Walk the plaza at 50th & France this week and the corner looks like it's in the middle of a renaissance. A hunting and outdoor lifestyle brand just hung new signage on 50th Street. A pizza counter opened inside a former sports bar's neighbor two Thursdays ago. A French bistro that didn't exist a year ago now has a regular crowd. Add it up and you'd guess Edina's most walkable commercial block is having its most diverse season in years.
Look at who actually holds the leases and a different story shows up. A meaningful share of what's new on this corner traces back to one restaurant group, and the businesses that aren't part of that group are mostly filling in around it. The corner isn't diversifying. It's consolidating, with a few independent holdouts giving it the appearance of variety.
One Group, Most of the New Addresses
Daniel del Prado's restaurant group already had three concepts anchored near the plaza before this year started: Dexter's, a sports bar on 50th Street, Noma Hi-Fi Bar, and Thérèse, a French bistro named for del Prado's mother that opened last fall serving Lyonnaise salads and classic brasserie plates.
This year the same group added two more footholds. Americana, a partnership between del Prado and Cocina del Barrio owner Ryan Burnet, is under construction in the former Barrio space at 5036 France Ave S, with a glass-enclosed rooftop patio designed by Christian Dean Architecture and a fall opening planned. And right next to Dexter's, the group opened The Side Door, a small food hall in the former SotaRol space at 5005 Ewing Ave S. Lucia's, serving New York City-style sourdough pizza, opened there on August 6. Daq Daq, a Korean fried chicken concept, and Rose Sushi are still to come later this year.
Count it up and one operator's ecosystem now spans seven dining concepts within a few blocks of the plaza: Dexter's, Noma Hi-Fi Bar, Thérèse, Americana, Lucia's, Daq Daq, and Rose Sushi. That's not a neighborhood attracting a wave of independent restaurateurs. It's one group building a small dining district inside a larger one.
What Replaced What
The other openings this year are independent, and they're mostly stepping into spaces that longtime tenants vacated.
| Former tenant | New tenant | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Cocina del Barrio | Americana (del Prado + Burnet) | Under construction, fall opening |
| Salut Bar Americain | General Sports Bar (from the team behind Nolo's) | Opening late summer, hiring underway |
| D'Amico & Sons | Smith Coffee & Cafe (second location, Eden Prairie original) | Grand opening expected this fall |
| SotaRol | The Side Door at Dexter's | Partially open since August 6 |
General Sports Bar is the clearest counterpoint to the consolidation story. It comes from the team behind Nolo's, a separate operator from del Prado's group, and it's moving into the space Salut Bar Americain left behind with more than 25 televisions and a late-summer opening date. Smith Coffee & Cafe is smaller still, a single independent shop expanding from its original Eden Prairie farmhouse location into the former D'Amico & Sons space, with daily hours from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. and pizza nights possibly added later.
So the honest read on this year's dining turnover: one ambitious group is building density, and a couple of independent operators are backfilling the gaps that turnover left behind.
The Store That Isn't Chasing a Restaurant Trend
The most surprising addition to the corner this month isn't a restaurant at all. MeatEater, the outdoor lifestyle brand built around Steven Rinella's television series and podcast, opened a 3,200-square-foot retail store at 3924 W 50th St on Saturday, August 15. It's the brand's third U.S. location, following a flagship in Bozeman and an outpost near Milwaukee.
The store carries hunting and fishing gear, First Lite apparel, FHF equipment, and books, and it's set up to host in-store events like gear demonstrations and educational talks rather than just move product off shelves. It's an unusual neighbor for a plaza known for boutique shopping and white-tablecloth dining, and it's the one addition to the corner this year that has nothing to do with the restaurant consolidation happening two blocks over. If the dining scene here is getting more concentrated in fewer hands, the retail mix is still getting genuinely more varied.
The Part of the Corner No One's Renegotiating
While storefronts change hands, the plaza's public calendar hasn't moved. The 50th & France Business Association still runs the Summer Concert Series every Friday from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. in the Plaza at Nolan Mains, a run that started June 12 and continues through Labor Day weekend on September 4. The Baron of Bubble still sets up at the Faherty Fountain on Sundays from 1 to 3 p.m., a schedule that's carried through the summer and runs to August 30. Mahjong on the Plaza brought free pop-up sessions to Nolan Mains three times this summer, most recently on August 12.
None of that programming depends on who's holding a lease at any given address. It's produced by the business association itself, and it's the one part of the corner's identity that isn't up for renegotiation while Americana finishes construction or Daq Daq works out its opening date. The 59th annual Edina Art Fair, which closed 50th and France to traffic for three days in early June and drew more than 250 juried artists, is the same kind of fixture: a piece of the corner's rhythm that outlasts whatever's behind any single storefront glass.
That's worth knowing if you live near here and have been trying to figure out why the block feels both completely different and exactly the same as it did a year ago. The names on the awnings are consolidating around a small number of ambitious operators. The reasons you actually walk down there on a Friday evening haven't changed at all.
If you're catching a concert at Nolan Mains before the season ends, or stopping by Smith Coffee & Cafe once it opens this fall, you're experiencing the part of 50th & France that isn't going anywhere. The dining scene will keep reshuffling. The plaza's weekly rhythm is the thing residents can actually plan around.
For those thinking further ahead about property near this corridor, Hays Baker Team tracks these shifts as part of the daily work of understanding Edina's neighborhoods, not just its listings. Begin your curated real estate experience whenever you're ready to talk specifics.