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CHICAGO – A fast-moving storm system will be sweeping across the nation’s northern tier this week and could bring accumulating snow to major cities across the region, like Minneapolis, Chicago and Green Bay in Wisconsin – just in time for the start of spring.

Spring officially arrives Tuesday night, but with cold air plunging into the U.S. from Canada this week – prompting Freeze Warnings across 11 states in the South – the addition of this fast-moving storm originating from the Pacific Northwest could bring winter weather to the northern tier and make it feel like the middle of winter.

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Watch: Exclusive FOX Model Futuretrack shows fast-moving storm sweeping across northern tier

The exclusive FOX Model Futuretrack is showing a fast-moving storm sweeping across the northern tier that could bring accumulating snow to cities like Chicago, Minneapolis and Green Bay in Wisconsin later this week.

The cold temperatures are due to a large dip in the jet stream, which will allow for the disturbance to zip across the northern tier.

The FOX Forecast Center said the disturbance will be accompanied by moisture off of the Pacific Ocean as it moves from the northern Rockies to the Great Lakes and then eventually into parts of the Northeast by the end of the week.

But unlike most storm systems, the FOX Forecast Center said there won’t be a strong area of low pressure associated with this system.

Instead, the snow from the storm will be driven by the sharp difference in temperatures. Arctic air will be in place on the northern side of the system, but it will be slightly warmer to the south of it.

That change in temperatures will provide the lift needed to get the storm cranking, which will tap into moisture from the Pacific.

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Snow is possible in portions of the northern Plains on Wednesday night as temperatures plunge to levels more typical of winter, with cities like Glasgow and Glendive in Montana dropping into the lower 20s. Farther to the east, cities in North Dakota like Minot, Bismarck and Bowman will likely drop into the upper teens to lower 20s.

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The storm will continue to scoot across the region, with snow breaking out farther to the east in parts of the Upper Midwest on Thursday.

This includes the possibility of a few inches of snow in Minneapolis, which has seen its ninth-least-snowy winter on record with only 11.1 inches recorded this season.

Forecasters are still ironing out the details, but the National Weather Service said there is "increasing confidence for a few inches of accumulation despite recent warmth and thawed ground."

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By Thursday night, snow is expected to break out across the Great Lakes, including cities like Green Bay, Milwaukee and Chicago.

The NWS office in Chicago said the potential for accumulating snow is highest for areas along and north of Interstate 88, particularly along the Wisconsin-Illinois state line.

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The system will then continue its journey to the east and impact portions of the Northeast on Friday.

This means there will be a chance of snow in cities like Cleveland in Ohio, Erie and State College in Pennsylvania and Buffalo and Syracuse in New York.

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The FOX Forecast Center said snow amounts are still up in the air, but generally, a few inches or more is likely for millions of people in the Midwest.

Take a sandwich wrap, but not a regular sandwich wrap — a cool Wrap. That's what's opening soon inside Graze Provisions + Libations food hall in Minneapolis' North Loop.

Breanna Evans and Jeff Rogers always seem to be brimming with new ideas that come at just the right time. It's their fault we only want to spell rectangle with a "w." The duo and their pan pizza-making band of merrymakers first arrived on the scene at North Loop Galley food hall with Wrecktangle, the Detroit-inspired pizza counter that became a full-on sensation and forever changed the way we want to eat pizza. (With crispy cheese lacy bits on the corners.) The idea caught on and more Minneapolis locations opened: in Market at Malcolm Yards and a stand-alone spot at Lake Street and Lyndale Avenue S.

Then came Wrestaurant, a collaboration with the owners of First Avenue and the Palace Theatre in St. Paul. The restaurant expanded its menu to serve more than pizza and stays open late to serve downtown St. Paul and showgoers.

Now, the duo and their crew are coming for the humble sandwich wrap. Take what's familiar in deli cases and crank up the volume to 11. Homemade tortillas will twirl around all manner of zesty ingredients. When the concept operated as a pop-up, wraps included a breakfast burrito, meatball with marinara, club sandwich and more.

