A Minneapolis restaurant in the North Loop is testing smaller plates and lower prices as it looks for a way to bring more diners back.

Salt and Flour started testing the new menu this week. The full menu, with prices capped at $15 and many items in the $10 range, goes into effect next week.

The summer menu includes fire-kissed pizza and grilled octopus. Owner Brian Ingram said the lower prices are meant to attract bigger crowds as consumers cut back due to rising unemployment and inflation.

“We need people to start dining out more often,” said Brian Ingram.

“As we did our market research and looked at what could make you dine out more often, we thought the $15-$20 mark, maybe that is the sweet spot,” said Ingram.

Ingram said he needs customers to start eating out again if he is going to stay open. He said the restaurant has 50 employees and empty tables.

“We’ve got 50 employees and an empty restaurant. How do you bring people back and make them feel comfortable about coming back?” said Ingram.

John Spry, a finance and economics expert at the University of St. Thomas’s Opus College of Business, said the move is one way restaurants can stand out in this economy. He said more businesses are being forced to get creative and aggressive, and that can benefit customers.

“This is a form of differentiation. This is a common business strategy,” said John Spry.

“You are getting the quality of their chef, but smaller plates at a smaller price point,” said Spry.

Ingram said other restaurants are also trying to figure out how to adjust to current conditions. He said Salt and Flour plans to keep the pricing strategy through the summer.

“We have to figure out how to exist in this place, and that goes for every restaurant out there. How do you live in this new world?” said Ingram.

New roofs and better insulation. Updated appliances, new paint and security improvements. And a sense that it’s all transformative — and overdue.

More than 50 years after the nation’s only Native-preference Section 8 housing project was established, Little Earth in south Minneapolis is undergoing a $50 million remodel that will last two years and cover all of its 212 units.

The work, which started early this year, will be so extensive that some of Little Earth’s more than 1,000 residents will have to move to hotels in phases while it goes on. But most residents are looking forward to the updates.

“It’s about damn time,” said Contessa Ortley, who has lived at Little Earth all her life. “[The units] are so old that it’s good to see them coming over and having some people get in there and actually fix them properly.”

It’s the first remodel of this scale since the housing complex was founded in 1973. 

“It’s just such a big deal that [it] is being invested in this way,” Joe Beaulieu, executive director of Little Earth Residents Association, said of the scale of the investment. “It shows that our people are cared for, they’re cared about, that their safety is important to us, that we want to make sure that our people have better than decent living conditions.”

The complex has a mix of units ranging from studio to four-bedroom units. Funding for the remodel is coming from multiple levels of government — federal, state, county and city — as well as private foundations. 

Minneapolis is kicking in almost $23 million, making it the city’s sixth-most-expensive development project last year, when the money was invested. “[It] really is a precious resource and something that we wanted to preserve,” said Linnea Graffunder-Bartels, senior project manager of Community Planning and Economic Development for the city. “Some of the rehab work that’s going to happen now is replacing systems that have been in place since original construction.”

Little Earth was founded in response to the Indian Relocation Act of 1956, which encouraged Native people to leave their reservations and move to cities to assimilate. That left many Native Americans disconnected from their reservations, their families, cultures, traditions and languages. 

Little Earth was founded to provide temporary housing to Native Americans who faced housing discrimination, while also providing them with a culturally connected community. 

“It was so new that it was loved and cherished,” said Cathee Vick, director of housing advocacy at Little Earth Residents Association. “I don’t think it was built to last as long as it has, and I do think people planted their roots because of the fight to get what they got.”

Graffunder-Bartels said the remodel became a priority after a federal Housing and Urban Development (HUD) inspection in 2021 that identified urgently needed repairs and improvements. “That inspection result put Little Earth’s rental assistance funding at risk. At that point, HUD said, ‘These things need to be reinvested in, or else,’” she said. 

All Little Earth rental units are eligible for rental assistance. The funding commitments from different levels of the government come with the requirement that that affordability will be maintained till 2057. The new funding will also allow the Little Earth Residents Association to continue its work with those experiencing homelessness and people with disabilities by reserving 22 units for each type of need; these units will also come with supportive services. 

The remodel will take place in a phased manner, Vick said. Residents of some units will be temporarily moved to hotel units while their apartments undergo work.

