Coming soon to Uptown

Brothers Andrew and Chris Ikeda are the latest entrepreneurs to take on the Uptown dining scene. They're converting a former ice cream shop — and, before that, the outpost of a bagel chain — into Lake & Irving Restaurant & Bar (1513 W. Lake St., Mpls., www.lakeandirving.com), focusing on global flavors and under-$20 prices at breakfast, lunch, dinner and late-night.

Both are graduates of the University of St. Thomas, both attended the Culinary Institute of America and both have résumés with Hawaiian stamps. The 90-seat restaurant will serve beer, wine and liquor, and the opening date is set for early November.

Beefing it up

Two steakhouses are ramping up their super-premium beef options. Burch Steak and Pizza Bar (1933 Colfax Av. S., Mpls., www.burchrestaurant.com) is now offering certified Japanese A5 Wagyu beef. A 4-ounce New York cut is $70, and 8 ounces runs $140. "[Tom] Colicchio charges over $200 for the same steak," said chef/co-owner Isaac Becker in an e-mail; actually, it's $260, at Craftsteak in Las Vegas. "Of course, I probably would, too, if I was Colicchio."

Meanwhile, Manny's Steakhouse (825 Marquette Av. S., Mpls., www.mannyssteakhouse.com) is one-upping its extraordinary 65-day aged bone-in New York strip ($64.95) with an 85-day aged bone-in rib-eye ($84.95). One caveat: Chef Josh Hill has a limited supply, and makes roughly 15 of the 85-day steaks available on a daily basis.

Open and closed

Great news for passengers traveling in and out of Terminal 2 (formerly known as the Humphrey Terminal) at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport: Surdyk's Flights, a sibling of the popular cafe-wine-bar-takeout destination in Terminal 1 (that's the Lindbergh Terminal), is now open. And after a two-year absence, McDonald's is returning to Terminal 1 later this month, with a 24-hour operation near the entrance to Concourse D.

The lights are out and there's a sad sign on the door at 11-year-old True Thai (2627 E. Franklin Av., Mpls.) that reads, "Thank you very much for your patronage! We will reopen soon."

Kicking up some cash

Kat Melgaard and Thomas Kim of the Left Handed Cook (920 E. Lake St., Mpls., www.thelefthandedcook.com) recently garnered more than $15,000 ($5,000 over their goal) in a Kickstarter campaign for the Rabbit Hole, their soon-to-open Korean gastropub in the Midtown Global Market.

With a few days to spare, Danielle and Chris Bjorling have already exceeded their $10,000 goal with a Kickstarter effort to fund the Copper Hen Cakery, a bakery they hope to open next spring at a to-be-determined site. Of course the mother lode of all local crowdsourcing campaigns is the one recently conducted by Travail Kitchen and Amusements, which raised a breathtaking $240,558 for its new Robbinsdale home.

The latest to dip its balance sheet into the Kickstarter waters is the Birchwood Cafe (3311 E. 25th St., Mpls., www.birchwoodcafe.com). Owner Tracy Singleton will kick off her campaign — part of a plan to finance an expansion of the bursting-at-the-seams restaurant — Oct. 27 at a free open house (5 to 9 p.m.) celebrating the B'wood's 18th anniversary.

"I've been averse to Kickstarter, because we're such an established business," she said. "But the Birchwood has always invited community engagement, and now I see Kickstarter as another form of that. And we want to be able to build a second bathroom."