Walk east on 50th Street past Ewing Avenue on a Thursday night and you'll find a line outside Lucia's for New York-style sourdough pizza. Keep walking to the storefronts on either side of it, the ones with Daq Daq and Rose Sushi lettering already up, and you'll find the lights off and the doors locked. Same food hall, same building, two different realities depending on which door you're standing at.
That gap between what's been announced and what's actually serving food is the thing worth knowing before you plan an evening at 50th & France this fall. The district has had five headline projects in the news over the past year. As of late September, one opened without much warning, one has one of its three concepts open, two haven't opened at all, and one has already stopped being news because it's been open long enough to become routine.
The Status Check
| Spot | Status as of late September | What it means tonight |
|---|---|---|
| General Sports Bar | Open since Sept. 8 | Fully operating, 25 TVs, dog-friendly patio |
| Lucia's at Side Door | Open since Aug. 6 | Pizza and salads only, one of three planned concepts |
| Daq Daq and Rose Sushi | Not yet open | Storefronts built out, no confirmed date |
| Smith Coffee & Cafe | Not yet open | Grand opening still described as "this fall" |
| Americana | Not yet open | Targeting late 2026, construction ongoing |
| Thérèse | Open since November 2025 | Approaching its first anniversary, no longer new |
If you've been holding off on trying any of these because you assumed the whole wave landed at once, it hasn't. The rollout has been staggered by months, sometimes by whole seasons, and knowing which door is actually unlocked saves you a walk for nothing.
The One That Opened Without Warning
As Bring Me The News reported, General Sports Bar took over the former Salut Bar Americain space at 5034 France Ave. and opened Tuesday, Sept. 8. Co-owners Marty Collins and Brett Johnson built it around hockey specifically, a nod to the longtime hockey equipment shop General Sports that used to anchor part of the neighborhood's identity. The space seats 140, carries 25 televisions, and includes a golf simulator room in the basement along with a dog-friendly patio. In that report, Collins described the pitch as a "country club vibe without the country club fees," which is a fair summary of what a sports bar in a district known for boutique retail and French brasseries is trying to do differently.
This is the one project on the list you can walk into tonight with zero uncertainty. It's fully staffed, fully open, and has been for close to three weeks.
The Food Hall With One of Three Concepts Open
The Side Door at Dexter's occupies the former SotaRol space at 5005 Ewing Ave., a building Daniel del Prado's restaurant group took over as a companion to the sports bar Dexter's next door. The plan calls for three concepts under one roof: Lucia's for pizza, Daq Daq for Korean fried chicken, and Rose Sushi for nigiri and rolls.
Only Lucia's has opened, on Aug. 6, serving sourdough pizza along with salads, wraps, and chicken parm. Daq Daq and Rose Sushi were described as opening "later this year" as of early August reporting, and there's no confirmed date since. If you've walked past the space and seen all three storefronts with signage up, that reflects progress on the build-out, not an open sign. For now, Lucia's is the one concept serving, with the other two still to come.
Two Timelines Still Moving
Smith Coffee & Cafe is owner Ann Schuster's plan for the former D'Amico & Sons space. The concept is a daily 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. cafe, with pizza nights possibly added down the road. A grand opening has been described as coming "sometime this fall," which as of late September still hasn't happened. If you've been waiting for a Saturday breakfast spot that doesn't require driving out to Eden Prairie, the wait continues a little longer.
Americana is the more complicated one. It's replacing Cocina del Barrio at 5036 France Ave., a partnership between del Prado and Ryan Burnet, the same duo behind Porzana and Minari. The project needed a city variance because Edina's zoning code requires additional off-street parking once a building's floor-to-area ratio crosses 1.0, and Americana's planned second-floor addition, a gabled glass conservatory, pushed it there. The requirement would have meant adding 14 parking spaces the site doesn't have room for. The Edina City Council approved the variance at its Oct. 7, 2025 meeting after Americana arranged to use the adjacent BMO Harris Bank's 31-space lot instead. That approval is nearly a year old now, and the restaurant still hasn't opened. Current reporting has it targeting late 2026, which puts it somewhere in the next few months if the timeline holds.
The One No Longer New
Thérèse opened in early November 2025 in the former Lynhall space at 3945 Market St. within the Nolan Mains development, chef Daniel del Prado's French brasserie named for his mother. The menu runs classic brasserie, steak frites, croque monsieur, Lyonnaise salad, escargot, French onion soup, alongside a few del Prado originals like uni custard and langoustine ravioli. By late September it's closing in on its first anniversary. It's easy to keep filing Thérèse under "new," especially since it shares a news cycle with Americana and Side Door, but it's had almost a year to settle into being simply one of the good dinner options in the district, alongside longer-standing anchors like Mr. Paul's Supper Club at the corner and Coalition a block over.
Where to Actually Park Tonight
The 50th & France Business and Professional Association puts the free customer parking supply at over 1,000 stalls spread across the district's lots and ramps, which is a meaningful number given how much has opened in a single year. Those posted limits are enforced from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday, according to the city's own parking rules, so evening visits generally aren't watching a clock the way a lunchtime run might be.
The complication is on the employee side, not the customer side. Anyone working at a business in the district needs a permit to park in the ramps, and the city has held permit prices flat for more than nine years even as the number of restaurants pulling from that same employee pool has grown. More kitchens and more front-of-house staff means more people competing for the same fixed pool of employee parking, even while the customer stall count stays comfortable. If you're driving over for dinner, that distinction barely touches you. If you're the one applying for a work permit this fall, it's worth checking the city's current permit page before you assume last year's spot is still open.
None of this changes what's true tonight. One new restaurant is fully open, one food hall has one of its three concepts open, two projects are still under construction on their own separate timelines, and the brasserie everyone still calls "new" has had almost a year to become part of the neighborhood's regular rotation. Check which door before you walk over.
If you're the kind of Edina neighbor who tracks which storefronts are actually lit up before the rest of the block catches on, that same habit of paying attention to what's really happening on the ground, not just what's been announced, is how Isaac Kuehn reads the 50th & France market for buyers and sellers too.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
