Tap a reminder into your smart phone: These newcomers are opening soon.
Now that Heartland has moved into spacious new Lowertown digs, the restaurant's former Mac-Groveland address is becoming Scusi, a casual Italian restaurant featuring pizzas, house-made pastas and charcuterie, plus what co-owner David Burley calls "hot plates," including veal osso buco, lamb shanks and a New York strip steak. The mostly Italian wine list includes 26 on-tap selections, thanks to a newly installed high-tech dispenser. Opening date? "Nov. 1, come hell or high water," said Burley.
1806 St. Clair Av., St. Paul, 651-789-7007, www.scusistpaul.com
How to class up a suburban strip mall? If you're pastry chef Arnaud de Rambures, you start baking brioche, madeleines, anchovy-olive tarts, pain au chocolat, canelés and more (in French-made ovens, no less), and offer sandwiches and house-made ice creams. That's the plan at Chez Arnaud, which hopes to open by Nov. 2.
13332 Bass Lake Rd., Maple Grove, 763-568-7756, www.mygourmandise.com
Meanwhile, in east metro news, Michael and Susan Miller are busy converting a former Boston's location in the Woodbury Lakes development to the Lakes Tavern and Grill. Chef Christophe Ticarro (formerly of Forum in Minneapolis) is planning a menu of flatbread pizzas, pastas, steaks, salads and sandwiches at lunch and dinner. Doors open Nov. 1.
9240 Hudson Road, Woodbury, 651-287-2000, www.lakestavernandgrill.com
RICK NELSON