Wrap moves into the stand formerly occupied by Avocadish. Construction is underway and they expect to open this spring. Follow Wrapmn on Instagram for updates. Graze is at 520 N. 4th St., Mpls., grazenorthloop.com.

A new skyway breakfast spot

What was once downtown's Taco John's has been transformed into a quick-serve breakfast spot with kawaii food cartoons. Eggflip (601 Marquette Av. S., Skyway level) is now serving South Korean-style egg sandwiches, split bread stuffed with fluffy scrambled eggs and add-ins like bacon, avocado, Spam and more. Breakfasts can also be served in burrito or bowl form, and there are optional tots on the side. Eggflip is open weekdays from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m.

North Loop lines up for cereal Treats

The newest location of Treats is now serving in Minneapolis' North Loop neighborhood. The ice cream with cereal mix-ins and boba drew big lines over the past weekend, according to the restaurant's social media page.

Siblings Trisha Seng and Minh Dinh opened the first Treats on St. Paul's Grand Avenue in 2019. The brightly colored shop mixed childhood sugar cereal nostalgia with neon signs and Instagrammable moments. A second location soon followed in Blaine, and next up is a Mall of America outpost.

The North Loop location at 314 N. 2nd St. opens at 8 a.m. daily. Closing time is 8 p.m. on weeknights and 10 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.

Barcelona wine bar chain targets North Loop

Because the North Loop still somehow has room for more restaurants, Barcelona is under construction in a street-level space on Washington Avenue, right next to the Duffey lofts. With locations in 11 states, Barcelona wine bars typically serve largely Spanish and South American wines with an array of tapas, a few entrees, weekend brunch and cocktails. If all goes according to plans, we'll be here sipping sangria by summer.

Origami Uptown appears to have closed

What we know for certain is that Origami Uptown is not open right now — and hopes are diminishing that the sushi restaurant is coming back. After changing ownership last year, the restaurant (1354 Lagoon Av., Mpls.) closed in January for maintenance with the expectation of returning after a month. But, the lights are still out and both the website and phones have been turned off.

Special Ramadan hours at Mrs. Dessert

Mrs. Dessert & Kumpir has new hours during Ramadan — daily from 11 a.m. to 3 a.m. — as well as special Ramadan desserts, including qatayef and zalabiyeh. The Middle Eastern pastry shop (339 22nd Av. NE., Mpls., mrsdessertandkumpir.com) has both sweet and savory dishes, including a variety of kumpir (Turkish-style stuffed baked potatoes), crêpes, rolled ice cream and more.

With white hair and a white beard framed by spectacles and a cabbie hat, Vladimir Dikarev cuts a quiet figure. He leads me through his new exhibition, describing his work in Russian, his voice barely echoing in the cavernous former church that is the Museum of Russian Art in Minneapolis.

Dikarev walks amongst the world he’s created, hung on the walls around him, transforming them into landscapes of pulsating candy-colored dunes. His paintings are populated by curling clouds that ripple out into oblivion, and bearded men and angelic figures with clothing like sails whipping in an invisible storm.

Chief curator Maria Zavialova, walking alongside, tells me that Dikarev’s new exhibition, “Portal to the Surreal,” is in celebration of the 100th anniversary of surrealism. (Reinforcing this dreamlike, fantastical sensibility is a show of surrealist sculptures on the first floor by Minneapolis-based Yugoslavian artist Zoran Mojsilov.)

One hundred years ago, the surrealism movement was born when French critic André Breton published the “Surrealist Manifesto,” a call to suppress conscious thought in making art — and in life. Surrealists, like the more anarchic Dadaists, were grappling with the dust and horror that remained in the wake of World War I.

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To process and escape the absurdity of war, surrealists tapped into the subconscious, channeling their dreams and subversive imaginations to create an alternate reality.

Dikarev is very similar to his predecessors.

