If you've lived in Edina longer than a couple of summers, you already know the shape of the season. What's changed in 2026 isn't the shape, it's the density. The restaurants opening between 50th and France Ave. now cluster inside one three-address stretch. Southdale's makeover finally reads as finished on the luxury side. And the Thursday-through-Sunday rhythm at Centennial Lakes has a published grid, down to the musician playing at 4 p.m. on a given week. The point of this post is to give you the map before the map changes again.
The Restaurants Are Concentrating on One Block
The most useful thing to know this summer is that the churn at 50th & France isn't happening in every direction at once. It's collapsing onto a short stretch of France Avenue between about 5034 and 5040.
Thérèse, the French brasserie from Daniel del Prado, opened at 50th & France late in 2025 and now runs a full weekly schedule. Brunch is Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., lunch Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., and dinner every night from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. The restaurant is named after del Prado's mother, and it is the first of three restaurant concepts del Prado has in the works at 50th and France.
The second of those concepts is Americana, a new-American room from del Prado and Ryan Burnett. It is going into the former Barrio space at 5036 France Ave. S. in Edina, currently slated to open late 2026. The opening isn't as automatic as it sounds. A city ordinance requires Americana to add 14 off-street parking spaces to ensure there's enough room in the public parking ramps for all businesses at 50th & France, which is why the timeline is a season out rather than tomorrow.
Two doors down, the old Salut space at 5034 France is turning into General Sports Bar. The owners are Edina natives Marty Collins and Brett Johnson, part of the ownership team behind Minneapolis favorites NOLO's Kitchen, The Rooftop Bar and The Basement Bar in the North Loop. Collins has been open about the pitch:
"There really wasn't a true sports bar in Edina, especially at 50th & France."
The build is bigger than the storefront suggests. The space will include more than 25 televisions throughout the bar and restaurant, a casual lounge area with couches and swivel seats, roughly 140 indoor seats expanding to around 180 in summer with a 40-seat patio, a semi-private party room for up to 45 people, and a small basement game room for 20 to 25 guests with darts and a golf simulator.
If you're keeping a running list of del Prado's footprint, Dexter's belongs on it too. The team led by del Prado opened Dexter's, a "refined" sports bar, at 3717 50th St. W. last August. Between Dexter's on 50th, Thérèse mid-block, Americana at 5036, and General Sports Bar at 5034, roughly two blocks of the district now have a distinct dinner-and-a-drink identity that didn't exist in 2023.
Coalition, meanwhile, quietly filled the space that generations of neighbors still call the 50th Street Café. It's the second location for co-owners Deacon J. Eells and Eli Wollenzien, and it operates as a full-service restaurant and serves breakfast daily, a break from its original sister restaurant in Excelsior that only offers a weekend brunch for the morning crowd. Hashbrowns stayed on the menu.
Southdale Stopped Feeling Like an Errand
The other thing that has genuinely changed for residents is what a trip to Southdale means. The mall's luxury wing is now done. Tiffany & Co. opened its boutique at the mall on April 4, 2026, officially filling the final storefront in Southdale's newly built luxury wing, capping a yearlong rollout that has turned one corridor of the historic shopping center into a tightly packed stretch of high-end brands.
The scale here is worth stating flatly. Local business reporting has framed the luxury buildout as one piece of a roughly $400 million overhaul of the broader Southdale property. What that money bought, retail-wise:
- Luxury wing anchors including David Yurman, Tiffany & Co. and Gucci, plus David Yurman moving in from the Galleria and additions including Breitling, Max Mara, Moncler, and Watches of Switzerland.
- A broader retail refresh with a blend of iconic fashion names and specialty retailers such as Apple, Aritzia, J.Crew, Kendra Scott, lululemon, Ralph Lauren, Tecovas, Tory Burch, and Vuori.
- A dining lineup that spans sit-down destinations like The Rooftop Restaurant at RH Minneapolis, The Cheesecake Factory, Yumi Sushi, and Peoples Organic to fast-casual favorites including Shake Shack and Sota.
- Non-shopping anchors that keep the place open later: Kowalski's grocery store and Puttshack, a bar and mini golf space, plus the Life Time club that pulled residents into the property for reasons unrelated to buying anything.
The strategic idea behind all of this isn't subtle. As Simon's Tom Hanchar put it to the Star Tribune, the expansion is "part of an effort to make the mall an experience." For someone who already lives a mile away, the practical translation is that a Saturday errand run now bumps into champagne pours in the Louis Vuitton store and a putting round at Puttshack whether you planned it that way or not.
