Grocery stores have long acted like restaurants, offering hot meal bars and catering, but surprisingly, restaurants have only recently begun to act like grocers, offering frozen entrees and ingredients from the market.

Perhaps this happy marriage can answer the challenge faced by apartment developers looking for restaurants to occupy the ground floors of their buildings. Look at what the Italian-influenced EaTo is currently bringing to the Washington Avenue neighborhood in Minneapolis: it serves both apartment renters and nearby office workers (and hotel guests, visitors to events, etc.) with a mix of food that delivers both the soul of a restaurant and the ease of a market.

The private dining room out back can still be used as such, but the EaTo team also plans to launch more formal Italian steak house pop-up parties this spring.

Eato, 305 Washington Ave. S., Mpls., 612-208-1638, helloeatommpls.com