Best New Chef behind the menu at Aster House, now open in Minneapolis

Aster House, the newest restaurant and eventual music venue from Jeff Arundel, is now open in Minneapolis. Arundel tapped Karyn Tomlinson of St. Paul’s Myriel and a Food & Wine Best New Chef of 2024 to consult on the menu. Heading the kitchen is chef Josh Jones.

Arundel is quick to point out the historic features of the space (25 SE. Main St.) in the Brown-Ryan Livery Stable house, a stately stone structure built in the 1880s, such as reclaimed wrought iron, stained-glass light fixtures and a hand-painted mural from a local artist.

As the owner of Aster Cafe and Jefe on this same stretch of businesses, Arundel knows this area perhaps better than most restaurateurs. He began considering a new venture when Frgmnt Coffee opened in early 2023 in the nearby Riverplace. “I noticed this great influx of young, professional people in the neighborhood,” he said about his plans to expand on this renewed vibrancy along Minneapolis’ original main street.

Tomlinson joined the project to help shepherd menu ideas and make local farm connections for the kitchen. Jones and his team are turning out Minnesota comfort dishes with an eye on modern sophistication. There’s a bit of supper club soul behind dishes that include wild rice fritters, charcuterie and pickles, Hidden Stream Farm pork chops over butter beans and more.

Cocktails are classics ($14 except for a $20 Manhattan) and the wine list was put together by Erin Ungerman with a mix of interesting bottles and affordable selections, starting at $12 a glass.

Aster House has space for live music, something Arundel is known for with his Aster Cafe just down the street. He said they expect to begin bringing in live acts early next year.

Aster House is open Tuesday through Sunday for dinner.

Yia Vang’s Hilltribe restaurant group has announced it will not be renewing its lease for Union Hmong Kitchen at Graze Provisions and Libations food hall in Minneapolis when it ends this month.

A representative for Vang’s restaurant group said that the North Loop food hall space, opened in 2021, gave the company experience to launch into stadiums and they will continue to expand into those arenas. Currently Union Hmong Kitchen has stands inside U.S. Bank Stadium as well as Target Field.

Union Hmong Kitchen first began as a backyard cookout before evolving into a semi-permanent food trailer and then finally finding its restaurant home at 910 W. Lake Street. That Minneapolis location will continue to operate, unchanged.

Berry Sweet Kitchen, the bakery and breakfast spot in the Lake Nokomis area, has expanded to Apple Valley. The banana French toast, biscuits with sausage gravy, cream stuffed beignets and all the favorites are now being served Tuesday through Sunday at 14638 Cedar Av. S. The scratch-kitchen restaurant first opened in 2013 at 5406 34th Av. S. in Minneapolis.

Toastique a “gourmet toast and juice bar,” is slated to open at 320 Engel St. in Wayzata come late fall.

The chain boasts 30 locations around the country and this will be the first in Minnesota. Franchise owners Scott and Laura Seabloom wanted to bring the chain to their home town. “Toastique attracted our family because making elevated toasts, smoothies and smoothie bowls was already second nature to us inside our home,” Scott Seabloom said in a statement.

Those elevated toasts (starting at $12) are exactly what one might picture: smashed avocado with artfully arranged microgreens, burrata with tomatoes dressed in a balsamic drizzle and sturdy romaine leaves standing in when bread won’t do. Additionally, the menu includes juices with names like Cure, Defender and Radiance as well as lattes that come with collagen.

In other franchise restaurant news, a second Minnesota outpost of the popular Tous les Jours bakery is up and running at the Shoppes at Arbor Lakes. The French-inspired bakery from South Korea made its Twin Cities debut in Richfield last year to immediate lines and fandom for its pastries, pies, cakes and more. The new Maple Grove bakery is open daily from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Uptown’s newest coffee shop, Sip Society from local entrepreneur Sacad Guled, has rolled out the welcome mat at 2839 Emerson Av. S. in Minneapolis. Look for lattes, Somali tea, smoothies, fresh-baked pastries, smoothies and pizza from Football Pizza, the northeast Minneapolis outfit providing the restaurant with its pies. The shop is open mornings and afternoons for now, but there are plans to expand hours into the evening.

Beloved neighborhood institution and iconic bakery, May Day Cafe is hosting a block party this weekend as a part of a fundraising campaign to put together $250,000 to “close the gap between our grants and loans and what it will take to buy the business.”

When owner and head baker Andy Lunning announced his intention to leave the bakery, workers stepped in and launched a fund to takeover the business and turn it into a cooperative. So far, they’ve raised more than $70,000 toward the goal.

Lunning has been running the place since 2003, when Mala Vujnovich, who originally opened May Day Cafe in the mid-90s as a coffee shop and community gathering space, sold him the business.

The block party will take place from 1 to 4 p.m. on Oct. 26 on the lawn at 35th Street and Elliot Avenue. The event is free to attend and there will be goods for sale, music and more information about the cafe’s plans for a new era.

BIPOC Foodways Alliance and Project Sweetie Pie are hosting a collard greens-centered pop-up at Union Hmong Kitchen (901 W. Lake St., Mpls.) on Oct. 29. Jeniffer Kuria, Ekta Prakash, Sina War and Lutunji Abram will show off their culinary skills and the versatility of this ingredient with dishes and flavors from Cambodia, India, Kenya and the American South. Tickets run $30-50 with proceeds benefitting the BIPOC Foodways Alliance Table, a nonprofit dedicated to telling untold food stories from women of color, elders, immigrant communities and other individuals. Go to the pop-up’s Eventbrite page for more information and the full menu.