Great news for Minnetonka: A second location of Yum! Kitchen and Bakery is on its way, in the former home of Pairings Food & Wine Market.

"It's going to be very Yum!-like," said owner Patti Soskin (pictured, above, in a Star Tribune file photo). "We're going to keep it as close to Yum! as we possibly can. The menu is going to be the same. We'll be baking everything on site."

Soskin has been hoping to expand her nine-year-old operation for years, and landed on the former Pairings site (near Shady Oak Rd. and Crosstown 62) after a lengthy search. "I couldn't tell you how many we looked at," she said. "It's a great location, and it was previously a successful restaurant. We're going to take it to the next level."

Yum! and the former Pairings (which closed on Feb. 1 after a six-year run) share a similar counter-service layout, so the transition won't be a difficult one. The changeover will be made easier by another connection: both were designed by Shea, and the Minneapolis design firm will handle the remake. Another similarity: Both properties are a similar size. Yum! is slightly larger, although Yum! 2.0 has a much roomier patio.

A big reason why Soskin is expanding is to open up opportunities for longtime staffers. "I have so many long-term employees who are ready for the next challenge," she said. "We'll keep a lot of familiar faces here [in the original Yum!], but many will go to the new place and get promotions, and I'm really thrilled by that. It's really because of them that I'm able to do this. It's their contributions that are making this happen."

Soskin said she's aiming for a late-summer opening.