A chipper drops anchor

What is Northeast Minneapolis missing? According to Irish ex-pats Kathryn Hayes and Luke Kyle -- and their American-born partner, Jennifer Crouser -- it's a chipper, Irish slang for a fish-and-chips house. Come early August, they'll be rectifying the situation with Anchor Fish & Chips (302 13th Av. NE., www.theanchorfishandchips.com). "We've wanted the real deal for years," said Hayes. At first they talked about a street-food van, but then their dream piece of real estate -- a 40-seater just down the street from the Ritz Theater -- became available. "Now it's really happening," she said.

Kyle is doing the cooking. He's logged a number of years behind the grill at the Band Box and recently spent six months sharpening his fish and chips skills in Ireland. Hayes is running the front of the house, and Crouser is handling the finances.

They're keeping it simple and affordable ("Fish and potatoes, it doesn't get much simpler than that," said Hayes): Battered Alaskan cod and hand-cut Minnesota-grown potatoes, shepherd's pie, a burger made with grass-fed Minnesota-raised beef, a weekend Irish breakfast plate, six tap beers and a pair of house wines. Top price: Somewhere in the $8 to $9 range. "We're going to serve an 8-ounce piece of fish on top of the chips, with the fish in one piece they way they do at home," said Hayes. "You'd be laughed out of Ireland if you cut it up. And we're serving it with white vinegar, which is what we use at home, not malt vinegar. We'll educate people."

Size matters. Ask Steve Horton, co-owner of Rustica (816 W. 46th St., Minneapolis, www.rusticabakery.com). After five years of baking exceptional breads and pastries in cramped quarters ("We're on top of one another here," he said), the artisan bakery is moving to larger digs, a spot in the Calhoun Village shopping center (3220 W. Lake St., Minneapolis). "In theory we'll be able to do three times more volume than we're doing now," he said.

Along with increased capacity for commercial customers, the roomier digs will improve the drop-in dining experience, allowing the bakery to partner with St. Louis Park's Bull Run Roasting Co. (supplier of Lunds and Byerly's private label coffees) to offer single-cup coffees brewed with small estates beans. Horton said he and Corner Table chef/owner Scott Pampuch are working out a way to continue their fruitful sandwich-salad alliance. "Right now we're settling on the idea that he would supply us with ingredients and help us with sourcing and prepping and we would put everything together at our place," Horton said.

Meanwhile, Horton is also in negotiations to keep a retail presence in their current -- and devoted -- south Minneapolis neighborhood. As soon as the bakery's fancy new Italian oven arrives, sometime in early October, Horton hopes to make the move.

Twin Citians in search of a weekend road-trip destination might consider Lake Pepin and a meal at the Old Ways (170 Pembroke Av., Wabasha, Minn., www.oldways restaurant.com). Hurry in: Chef/owner Chad Rielander is calling it quits at his storefront charmer after Saturday night. "We picked a bad time to open a restaurant," he said.

The sign outside still says Cue, but inside it's now Sea Change (818 S. 2nd St., Minneapolis, www.seachangempls.com). The Guthrie Theater's remade restaurant -- a seafood-focused collaboration with La Belle Vie chef/co-owner Tim McKee -- quietly opened on Tuesday, with a grand opening (and hopefully the signage to match) following on July 21.

Another remake is up and running: the former Wagner's Drive-In is now doing business as the Galaxy Drive-In (3712 Quebec Av. S., St. Louis Park, www.galaxy-drivein.com), with a glitzy redo by Steve Schussler, the ideas guy behind the Rainforest Cafe.

Former I Nonni chefs Filippo Caffari and Darin Koch have launched the Butcher Block (308 E. Hennepin Av., Minneapolis, www.thebutcherblockrestaurant .com), a casual, midpriced trattoria with an emphasis on house-butchered meats. Night owls will love the late-night hours (and $10-and-under menu), which go to 4 a.m. Thursday through Saturday.

Chambers Hotel owner Ralph Burnet is rethinking the culinary program at his three-year-old deluxe hotel, replacing star chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten and his Chambers Kitchen (901 Hennepin Av. S., www.chambersminneapolis. com) with a new restaurant by local powerhouse D'Amico & Partners, effective later this month. Menu details and a name change are still in the works, but D'Amico president Richard D'Amico did offer this tidbit: The restaurant's dining room is moving up from its current basement location to the street level. "And we are in the process of interviewing all current Chambers Kitchen employees in the hopes of retaining as many of those talented people as possible during the transition," he said.

Meanwhile, what's the word on the long-awaited, recently opened St. Paul iterations of Brasa (777 Grand Av., www.brasa.us) and Barrio (235 E. 6th St., www.barriotequila.com)? Stylistically, both resemble their siblings to the west, but feel roughly twice the size, as if their Minneapolis counterparts had been inflated by a tire pump. Menus are similarly similar, with a few additions. At the boisterous Brasa -- where four glass garage-style doors nicely merge the indoors with the outdoors -- the larger kitchen allows for a few daily specials, and Barrio's additional real estate includes a lunchtime do-it-yourself taco bar ($10) that tastes a lot more promising than it looks. Both are definitely worth a berth on 651 dining itineraries.

RICK NELSON