New restaurants renew northeast Minneapolis and Stillwater

Although the construction clutter might suggest otherwise, one of the year's most exciting new restaurant projects is nearing completion in northeast Minneapolis.

Two restaurants, actually: Centro, and Popol Vuh (1414 NE. Quincy St., Mpls., popolvuhmpls.com). Both are the work of owner Jami Olson and chef José Alarcon, a pair of Lyn 65 vets.

At easygoing Centro, the street-food menu will emphasize tacos ($3 and $4), a raw bar (oysters, ceviches and aguachiles) and $10-and-under snacks, including borrachos (beans simmered in beer), chips and salsa and guacamole. Fresh paletas, too, those refreshing frozen fruit pops, in both kid-friendly and alcohol-fueled versions.

The bar will focus on agave-based spirits. Cocktails on tap ($10) include a guava-mezcal-kombucha slushy, a classic margarita and a gin-rosé sangria. The plan is for Centro (and its takeout counter) to serve lunch, dinner and late-night, daily.

The smaller, more refined Popol Vuh will have a 9-foot hearth as its centerpiece. Wood-fired cooking is a major Twin Cities dining trend (see Young Joni, also in northeast Minneapolis, and the upcoming In Bloom in St. Paul), but to Alarcon, a native of southern Mexico, it's second nature.

"I grew up in a bakery family," he said. "My grandpa and my father, they just used wood. They never used a thermometer, you just get a feeling of the heat, and you adapt to the circumstances. Plus, I love the smell, and the crackling sound. It reminds me of the places where I grew up. I'm very excited about this."

His dinner-only menu will draw from a wide range of Mayan traditions (and will likely instigate, in a good way, countless tableside Google searches for information on little-known ingredients), showcasing rack of lamb with a goat mole, red snapper with a pineapple pico de gallo, roast chicken with a guajillo chile sauce, a version of the sweet corn salad that's an off-the-cob version of elote and a cactus-avocado-radish salad.

Shea Design of Minneapolis has left the interior as raw as possible, contrasting exposed brick, concrete, timbers and steel with imported vintage finishing touches. Centro should open by the end of June, and Popol Vuh will follow in about a month.

If the opening seems as if it has taken forever — imagine how Olson and Alarcon feel — it has. The slow-moving project, announced more than a year ago, was delayed by financing and construction issues.

"After this, the next one is going to be a piece of cake," said Olson.

Yes, a "next one."

"This project is going to lead to so much more," she said. "But the lessons that we've learned, and the team that we've created, are priceless."

The 40-room Lora hotel (402 S. Main St., Stillwater, 651-571-3500, lorahotel.com) features three stylish food-and-drink operations. Feller serves breakfast, lunch and dinner, daily. The adjacent bar, the Long Goodbye, focuses on craft cocktails, wines and local beers. Made is the hotel's coffee and organic juice bar.

All three are under the tutelage of chef Sam Collins. A native of the Ham Lake area, Collins was bit by the restaurant bug at age 14 when he landed a line cook job at a local pizzeria. His studies at Le Cordon Bleu cooking school were followed by stints at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Naples, Fla., and the Wheatleigh hotel in Lenox, Mass. Eight instructive years at Murray's led to Corey Burstad's Elevage Management Group, which operates T-Box Bar & Grill in Ham Lake, the Village Pub in St. Anthony and Blaine's Bricks Kitchen & Pub and the Roadside.

Feller — a feller is a person who cuts trees, a nod to Stillwater's illustrious lumber milling past — will start with a fairly small menu.

"We want to grow into our pants," he said. "Besides, I'm a fan of smaller menus. I like focus."

Collins is a lifelong hunter, and he plans to incorporate that interest and skill set into his cooking, though there won't be wild game on the menu.

The site is the former Joseph Wolf Brewery, a four-building collection of brick and stone buildings, the earliest of which dates to the late 1880s. The brewery's caves will be incorporated into the project in a later phase.

The new St. Croix River bridge proved to be a catalyst for Lora, since it routes bothersome heavy traffic away from downtown.