Crisp & Green owner to open new Latin brand in Minneapolis' North Loop

Steele Brands has announced an opening of a new fast-casual Latin restaurant in the North Loop neighborhood of Minneapolis.

Puralima Cantina is set to open at 548 N. Washington Ave. in the Duffey apartment building on July 8. It's across the street from another Steele Brands chain, the plant-based Stalk & Spade.

The restaurant will feature "scratch-made and culinary-driven" recipes with foods such as tacos, burritos, salads, bowls, margaritas and more. A build-your-own feature will also be available for customers, a representative with Steele Brands told Bring Me The News.

The Wayzata-based Steele Brands, which also owns Crisp & Green, had scrapped its former plans for a Mexican restaurant concept called Paco & Lime. The restaurant was set to launch this year in the North Loop, Wayzata and Maple Grove. In all, 12 total locations were originally planned to open in the Twin Cities within the next two years.

"We are constantly creating concepts — the Paco & Lime concept was developed prior to the pandemic and once we recognized the significant changes in consumer behavior and preferences post-Covid, we decided to create an entirely new concept that would better suit our guests desires," Lily Smith of Steele Brands told BMTN.

Smith said it's anticipated that Purlalima Cantina will expand its operations to other areas of the Twin Cities, with it being likely to expand to where Paco & Lime was slated to open in Wayzata and Maple Grove. 

"We expect that this brand will grow faster than Crisp & Green. We now have a more significant infrastructure to support it," Smith said.

Related: Minnesota restaurant openings and closings for June 2023.