The Wedge Table, Afro Deli St. Paul and More

Banner for the Tap: Food and Drink News

This week in the Tap: The Wedge opens a multifaceted food space on Eat Street and Afro Deli branches out to St. Paul.

shepherd-song-tap-logo-final-keylineThe Tap is a biweekly feature created by the Heavy Table and supported by Shepherd Song Farm. “We raise 100 percent grass-fed lambs & goats traditionally, humanely, and sustainably.”

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The Tap is the metro area’s comprehensive restaurant buzz roundup, so if you see a new or newly shuttered restaurant, or anything that’s “coming soon,” email Tap editor James Norton at editor@heavytable.com.

Becca Dilley / Heavy Table
Becca Dilley / Heavy Table

The Wedge Table (now open)
2412 Nicollet Ave, Minneapolis

A quest for a commissary kitchen led The Wedge Co-op to a sprawling space on Nicollet Avenue, the site of a former Asian grocery store. That space has opened up as a gastronomic Hydra, combining a bakery, a burrito shop, a bodega style, co-op-inspired mini-market, a cafe, a bar, and a classroom / meeting space.

Becca Dilley / Heavy Table
Becca Dilley / Heavy Table

“We’re super pumped about this neighborhood,” says Jessica Pierce, director of brand marketing for The Wedge Co-op. “Before we even opened, we had people constantly coming in and saying ‘we can’t wait until you open.’ Even just in this past week, we’re seeing more traffic from non-owners than owners [co-op members].”

Becca Dilley / Heavy Table
Becca Dilley / Heavy Table

The Wedge Table’s bar offers Bauhaus Brewery beer and two custom-concocted cocktails created by Du Nord Craft Spirits, an old-fashioned, and a “Back in Thyme” beverage that mixes vodka with a thyme simple syrup. Its cafe brews Wisconsin-roasted Kickapoo Coffee.

Becca Dilley / Heavy Table
Becca Dilley / Heavy Table

Perhaps most exciting from a food lover’s perspective, the Wedge Table will begin making its tortillas in house later this month. “We started exploring whether there was a good clean [preservative-free] tortilla in town, and there really wasn’t, so we thought, let’s make our own.”

Natalie Champa Jennings
Natalie Champa Jennings

Afro Deli (second location opens Feb. 10)
5 W 7th Pl, St. Paul

Afro Deli’s halal menu of keke, gyros, and Chicken Fantastic has won it plaudits including the 2013 title of Best Restaurant on Campus from the Minnesota Daily. Now it’s opening a second location in downtown St. Paul, and the food’s depth of spice should cut nicely against the chill of winter.

Katie Cannon / Heavy Table
Katie Cannon / Heavy Table

Produce Exchange (retooling)
Midtown Global Market

Incoming Produce Exchange manager Colin Anderson sent a note to local food writers about changes being made to the Midtown Global Market shop, which currently resembles a small supermarket with an outsized focus on fruits and vegetables. The Produce Exchange will increasingly concentrate on selling at quantity for a noticeable discount, he writes:

As some of you may know, St. Paul produce distributor J&J Distributing operates the Produce Exchange in the Midtown Global Market.  Starting on Monday I will be moving from the J&J warehouse and taking over the operations of the Exchange to better coordinate it as a true produce warehouse outlet.  Think Eisenberg’s but more organic and more selection.  I will be working very closely with Dylan Beardal in the J&J sales office to help get volume, quality, organic produce at cheap prices to Twin Cities consumers.

Picture a place where you can get canning supplies in December, cases of tomatoes, 20 lbs of potatoes, 8 flats of berries, whatever you need.  For dramatically discounted prices.  Chefs will shop here and so will day care centers and large families.

NOW OPEN

Daniel Murphy / Heavy Table
Daniel Murphy / Heavy Table
Brenda Johnson / Heavy Table
Brenda Johnson / Heavy Table

CLOSED / CLOSING:

  • Spill the Wine
  • Tryg’s
  • Wuollet Bakery, Hennepin Ave location
  • Pracna on Main
  • Solera
  • Digby’s / Eat Shop, Plymouth location
  • Heartland Market (reopening April 2015)
  • Nye’s Polanaise Room (closing 2015)
  • Lynden’s Soda Fountain
  • Terra Waconia (closing end of February)

COMING UP:

Minneapolis

Katie Cannon / Heavy Table
Katie Cannon / Heavy Table
  • Il Foro, City Center, Minneapolis | Spring 2015
  • Nighthawks, 3753 Nicollet Ave S, Minneapolis | Early 2015
  • Seward Co-op Friendship Store, 317 38th St E | Summer 2015
  • Erick Harcey project TBD, 4312 Upton Ave, Minneapolis | Feb. 2015
  • 56 Brewing, 3134 California St NE, Minneapolis | Spring 2015
  • Prairie Dogs, 610 West Lake St, Minneapolis | Early 2015
  • Urban Forage Winery and Cider House, East Lake St, Minneapolis | Fall 2015
  • Lost Falls Distillery, 1915 E 22nd St, Minneapolis | Early 2015
  • Bradstreet Neighborhood Crafthouse, 1930 Hennepin Ave, Minneapolis | Early 2015
  • The Herbivorous Butcher, Minneapolis | 2015
  • Pizzeria Lola concept TBD, 165 13th Ave NE, Minneapolis | 2015
  • Vellee Deli, Baker Center at 30 S 7th St, Minneapolis | Early 2015
  • Sassy Spoon, 5011 34th Ave S, Minneapolis | Feb. 4, 2015
  • Corner Table project: Revival mid-South / fried chicken restaurant | 2015
  • The Bachelor Farmer Cafe Project To Be Named, 200 N 1st St, Minneapolis | 2015

St. Paul

Katie Cannon / Heavy Table
Katie Cannon / Heavy Table
  • 11 Wells Cocktail Room, Historic Hamm Building, St. Paul | Spring 2015
  • Lexington (new ownership), 1096 Grand Ave, St. Paul | Spring 2015
  • Saint Dinette, 280 E 5th St, St. Paul | Early 2015

Greater Twin Cities Area and Beyond

  • Ruscello, Minnetonka | October 2015
  • Tamarack Tap Room, 8418 Tamarack Village, Woodbury
  • Crepe and Cake, Plymouth | March 2015
  • Gator’s Grilled Cheese Emporium, 955 E Sheridan, Ely | Spring 2015
  • The King and I Thai (reopening), 760 Highway 110, Mendota Heights | 2015
Becca Dilley / Heavy Table
Becca Dilley / Heavy Table
  • New Bohemia, 8040 Olson Memorial Highway, Golden Valley | 2015
  • Grand Rounds Brewing Company, 4 3rd St SW, Rochester | 2015
  • Wicked Wort Brewing Co., 4165-4175 W Broadway, Robbinsdale | Fall 2015
  • Belle Vinez Winery, River Falls, Wis. | 2015
  • Skaalvenn, 8601 73rd Ave N, Suite 28, Brooklyn Park | Awaiting licensing approvals
  • Voyageur Brewing Co., 233 W Hwy 61, Grand Marais | Early 2015

The Tap is the Heavy Table’s guide to area restaurant openings, closings, and other major events. The Tap is compiled and published biweekly by the Heavy Table. If you have tips for The Tap, please email James Norton at editor@heavytable.com.

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