"The owner said, 'I want to pass on the legacy' of this space," Louisa Farhat told the Star Tribune this winter, describing the moment she and business partner Tim Dubay took over the old Nelson's Meats, Bakery and Deli counter on Minnetonka Boulevard. Nelson's had been slicing meat and stacking sandwiches on that stretch of road since 2013, and in Hopkins for decades before that. When the owner decided to step away, Farhat and Dubay didn't gut the space and start over. They kept the bones and put their own name on the door.
That decision, repeated twice in the same year on the same short stretch of boulevard, is the actual story of what changed for Bronx Park residents in 2026. Two new restaurants landed within walking distance of each other. Neither one is in a new building.
A Butcher Counter That Changed Hands, Not Purpose
Sweet Lou's Craft Sausages & Butchery opened its first storefront in May 2026 at 6318 Minnetonka Blvd, the address Nelson's occupied for more than a decade after the family business relocated there from Hopkins, where it started in 1965. Nelson's served the area for close to 60 years before Farhat and Dubay took over the lease.
The two spent three years building a following before they had a building of their own. Sweet Lou's started as farmers market pop-ups in 2021, then became a food truck that made regular stops at breweries around the Twin Cities. Farhat runs the meat program and Dubay runs the kitchen, and their hot dog took bronze in the Star Tribune's 2024 Minnesota Best contest before they had a single permanent address.
The storefront gave them room to do what a food truck can't: butcher whole animals on site and stretch the menu past what fits in a truck window. The shop is open Tuesday through Saturday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., closed Monday, with breakfast, lunch and coffee running until 3 p.m. The sausage breakfast sandwich and the foot-long hot dog, served with melted Brie, jam and chives on a toasted La Boulangerie bun, have become the two items regulars order first.
None of that required demolishing what Nelson's spent 13 years building at that address, or the customer habits that came with it.
A Pizza Chef's First Trip Outside Minneapolis
Half a mile away inside the Texa-Tonka Shopping Center, a second legacy space changed hands the same year. Rosalia, the wood-fired pizzeria from chef Daniel del Prado and Minneapolis's DDP Restaurant Group, opened its third location on February 12, 2026, taking over the space and patio that had belonged to Revival at 8000 Minnetonka Blvd.
Del Prado's other restaurants, Martina, Colita, Porzana, Dexter's and Minari, are all in Minneapolis proper. Rosalia's first two locations, in Linden Hills and on East Hennepin, stayed inside the city too. Texa-Tonka is the brand's first move into the suburbs, and operations director Kiri Gray has said the location is part of a broader plan to expand into the greater metro.
The bigger kitchen at the Revival space let the team add a full lineup of Sicilian pastas alongside the Neapolitan pizzas and gluten-free crust Rosalia is known for, plus gluten-free pasta in development. Beverage director Megan Luedtke built out a cocktail and Amaro list to go with it. Diners on OpenTable describe the dining room as bright and often loud once it fills, with a patio that reviewers have called intimate for a suburban location, a detail that traces directly back to the Revival footprint Rosalia inherited rather than built.
Why the Boulevard Carries the Neighborhood's Errands
Bronx Park itself was never platted with a commercial strip. The neighborhood's identity runs through its parks: Nelson Park, with two outdoor skating rinks, and Dakota Park, a 20-acre stretch at the north end with a playground, a baseball field and an off-leash dog area. Groceries, dinner out, a bike tune-up or a bowling night have always meant driving a few blocks to Minnetonka Boulevard, where Texa-Tonka Shopping Center has stood since 1951.
Texa-Tonka was the first major suburban shopping center in the Twin Cities built, owned and staffed by local merchants rather than an outside chain, according to the St. Louis Park Historical Society. It has recently gone through a full renovation, and the shopping center's east side now carries a mural by local artist Jake Dwyer that traces its own history: the original Red Owl and Piggly Wiggly storefronts, a nod to Mike Zoss, the pseudonym St. Louis Park natives Joel and Ethan Coen have used in their films, and the classic cars that would have been parked out front in the 1950s.
The tenants that have stayed put anchor the corridor as much as the new arrivals do. Ax-Man Surplus has sold industrial and electronic castoffs there since the mid-1990s. Erik's Bike Shop has run full-service bike, ski and snowboard sales from the same spot since 1996, after starting a few doors down. Brookies Fish Market still handles the seafood counter. Next door, Texa-Tonka Lanes keeps 24 lanes and a bar and grill running for league nights. Across the street, Wok in the Park serves Asian fusion and Bodega Taco Bar handles takeout tacos and quesadillas.
That mix is what a new restaurant is actually walking into when it opens on this stretch: a shopping center with a specific, documented history and a customer base that already has habits built around the businesses already there. Sweet Lou's and Rosalia both read that correctly. Neither one tried to erase what came before.
The Rest of the Neighborhood Is Also Under Renovation This Year
The corridor isn't the only part of Bronx Park getting worked on in 2026. The city has scheduled a number of the neighborhood's own residential streets for rehabilitation during this year's construction season, part of St. Louis Park's ongoing pavement management program. It's the kind of overlap that's easy to miss unless you're driving both routes regularly: the same year a butcher shop and a pizzeria settled into two of the boulevard's most recognizable spaces, city crews were repaving the streets those same regulars use to get there.
Neither project changes what Bronx Park is. Both are evidence of a place that's still being maintained rather than replaced, on the edges and inside the platted lines alike.
What This Means If Minnetonka Boulevard Is Your Boulevard
If you've lived in Bronx Park through a few different tenants at 6318 or 8000 Minnetonka Blvd, the pattern by now is familiar. The names on the door change. The counters, the patio, the kitchen layout tend to stay. Sweet Lou's kept Nelson's legacy space instead of finding a blank lot. Rosalia kept Revival's patio instead of building a new one from scratch. The boulevard that Bronx Park has always leaned on for its errands just picked up two more reasons to make the trip, without losing the shape it already had.
Doro Real Estate keeps a close eye on what's changing along Bronx Park's edges, from a new butcher counter to the crews repaving the block behind it. If you're weighing what daily life actually looks like on this side of St. Louis Park, start your concierge consultation.