Thursdays Belong to Centennial Lakes
The most reliable weekly rhythm in this part of Edina is the Centennial Lakes Park Farmers Market. The market runs on Thursdays from June 4 through October 1, 2026, from 3 to 7 p.m. What's new for regulars this year is how much programming is layered on top of the produce stalls. There's music on the plaza from 4 to 6 p.m., Edina Liquor is pouring beer and wine in the Hughes Pavilion from 3 to 6:30 p.m., and the Edina Art Center's Art Cart will host free art projects for kids. The grand finale on October 1 features llamas.
If you like knowing who's playing before you walk over, here's the plaza schedule from August through the finale:
- 8/6 — Simon Cropp
- 8/13 — Tara Brueske
- 8/20 — Chris Holm
- 8/27 — Tony Sammis
- 9/3 — Jack Werner
- 9/10 — Richard Keller (Sweet 70s Songs)
- 9/17 — Jeff Brueske
- 9/24 — James Dahl
Vendors this season include Chang Family Farm, Untiedt's Vegetable Farm, Svihel Vegetable Farm, Mogi Bagel, Great Harvest Bread Company, Nanny's Jamaican Kitchen, Natasha's Pierogis, Ruhland's Strudel Haus, Muddy Tiger Food Truck for Indian street food, and Tibetan Family Momo. One rule worth flagging if you usually bring the dog: leashed dogs are fine in the park, but you'll need to leave the dog at home or hand off to someone else if you want to walk through the vendor booths.
The Concerts Are the Best Deal in the District
The concert grid at the Maetzold Amphitheater is a separate rhythm from the market, and it is genuinely the best under-advertised thing happening near 50th & France this summer. The live Performance Series runs at 7 p.m. each Sunday, Monday and Wednesday from June 1 through August 30, 2026, with all concerts free and open to all ages. Kids' concerts run Tuesday and Thursday mornings at 10 a.m.
If you're bringing family in from out of town in early August and looking for a soft evening plan, the Torchlight Concert is the one to circle. It's typically held at sundown the second Sunday in August at Centennial Lakes Park. No tickets, no parking hassle beyond the usual lot near Hughes Pavilion.
The Set-Piece Weekends Still Anchor the Calendar
Two annual weekends remain the highest-attendance events in the neighborhood and, if you don't live here, the reason 50th Street looks the way it does on those Saturdays.
The Edina Art Fair took over the intersection the first weekend of June. At 59 years strong, it is the longest-running and largest art fair in Minnesota, and the fair transforms the area as the intersection is closed to traffic, creating a walkable festival atmosphere. The 2026 edition brought 250-plus artist booths, beer gardens, food, and live music throughout the weekend, with music staged in the Mr. Pauls / Mothership beer garden in the Lunds & Byerlys parking lot and a second stage in Nolan Mains Plaza. The culinary marketplace featured Grass Fed Cattle Company, Isadore Nut Company, Brine's Fine Honeys, and The Dessert Diaries. A free shuttle ran from Edina City Hall on both Saturday and Sunday.
The Fourth of July remains the neighborhood's other center-of-gravity morning. The parade begins at 10 a.m. on July 4 behind Edina City Hall, proceeding east on West 50th Street to downtown Edina, and fireworks are typically held at 10 p.m. at Rosland Park.
The last set piece worth putting on the calendar now: the Fall into the Arts Festival, organized by the Edina Chamber of Commerce and Explore Edina in support of the Edina Crime Prevention Fund, is held the second weekend in September at Centennial Lakes Park. It's the graceful hand-off from summer to fall, and it fills the same walkways that hosted the farmers market a week or two earlier.
The Through-Line
Read the last few years of neighborhood updates together and a pattern shows up. The dining choices at 50th & France used to be spread thin over five blocks and three price points. Now four of the most talked-about rooms sit inside a two-block walk of each other. Southdale used to be somewhere you drove to for a specific errand. Now it's a place people stay at because Life Time, Kowalski's, Puttshack, and the RH Rooftop are all reasons to be there for two hours instead of twenty minutes. Centennial Lakes used to be a beautiful loop with a farmers market bolted on. Now it runs on a published grid, six days a week, with three separate audiences on three different evenings.
None of this is a change that shows up in a market report. It's the kind of change you feel when you've lived here long enough to remember the block before it turned.
If your relationship with this stretch of Edina is shifting too, whether that's rethinking how much you use the house, considering a right-size move within the neighborhood, or just curious what your home is worth in a district that keeps adding reasons to stay in it, The McNamara Group is a good next call. Get a Free Home Valuation and start the conversation from a number instead of a guess.