The St. Paul-based, Ukrainian-born artist will tell you that many of these scenes have come to him through dreams. The majority of the canvases that surround him seem to be snapshots of the same world — windswept desert landscapes with impossible teetering monasteries and pillars and cloud trees.

He cites Salvador Dalí as an influence. The visual connection is clear: As in Dalí’s world, many of Dikarev’s subjects are in biblical-scale landscapes and precariously propped up and draped upon needly crutches (Think of Dalí’s “Sleep,” “Daddy Longlegs of the Evening - Hope!” and “The Great Masturbator.”)

But Dikarev is doing something entirely his own with the color palette. His is a world of exuberant, sandy pastels. In contrast, surrealists like Dalí and Yves Tanguy and Max Ernst (Dikarev’s other influences), painted in more somber palettes and starker, shadowy contrasts. (Although a small side room at the museum features Dikarev’s darker impulses, or what Zavialova calls his “apocalyptic” section.)

Standing in front of the almost hypercolor “Transfiguration,” which plays with Eastern Orthodox iconography, Dikarev says his palette doesn’t come from this world. It can be both symbolic and harmonious. Or as Zavialova translates, it is “the internal vision of the color.”

On the surface, the difference is between a realm of nightmares — however seductive — and Dikarev’s more welcoming land of daytime dreams and cheerful mystery. There’s a hopeful and psychedelic quality to his art, sharing something with the great science fiction illustrations of the 60s and 70s, like the original cover art for Ursula K. Le Guin’s books as well as that of Frank Hebert’s “Dune” series.

In fact, the recently released “Dune: Part Two” is unexpectedly complementary to Dikarev’s exhibition. Both exist in worlds that are cryptic, with a range of religious undertones, while ultimately abiding by the rhythm of sand and wind.

And, like “Dune” and the early surrealists, Dikarev also confronts the shadow of war. Dikarev says one of the most recent paintings in the show — the 2023 “Shot-gunned Summer” — is a direct reference to the Russian war in Ukraine.

Dikarev was born in a post-World War II Soviet Union and studied art in the thousand-year-old Ukrainian city of Uzhgorod. The Soviet Union, he says, was no fan of surrealism. He moved to Minnesota in 1997.

With “Shot-gunned Summer” the palette is playing a trick: It’s a soft-hued world full of terrors, of fire and turbulence.

Translating for Dikarev, Zavialova relays, “It’s just an attempt to process the war.”

As I pack up to leave the museum, Dikarev gently murmurs something to Zavialova. Zavialova turns and says: “You can’t leave yet!”

She asks me to follow her and Dikarev to the kitchen, explaining that today, March 8, is International Women’s Day. In Ukraine, there is a tradition of men giving women flowers. Dikarev, she says, brought flowers for all the women he would see at the museum. In the kitchen is a table sprouting with bouquets. They hand me a bunch of purple irises.

“Portal to the Surreal” is on view through June 2.

An exclusive French association has added Gavin Kaysen's Minneapolis restaurant Demi to its ranks — but it's not Michelin.

The 20-seat tasting-menu restaurant from Kaysen's Soigné Hospitality is among the newest members of Relais & Châteaux, a prestigious global network of 580 independent hotels and restaurants.

"Being accepted into the Relais & Châteaux family at this point in my career is a huge honor," Kaysen said in a statement. Demi was the only independent restaurant selected for the association this year and is the lone Minnesota member. The closest to the Twin Cities — until now — was Canoe Bay in Chetek, Wis.

Of its nearly 600 members, about 100 are stand-alone restaurants. In addition to what the association calls being "creators of emotions and artisans of flavor," the chefs are committed to supporting local producers with an eye toward biodiversity and seasonality. At the heart of the association is members' adherence to the "five C's": character, courtesy, calm, charm and cuisine. The group is also committed to preserving local heritage and the environment.

The process to become a Relais & Châteaux member is rigorous and includes being evaluated on more than 300 criteria, anonymous visits and interviews. Started in France in 1954, the association comprises independent hotel and restaurant entrepreneurs who are "passionate about their craft and deeply committed to forging warm, lasting relationships with their guests," according to its admission standards. Ten other properties join Demi as part of this year's Relais & Châteaux class; Demi and Little Palm Island Resort & Spa in Little Torch Key, Fla., are the only U.S. representatives.