The remodeling will include better insulation, new windows, repairs, new paint, new roofs, stucco, updated appliances, windows and walls, as well as energy efficiency improvements for water and insulation. It will even provide space for growing food and wildflowers. 

“[It’s] amazing we got it done,” said Tom LaSalle of LaSalle Development Group. “And we have to guard it carefully, especially with what’s going on right now,” he added, pointing to funding cuts in DEI-related projects under the Trump administration. LaSalle’s organization is leading the remodeling work and has also helped put together project funding. LaSalle has been involved in the development of Little Earth housing since its inception. 

LaSalle said that in addition to changing the landscaping of the project, the remodel will include culturally appropriate details such as colors, artwork, and access to more trees and wildflowers. 

The project, like any housing complex, is not without its complications. LaSalle said that density is a challenge because of the number of bedrooms packed in relatively small acreage. Members of multiple tribes represented at Little Earth have cultural differences as well, making for a “difficult social project.”

Talaya Hughes, a resident of Little Earth and an undergrad student at Augsburg University in Minneapolis, is a teen recovery coach who said she wants to help “bring culture back to our community and reconnect our youth to our roots.” She is excited by the idea of better sound insulation and improvements in heating and energy efficiency. But as a young woman, she said, she has safety at top of mind. “Before remodeling, what could have been worked on was the violence here,” she said. 

Drug use and homelessness plague the neighborhood. Little Earth housing is near a large encampment under Hwy. 55, the site of homeless encampments. 

“I don’t think it was built to last as long as it has, and I do think people planted their roots because of the fight to get what they got,” said
Cathee Vick, director of housing advocacy for the Little Earth Residents Association seen on April 21, 2026. Credit: Dymanh Chhoun | Sahan Journal

“It’s difficult,” Vick said. “We don’t want our kids to see this. You can’t go underneath the bridges. You got to walk in the middle of the road.” That’s a big inconvenience for Little Earth residents with family members living in the Red Lake building nearby, or for those going to employment classes at the American Indian Opportunities Industrialization Center.

Vick added that conversations are going on about how to address “this very sensitive but needed subject” and come up with possible solutions. “Because we do need help,” she said. 

LaSalle said that the remodel aims to address some of the security issues with AI-driven security that monitors cameras and alerts security personnel to any suspicious activity. 

“We need to give everyone an equal opportunity, and a new renovation is good for the community, to give them a safer environment,” Ortley said of safety issues around her home. ‘“We shouldn’t be discriminated against or less valued than others.” 

Minnesota’s playoff runs are giving Minneapolis sports bars a boost as three Minnesota sports teams have punched their ticket into the playoffs.

Bars and restaurants in Minneapolis tell 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS they are seeing more business as both teams keep winning in the playoffs.

Jay Ettinger, co-owner of the Rabbit Hole in the North Loop, is one example. Opening one year ago, Ettinger said the Rabbit Hole bet on Minnesota sports teams to have postseason success, and so far that bet has paid off.

“All the other restaurants in the neighborhood don’t really allow for large groups, so we built this to have large groups to celebrate things like this,” said Ettinger.

Ettinger said the restaurant is set up for sports fans with 54 TVs across the bar and seven more expected to be installed by next week to meet demand. He said playoff games on back-to-back nights have brought a major increase in business.

There are currently three Minnesota teams in the postseason: the Minnesota Wild, the Minnesota Timberwolves, and the Minnesota Frost. Meaning the Rabbit Hole can expect a large crowd and a large revenue boost almost every day this week.

“We’re going to have hockey tonight, basketball tomorrow, hockey, basketball…” said Ettinger. “I would say on those off nights…it’s probably triple to quadruple what our numbers would normally be.”

The Rabbit Hole is not the only business benefiting, either. The Minneapolis Downtown Council estimated last year that one Timberwolves playoff game could add up to $1.5 million for the city. But this year, for the first time ever – the Wolves and Wild are playing in May.

“After work, you come down during the week and there are people that are out getting a drink, getting a bite to eat…it makes the whole entire vibe of the city better…it’s just awesome to live down here right now,” said Minneapolis Resident, Caleb Wall.

“Like I said, something feels different this year…something just feels very different with the fandom, with the teams, with the attitude, with the culture of the teams, it just feels different this year…in a great way,” said Ettinger.