50th and France New Restaurants: What's Open and Coming Next

Within 13 months, four restaurants at 50th & France closed after roughly 90 years of combined service: Edina Grill, Cocina del Barrio, Salut Bar Americain and D'Amico & Sons. Most of those spaces have new tenants or have new tenants on the way. Several of the people moving in are betting heavily on the intersection. The most active of them describes the turnover as the lease cycle doing what it does. Daniel del Prado's restaurant group has made the largest bet of anyone.

The closures ran on a lease clock

In a September 2025 interview with Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, del Prado explained the timing plainly. "All the commercial leases are usually 10 years old, sometimes with option to extend another five years," he said. "After that, it needs a little new blood, new energy."

The closing dates back him up. The Star Tribune's restaurant roll call reported that Edina Grill closed Sept. 18, 2025, when its lease ended after more than 25 years. Neighboring jeweler R.F. Moeller absorbed the space. D'Amico & Sons, at about three decades the oldest of the four, closed its Edina location March 28, 2026, also at the end of its lease. Salut closed Dec. 31, 2025, after 20 years at its original location. The Star Tribune described that closing as part of broader restaurant turnover and rising costs in the neighborhood.

Here is how the addresses have changed hands so far:

Not one of those spaces has been left vacant without a successor named. Long-running tenants leaving all at once has filled the corner with new operators.

One group now holds a large share of the dinner map

More of those new operators trace back to one company than to any other. In April 2026, the Star Tribune described DDP Restaurant Group's growing presence near the intersection. The group operates Dexter's with co-owners Carla and Spencer Jones and also owns Noma Hi-Fi and Thérèse nearby. Since the group's first restaurant here, its footprint has grown in steps:

• Thérèse, 3945 Market St., an upscale French brasserie with tartine, escargot, steak frites and uni custard, plus a wine-forward bar program led by Megan Luedtke.
• Noma Hi-Fi, 3914 W. 50th St., a cocktail bar built around vinyl and live DJs, listed as open in the Star Tribune's January 2026 roundup.
• Side Door at Dexter's, 3717 W. 50th St., a mini food hall in the former SotaRol space next to Dexter's. Bring Me The News reported that Lucia's, serving pizza and Italian-American plates, was set to open first on Aug. 6. By Sept. 23 the Star Tribune listed all three counters as open, with Daq Daq serving Korean fried chicken and noodles and Rose Sushi serving nigiri and rolls.
• Americana, 5036 France Ave. S., announced, in partnership with Ryan Burnet.

Counting the three Side Door counters separately, that adds up to more than half a dozen kitchens from one group around a single intersection. Del Prado has said why he is comfortable crowding his own restaurants together. "The North Loop is so saturated right now, everybody's looking at places in the North Loop," he told Mpls.St.Paul Magazine. "If you ask me, I think that 50th & France will be like the next North Loop." He sees nearby restaurants as allies rather than competition: "the more in one intersection, the better for everybody."

The independents are making the same bet

If only one group were moving in, the turnover would look like a takeover. Other operators have expanded here in the same stretch, though, which suggests the confidence in this corner is shared.

According to Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, the team at Mr. Paul's Supper Club, open since 2021, branched out with Mothership Pizza Paradise and a back bar called Carnival Bar. Gavin Kaysen's Bellecour opened on Market Street in November 2025 as a more casual version of the North Loop original, with daytime pastries, light lunch, beer and wine.

The former Salut space is now General Sports Bar. Co-owners Marty Collins and Brett Johnson, part of the NOLO's restaurant group, were profiled by Bring Me The News ahead of a planned Sept. 8 opening. The Star Tribune confirms it opened that day with more than 25 televisions, which makes it a different kind of room for 5034 France Ave. after two decades of a French-American bistro.

The changes go beyond restaurants. MeatEater opened its Minnesota retail store at 3924 50th St. on Aug. 15. The Sun Current reported that store manager Ricky Brule described it as a place for gear, events and conservation programming.

Two spaces are still dark, and the reasons show what the new map costs

Two of the most visible spaces at the corner are still waiting. As of the Star Tribune's Oct. 5 roll call, both Americana and Smith Coffee & Cafe were listed as announced and coming soon. Neither had a firm opening date.

Americana shows how much work goes into turning one of these spaces over. Burnet owned the building that housed Cocina del Barrio. He told the Sun Current that owning it had let him run on thinner margins, but that the restaurant's economics had reached a "glass ceiling." He described Americana as a chance to start fresh and serve as a neighborhood "linchpin." The expansion needed a parking variance, which the City Council approved, and the restaurateurs proposed a separate shared-parking arrangement with neighboring BMO, according to later Sun Current coverage.

The design is ambitious for a corner restaurant. Plans call for two floors designed by Christian Dean Architecture. The ground floor will be quieter, with neutral tones and plush booths. Upstairs, a conservatory-style room will be filled with greenery and daylight coming through the ceiling. Del Prado has pointed to Mad Men as an influence and to 1950s American food, including tiki bars and Italian dishes, for the menu.

Smith Coffee & Cafe is the smaller project, but the same pattern applies. Alex and Ann Schuster, who run the Eden Prairie original, moved into the former D'Amico & Sons space at 3948 W. 50th St. They had aimed for an October opening. Alex Schuster told the Sun Current the space needed extensive kitchen code, electrical, plumbing and ceiling work first. The coffee shop is moving into a kitchen that served one restaurant for about three decades.

The holiday calendar runs through the new map

The 50th & France holiday season is the first one with this new lineup in place. The district's official events calendar lists these dates after this post goes live:

1. Saturday, Oct. 31: Halloween morning. The Edina Theatre screens $5 family films, Hotel Transylvania at 9:30 a.m. and It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown at 10:30 a.m. Trick-or-Treat in the district runs 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
2. Saturday, Nov. 7: Holiday Fashion Brunch, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., at Mr. Paul's Supper Club.
3. Thursday, Nov. 12: Shop by Candlelight, 5 to 8 p.m., with holiday shopping, caroling, cider and cookies.
4. Saturday, Nov. 28: Annual tree lighting at 5 p.m., with caroling, sleigh rides, Santa and The Mistletones.
5. Sunday, Dec. 6: Menorah Lighting, 4:30 to 5:30 p.m.

The trick-or-treat route on Oct. 31 runs past General Sports Bar in the old Salut space and the Side Door counters on 50th Street, both of which have opened since August. The trick-or-treat window ends at 1 p.m., right at lunchtime, and the Holiday Fashion Brunch a week later is hosted by Mr. Paul's, one of the independents that has expanded here.

Changes like this matter when you own a home within walking distance of 50th & France. If you'd like to talk through what a year of new tenants at the corner means for your street, Carrie Sink is happy to walk through it with you. Request a Free Home Valuation and we can start with what your home is worth today.