Kaysen said that by working with New York chef Daniel Boulud, whose restaurant Daniel is also a member, he's kept the possibility of this distinction on his radar.

"To be the only independent restaurant accepted this year really took me by surprise. I am honored to represent the Midwest with this distinction," he said. "It shows our commitment to excellent cuisine, our focus on generous hospitality and the effects it can create."

Demi, located at 212 N. 2nd St., opened in 2019 and was an immediate hit with diners and critics. The restaurant garnered a rare four-star review from the Star Tribune, which also named it the restaurant of the year: "It's a complete joy, a revelatory sensory experience that's unlike any other in the state." The Relais & Châteaux team was equally charmed, calling it "[a break from] the codes of traditional gastronomy … an astonishing piece of dining theater."

Demi offers a seven-course tasting meal Sundays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, and an 11-course experience on Fridays and Saturdays. Reservations, which open on the first of the month for the following month, are still in high demand.

Nicole Ploumen Hvidsten is the Star Tribune's Taste editor and senior editor of Star Tribune Magazine. In past journalistic lives she was a reporter, copy editor and designer — sometimes all at once — and has yet to find a cookbook she doesn't like.

[email protected] 612-673-7563

He was only 23 at the time and had yet to crack the Billboard charts. Nonetheless, when Bad Bunny performed at El Nuevo Rodeo nightclub in Minneapolis in 2017, his local opening act put out a warning to everyone who would listen.

"You're never going to have the chance to see him in a venue this size again," St. Paul rapper María Isa remembers saying.

Turned out, Minnesota fans would not have a chance see the "Lo Siento BB" and "Dakiti" hitmaker in any local venue for six years.

After a State Theatre gig in 2018, Bad Bunny would skip the Twin Cities on all his subsequent tours as he skyrocketed from his first No. 1 U.S. hit ("I Like It") to winning three Grammys and breaking a Spotify record for all-time most-streamed album (2022′s "Un Verano Sin Ti," with nearly 16 billion streams). Some Twin Cities fans trekked to Chicago's Soldier Field to see the Puerto Rican rapper in 2022, since that was the closest that year's tour came to Minnesota.

At last, though, Bad Bunny is finally returning to Minneapolis to headline Target Center on Saturday as part of his aptly named Most Wanted Tour.

María Isa, for one, thinks the show is long overdue — as is the Twin Cities' rising status as a sizable market for Latino music tours in the eyes of the concert industry, an idea this tour date supports.

"Minnesota is catching up," said the rapper-turned-state-legislator, aka Rep. María Isa Pérez-Vega, from St. Paul's West Side. "The numbers don't lie."

Bad Bunny's concert is part of a string of appearances by major Latino music acts at Target Center. The Minneapolis basketball arena also will soon welcome two big Mexican stars two nights apart: pop singer Luis Miguel on May 26, followed by another breakout hip-hop star, Peso Pluma, on May 28.

The local arrival of Pluma — currently gracing the cover of Rolling Stone magazine — is arguably as overdue and nearly as anticipated as Bad Bunny's return to town.

Groundwork for these tours was laid last year at Target Center. The arena took chances on 2023 tour stops by two other stars from Mexico, rapper Santa Fe Klan and singer/songwriter Carin León, as well as the first local arena appearance by Guatemalan singer Ricardo Arjona.

"We started to see an increase in conversation surrounding Target Center as an option for Latinx tours in early 2023, which resulted in [these] very successful shows," said Amy Rahja, assistant general manager at Target Center, who promised at least one more big Latino music concert to be announced there this year.

"The attendance for these shows demonstrated that Latinx music has a huge fan base in Minneapolis, which will definitely help cement the market as a must play," Rahja said.

