Walk from Thérèse to Noma Hi-Fi to Dexter's on a Friday night and you won't leave the same corner of the district. You'll also, without meaning to, spend the whole evening inside the same company.
That's not an accident of geography. It's a strategy, and if you live in Edina and have wondered why the new restaurant wave at 50th & France feels oddly coordinated, that's because a good chunk of it is. One operator has spent the past year assembling a cluster of concepts within a few blocks of each other, and understanding who's behind the counter changes how you read everything else happening on that corner this fall.
The Same Name, Four Doors Down
Chef Daniel del Prado's DDP Restaurant Group opened Thérèse, an upscale French brasserie, in the former Lynhall space at 50th & France in November 2025. Del Prado named it for his mother and built the menu around classic French cooking; Bring Me The News quoted him describing it as a room with "elevated food, a beautiful room, and an exceptional wine and cocktail experience."
By January 2026, the same group had opened Noma Hi-Fi at 3914 W. 50th St., a dimly lit cocktail bar with Japanese-leaning snacks and a vinyl-and-live-DJ setup, described in the Star Tribune as del Prado's third concept in the district, joining Thérèse and the sports bar Dexter's.
Then in August 2026, the group opened The Side Door at Dexter's, a mini food hall built into the former SotaRol space at 5005 Ewing Ave. S. Lucia's, serving New York City-style sourdough pizza, opened its doors August 6. Two more concepts from the same group, Daq Daq, a Korean fried chicken counter, and Rose Sushi, are set to join it later this year.
Add it up and by the end of 2026, one restaurant group will operate six separate concepts within easy walking distance of each other at 50th & France:
- Dexter's, an upscale sports bar
- Thérèse, French brasserie
- Noma Hi-Fi, cocktail bar
- Lucia's, sourdough pizza inside The Side Door
- Daq Daq, Korean fried chicken, opening later in 2026
- Rose Sushi, opening later in 2026
The six concepts give one restaurant group a presence at 50th & France.
Bellecour's Move to Edina
Not every new name at 50th & France belongs to that story. Chef Gavin Kaysen took the opposite approach. His bakery-cafe Bellecour reopened at 3934 Market Street in Edina in late 2025, and it's the third Cooks | Bellecour location in the Twin Cities, but the important detail is what it replaced: Kaysen closed the original Linden Hills location and moved that business to 50th & France instead of simply adding a fourth outpost.
The new location carried forward elements of the original. Kaysen kept the French onion soup that made the original Bellecour a destination and brought the same bamboo-toned design sensibility his wife Linda helped shape, but opened one location. By contrast, del Prado's group is associated with six concepts at 50th & France. The examples show two different patterns: one business relocated to Edina, while another group opened several concepts in the district.
What Actually Closed
None of this happened in a vacuum of only openings. Edina Grill has confirmed it's closing, and Salut Bar Americain has said it may follow, though neither business has ruled out staying in the neighborhood in some form. That's worth sitting with if you've lived near the district long enough to remember when Edina Grill's turkey burger was the answer to "where should we eat" on a Tuesday night. The churn at 50th & France isn't new. What's different this cycle is how concentrated the replacement ownership has become.
A Community Event at Centennial Lakes Park
Centennial Lakes Park, a few miles down France Avenue, hosts a Thursday farmers market from 3 to 7 p.m. every week from early June through October 1. The market features live music on the plaza, an Edina Liquor wine and beer garden set up in the Hughes Pavilion, and a partnership with VEAP that channels thousands of pounds of fresh produce to local families. It offers free parking and admission, with no reservation required.
Next week, that same park hosts the 22nd Annual Fall Into the Arts Festival on September 12 and 13, a free two-day event drawing roughly 245 artists working in photography, pottery, glass, wood, jewelry, and more. Proceeds benefit the Edina First Responders Fund. Saturday runs 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sunday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and it's the kind of event where you run into your kid's teacher, your dentist, and three neighbors you haven't seen since the last snow melted, all in the same hour.
Centennial Lakes Park provides a public gathering place in Edina, with events that are free to attend.
Dining and Community Events
Together, the restaurant openings and Centennial Lakes Park's public events offer two views of activity in this part of Edina: new dining concepts near 50th & France and recurring gatherings at the park.
For a weeknight feel, Centennial Lakes Park is one option alongside the dining choices at 50th & France.
If you're weighing a future move into this part of Edina, or wondering what a stretch of France Avenue is really worth beyond its restaurant count, that's the kind of read on a neighborhood that takes more than a drive-by. The DesMarais Team spends enough time in this corridor to know which changes are cosmetic and which ones tell you something real about where a block is headed. If you'd like that kind of read on a specific street, a specific listing, or just this stretch of Edina, request a valuation and consultation and we'll walk through it together.
