Walk past R.F. Moeller Jeweler on France Avenue this month and you'll notice the store now stretches further down the block than it used to. That extra square footage used to be Edina Grill, the neighborhood breakfast spot that served turkey burgers and Mickey Mouse pancakes for 26 years before closing on September 18, 2025. A few doors down, the patio where Salut Bar Americain poured wine for two decades has been quiet since New Year's Eve, when the French bistro served its last bouillabaisse and turned out the lights for good.
If you only look at the empty storefronts, it reads like a corner in decline. It isn't. It's a corner on a different kind of clock than the one two blocks away at Centennial Lakes Park, where the farmers market is still running every Thursday, the fall arts festival is about a month out, and nothing about the summer schedule has slowed down. Understanding which clock you're looking at changes how you read what's happening at 50th & France this season.
The Corner Turned Over on a Lease Clock, Not a Sales Slump
Edina Grill didn't close because business dried up. Owner Stephanie Shimp said the decision came down to real estate math: her lease was ending right as R.F. Moeller wanted to expand, and the two timelines lined up. The Star Tribune reported that staff were offered jobs at sister restaurants in the Blue Plate Restaurant Group, the same company behind Highland Grill and Longfellow Grill, and that Shimp was already scouting other locations in the community rather than leaving Edina altogether.
Salut's exit followed a similar script. Parasole Restaurant Holdings, which also runs Manny's Steakhouse and Pittsburgh Blue, had been undecided for months about renewing Salut's lease before announcing the December 31 closing date. This wasn't the first time a lease expiration reshuffled the block. Arezzo Ristorante lost its space at 5057 France Ave. S. in a landlord dispute back in early 2023 after nearly 22 years there, and Mothership Pizza Paradise moved into that spot. Two restaurants leaving within about three months of each other reads dramatic. On a corner where commercial leases turn over on their own schedule regardless of how well a restaurant is doing, it's closer to how 50th & France has always worked.
Who's Actually Moving In
The replacements aren't downgrades. Chef Daniel del Prado, known locally for Porzana, Martina, and Rosalia, opened Thérèse at 50th & France as an upscale French brasserie named for his mother. In announcing the project, del Prado said he'd always wanted to build a warm brasserie experience, and that the 50th & France neighborhood felt like the right setting for it. Thérèse was just the first of three concepts del Prado has planned for the corner. The second, a new American spot called Americana with partner Ryan Burnett, is slated to open in the former Barrio space at 5036 France Ave. S. later this year.
Gavin Kaysen, the chef behind the original Bellecour in Wayzata, has also brought that café concept to 3934 Market Street, serving the same pastries and French onion soup that built its reputation, in a space with lighter, bamboo-toned design. A corner that lost a 26-year breakfast institution and a 20-year bistro within the same year is simultaneously attracting a recognizable regional chef to open two concepts there within about a year of each other. That's not what decline looks like.
Two Blocks Away, Nothing Changed
While the ground floor at 50th & France turned over, the Centennial Lakes Park calendar kept running exactly as it has for years. The farmers market has been setting up along the park's walkways every Thursday from 3 to 7 p.m. since June 4, and it continues through October 1, when the season wraps with llamas on the plaza. Live music plays on the plaza from 4 to 6 p.m. each week, and the lineup for the rest of the summer includes Chris Holm on August 20, Tony Sammis on August 27, and Richard Keller playing a Sweet 70s Songs set on September 10. Vendors this season range from Great Harvest Bread Company and Natasha's Pierogis to Muddy Tiger Food Truck's Indian street food and Ruhland's Strudel Haus, alongside an Edina Liquor beer and wine garden running in the Hughes Pavilion most weeks.
Earlier this month, on Sunday, August 9, the park hosted its Lighthouse Night and Torchlight Concert, an event the City of Edina's calendar describes as featuring throwback entertainment from the early 1900s. The Edina Model Yacht Club ran its remote-controlled boats across the lit water while the First John Philip Sousa Memorial Band, a 45-person ensemble that's performed since 1970, closed the night with a fireworks finale timed to Stars and Stripes Forever. Twenty-five cent ice cream cones were part of the deal, same as they've been for years. None of this paused for whatever was happening with the restaurant leases a few blocks north.
Here's what's still ahead:
| Date | Event | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Thursdays through Oct. 1 | Farmers Market, 3-7 p.m., live music 4-6 p.m. | Centennial Lakes Park walkways |
| Sept. 12-13 | Edina Fall into the Arts Festival, Sat. 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Sun. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. | Centennial Lakes Park and 7601 France Ave. |
| Oct. 1 | Farmers Market season finale | Centennial Lakes Park |
The Fall into the Arts Festival is the park's other fixed point on the calendar. Now in its 22nd year, the festival draws roughly 245 juried artists working in photography, jewelry, pottery, sculpture, glass, fiber, wood, and painting, with proceeds benefiting the Edina First Responders Fund. It's been happening on this exact plot of ground since before Edina Grill's lease was even up for its first renewal.
Two Clocks, One Neighborhood
The lesson here isn't that Edina is changing or that it isn't. It's that two different parts of the same three-block radius run on two different rhythms, and confusing one for the other gives you a distorted read on the place. The restaurant scene at 50th & France moves on commercial lease terms, and it turns over when a landlord's plans and a tenant's timeline happen to collide, the way they did for R.F. Moeller and Edina Grill this past September. The park two blocks away runs on a civic and seasonal calendar that's been repeating with only minor variation for decades, from the Sousa band's summer concerts to a farmers market that adds a new food truck most years but keeps the same Thursday afternoon slot.
If you live near 50th & France, both clocks are worth tracking, because they tell you different things. The storefront turnover tells you which businesses are betting on this specific corner right now, and right now that list includes a chef with three concepts in motion. The park calendar tells you what's reliably still there when you want an evening out without checking whether your favorite spot survived the latest lease cycle. This fall, that means a Thursday market that runs through the first of October, a Sousa concert that already delivered its fireworks finale for the year, and a two-day arts festival in the middle of September that's been drawing artists to Centennial Lakes Park since long before anyone was debating what to do with an empty jewelry store expansion.
Whether you're watching the restaurant scene shift for the fun of it or you're the kind of person who tracks a neighborhood's rhythm because you're thinking about your own next move here, both stories are worth knowing. If you're curious what a home near this stretch of Edina is actually worth this year, given how much attention this corner is getting, the Steve Schmitz Team can walk you through it. Get Your Home Value.