That fan base obviously extends to St. Paul, too, where last month's Trilogy Tour date with Enrique Iglesias, Pitbull and Ricky Martin at Xcel Energy Center saw its biggest attendance of any city up to that point three weeks into its 2024 run.

"That concert beautifully bridged cultures and showcased what Minnesota's population looks like in 2024," said María Isa, who attended the Trilogy show to hand Martin a Minnesota House proclamation thanking him for post-Hurricane Maria charity work in his native Puerto Rico. She said the Trilogy crowd featured "not just a strong mixture of Latinos who showed up, but a strong showing by Anglo fans of these Latino artists."

About 345,000 residents of Minnesota identified as Latino in the 2020 U.S. Census, a number believed to be underreported. With nearly 200,000 of those residents living in the Twin Cities, Minneapolis and St. Paul now ranks at No. 42 among rankings of U.S. metropolitan areas — not exactly top tier.

However, that population skews young. About 37% of Latinos listed in the census were under the age of 18, compared with only 23% in the general population. One in 10 kids in Minnesota are now Latino, according to the census data.

That's a lot of ticket-buying concertgoers coming of age, in other words.

One of the reasons the Twin Cities might have been overlooked by Bad Bunny and Peso Pluma's handlers and other Latino music booking agents in recent years could be because of what radio DJ Terrell LaMarr called "a separation between the media, marketing and event spaces" with Spanish-speaking music fans.

"The English-speaking market has the resources and capabilities that the Latino, Spanish-speaking market doesn't have, and it can promote a show like Bad Bunny and Peso Pluma coming to Target Center," said LaMarr, co-host of the twice-weekly show "Radio Pocho" on community station KFAI (90.3 FM). "But they don't quite know how to reach the people who don't get their information from those mainstream resources."

"Radio Pocho" co-host Miguel Vargas — one of the Twin Citians who traveled to Chicago to see Bad Bunny's 2022 tour in lieu of a date here — echoed the idea that there has been too much disconnect between Latino music fans and the local concert industry.

"If a venue doesn't feel like they can tap into that [Spanish-speaking] market, then they don't want to take a risk on a show if they don't feel they can promote it correctly," LaMarr said.

Thus, artists like Bad Bunny and Peso Pluma maybe have a hard time finding Twin Cities venues between the sizes of El Nuevo Rodeo and Target Center as they graduate to bigger rooms in other U.S. cities.

Target Center's booking rep admitted there has been a learning curve in promoting Bad Bunny and other Latino tours — and she welcomed it.

"We have an opportunity to dig deeper into this genre of music, explore the subgenres within and how to reach their respective fans," Rahja said. "Discovering best practices in marketing Regional Mexican vs. reggaeton vs. Latin pop is important and something our team is really leaning into."

Both Vargas and LaMarr said things are improving and "more of a middle ground" is being created locally for younger Latino artists to perform on their way up the venue ladder before getting to Target Center.

Some of the upcoming Twin Cities concerts that these champions of innovative Latino music pointed to in the coming months to check out include: Chilean hip-hop star Ana Tijoux at the Cedar Cultural Center on Friday; MexiCali rocker Reyna Tropical at First Avenue, May 17-18 (opening for Portugal. the Man); Los Angeles psychedelic tropicália band Chicano Batman with Colombian Canadian singer Lido Pimienta at the Uptown Theater on May 18, and jazzy Brazilian star Céu at the Dakota on May 22.

"I hope we get more artists to come here when they're still small and working their way up," LaMarr said, pointing back to Bad Bunny.

"We shouldn't have to wait until you become the most-streamed artist in the world to get another show here."

Bad Bunny

When: 8 p.m. Sat.

Where: Target Center, 600 1st Av. N., Mpls.

Tickets: $122-$625, axs.com.

Chris Riemenschneider has been covering the Twin Cities music scene since 2001, long enough for Prince to shout him out during "Play That Funky Music (White Boy)." The St. Paul native authored the book "First Avenue: Minnesota's Mainroom" and previously worked as a music critic at the Austin American-Statesman in Texas.

[email protected] 612-673-4658