Piggy Bank bringing burgers and vegan bar food to troubled Uptown Minneapolis address

The Uptown Minneapolis address formerly known as Lotus, Game Sports Bar, Salsa à la Salsa, Boneyard, and Old Chicago, is about to get a new occupant.

Piggy Bank starts service Friday, Dec. 14, with a grand opening on Dec. 22, at 2841 Hennepin Av. S. (612-383-2455, piggybankuptown.com)

It replaces the last restaurant to haunt this address, family-run Vietnamese restaurant Lotus, which closed at the end of September, a few months after three people were shot in its parking lot.

The sprawling location has had trouble holding on to restaurants in recent years. But with Piggy Bank, Kaskaid Hospitality (the restaurant group that also owns Crave, Union Rooftop and more) are trying to appeal to, well, everyone.

There will be a mix of seating options, including lounge areas with board games and big-screen TVs, traditional seating and walk-up ordering stations. On weekends, Piggy Bank will try to allure the nightlife crowd with a focus on drinks and a music system that allows patrons to choose their own music.

The menu seems to be pretty evenly split between burgers and bar food on one hand, and vegan versions of those things on the other. The Herbivorous Butcher is providing meatless bacon and dairy-free cheese to top pea protein-based Impossible Burgers.

"More often than not, restaurants are extremely siloed in what they offer," Kaskaid founder and CEO Kam Talebi said in a news release. "We wanted to create a place where there was something for everyone …" Even those hard-to-cook-for meat-eating and vegan couples.