idea of bringing this concept to the North Loop and we decided to move forward knowing the work that was ahead."

Now open

Erik the Red (601 Chicago Av. S., Mpls., eriktheredbar.com), the most recent venture from restaurateur Erik Forsberg, opened last week in the old Hubert's location in downtown Minneapolis, across from the new U.S. Bank Stadium.

The restaurant, named after the notorious Norwegian Viking, will focus on what Forsberg calls "Nordic barbecue." Chef Tim Iverson will turn out slabs of bacon, smoked brisket, braised lamb shanks, massive turkey legs, barbecued salmon, short ribs, sandwiches wrapped in lefse and smorgasbords stocked with lox and accoutrements. All the meats will be smoked and cured in-house. "Everything is going to be big and on the bone," general manager Teri Downing said.

Kitchen happenings

The Biltwell Restaurant group has hired 11-year veteran chef Nick O'Leary to oversee the kitchens at all eight of Kim Bartmann's eateries.

O'Leary, who cut his teeth under Sameh Wadi at Saffron, was previously culinary director at Smack Shack's Chicago location, which opened this past spring.

Biltwell is in the midst of opening a ninth restaurant, Trapeze, a Champagne bar adjacent to Bartmann's French cafe Barbette (1600 W. Lake St., Mpls., barbette.com). It is expected to open by the end of the year.

In Loring Park, Cafe Lurcat and Bar Lurcat (1624 Harmon Pl., Mpls., ­cafelurcat.com) hired Jordan Swiler, previously a sous chef under Adam King at the same establishment. King, who headed Lurcat's kitchen for 14 years, is planning to start his own endeavor in the western metro area.

Meanwhile, Cook St. Paul (1124 Payne Av., St. Paul, cookstp.com) is on the lookout for a new chef after Taelyn Lang stepped down to move back to his home state of Oregon and start a goat farm.

Read full reviews and other restaurant news at startribune.com/dining.