The four-generation Surdyk's is beginning a new chapter with the opening of Sidebar (303 E. Hennepin Av., Mpls., sidebaratsurdyks.com). Following in the footsteps of the family's wildly popular Surdyk's Flights outpost at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, the restaurant and bar takes advantage of the company's best assets: its well-stocked cheese shop and liquor store and the expertise of the folks behind them. Location? They repurposed a chunk of the sales floor from the family's busy retail store.
Wendy Puckett began making soul rolls — egg rolls filled with soul food — to get her kids to eat more vegetables. Now the North Side community stalwart is scaling up. Her six-year-old Wendy's House of Soul has moved from a counter inside a convenience store to a full-fledged brick-and-mortar spot in Minneapolis' Harrison neighborhood (1825 Glenwood Av., Mpls., 612-800-4535, youvebeensouled.com). And with more space comes more soul rolls. Try them stuffed with a three-cheese macaroni, Reuben sandwich filling, a Sunday turkey dinner, gyro meat, or create your own. There are also three flavors of wings, a deep-fried burger or deep-fried chicken sandwich, waffles, salads and fried dessert pockets.
After surveying the prospects of the 2020 food truck landscape, the ownership behind the popular Alimama's Sambusa Mediterranean Grill decided to pivot in a different direction. Enter fried chicken. Fusing the spiced-up Nashville Hot fried chicken style with traditional flavors of the owners' Ethiopian backgrounds, the Nashville Coop brand launched two food trucks this spring. It has now gone brick-and-mortar on Snelling Avenue, in what is increasingly becoming a restaurant hot spot (300 S. Snelling Av., St. Paul, nashvillecoop.com).
When Rose Street Patisserie moved out of Linden Hills, chef Daniel Del Prado took over the space that shares a back door with his Italian-Argentine spot, Martina. The new restaurant is finally here, and it's leaning into Del Prado's Italian side. Rosalia Pizza is a counter-service pizzeria (no reservations) open daily at 4 p.m. (2811 W. 43rd St., Mpls., 612-345-5494, rosaliapizza.com). A few crudos, salads and a handful of wood-fired pizzas are on the menu, plus fugaza (Argentine focaccia) and sauces and dips with bread (think baba ghanoush and chicken liver pâté).
No more HopCat
HopCat has closed in downtown Minneapolis.
The restaurant, located at 435 Nicollet Mall in the Nic on Fifth apartment building, opened in 2017. The bar tapped dozens of beers (including a number of Minnesota craft labels) and featured a gastropub menu of burgers, pizza and beer-battered French fries.
HopCat has been temporarily closed for months, due to the coronavirus pandemic. Its demise is the second major Nicollet Mall restaurant to permanently close since the pandemic struck in mid-March, following the May closing of McCormick & Schmick's. Nearby Mission American Kitchen closed in early March.
Cheers to support
Now through mid-October, the Lab Taproom (767 N. Eustis St., Suite 115, St. Paul, 651-313-6888, thelabmn.com) is donating all proceeds from its new Black Is Beautiful IPA to the Minnesota-based nonprofit Metropolitan Economic Development Association, which supports entrepreneurs who are Black, Indigenous and people of color.
