When Augustine’s reopens on Might 20, the restaurant (1668 Selby Av., St. Paul, augustinesmn.com) can have new culinary management and a distinct format.

In 2016, homeowners Howie Melco, Tony Anderson and Anne Marie transformed a former laundromat right into a gastropub and bakery. Earlier this 12 months, the trio employed Lenny Russo as a advisor, and the previous Heartland chef/proprietor is transitioning the operation right into a neighborhood bistro.

Russo has recruited Derik Moran, the expertise who spent a decade operating the kitchen on the Dakota, because the restaurant’s chef. Toni Luschen, longtime pastry chef on the former Lucia’s Restaurant, is Augustine’s pastry chef. Mega Hoehn, Russo’s partner and the front-of-house face at Heartland, has signed on as basic supervisor.

“It is conventional French bistro with fashionable touches, and it is a model of cooking that I admire probably the most,” mentioned Moran. “It is going to be low-key, easy meals, specializing in native, sustainable, seasonal components. I’ve numerous artistic freedom. It is an excellent alternative, and I am trying ahead to being part of the St. Paul neighborhood.”

Moran mentioned that the menu ought to change each three to 4 weeks, and that its 12 to fifteen objects might be evenly divided into small (“not ‘tapas’ small,” he mentioned) and enormous plates.

Beginning out, the previous will embody beef tartare with giardiniera and house-baked brioche toast, asparagus with egg and a tarragon aioli, vichyssoise with an arugula purée and French fries with bearnaise sauce. For the latter, there are mussels cooked in white wine and spring onions, cappelletti pasta with mushrooms and artichokes, bass served with lentils and spinach, grass-fed beef sirloin paired with a sunchoke-potato purée and a burger topped with Gruyère, aioli and tomato jam.

Luschen’s preliminary dessert roster features a rhubarb-lime custard tart with buttermilk ice cream, a vanilla bean panna cotta with strawberry-black pepper compote, a cheese board and nightly semifreddo and sorbet picks.

Small plates costs vary from $12 to $20, giant plates run $18 to $28 and desserts hover round $12.

The restaurant might be a tip-free and repair fee-free operation, with service prices constructed into the menu’s costs.

“We’re doing it the way in which the remainder of the world does it,” mentioned Russo. “All the costs on the menu will replicate inclusive service. There isn’t any place on the cost slip the place you may depart a tip.”

The wage construction can be a departure from the trade’s normal working process.

“Everyone seems to be being paid $20 an hour, it would not matter for those who’re a server, a bartender, a line cook dinner or a dishwasher,” mentioned Russo. “Everybody’s labor is valued in the identical method. Actual change on this trade begins with fairness in compensation.”

Together with some small pandemic-related design tweaks — plexiglass limitations, further outside seating — Augustine’s regulars will discover that the constructing’s bakery case will not be in play. For now, anyway.

“The bakery counter feeds into the idea of a French bistro, and we’ll undoubtedly have it in some unspecified time in the future,” mentioned Moran. “Proper now we simply wish to deal with getting the restaurant again on its ft, getting folks into the door and exhibiting the brand new idea. There’s loads that this constructing can supply, and I wish to faucet into each income stream attainable to make it work.”

The bar will see some modifications, too. The variety of faucets is being diminished from 40 to about 20. Not less than 10 remaining faucets might be dedicated to beers, and the remainder might be devoted to wines (served by the carafe, half-carafe and glass), cider, kombucha and arduous seltzer.

“The mantra is, ‘Let’s perform a little much less so as to perform a little extra,’ ” mentioned Russo. “We’re targeted on high quality, not amount.”

The plan is to start out with dinner, served Thursday by way of Sunday, with the purpose of including Saturday and Sunday brunch. Weekday daytime hours are a later chance.

“There’s a whole lot of pleasure,” mentioned Russo. “Individuals within the neighborhood preserve stopping by and asking when we will open.”

Rick Nelson • @RickNelsonStrib