Centro Restaurant Group is taking a "Live Más" approach to its spin on Taco Bell's Crunchwrap Supreme, with a new brick-and-mortar outpost dedicated to dishing up the fan favorite.

The big picture: Taco Bell's top-selling menu item, which the chain debuted 20 years ago last week, has become an "unlikely muse" — and a moneymaker — for chefs across the country, the New York Times reports.

Case in point: The success of Centro's own playful take on Crunchwraps inspired owners to create Hippo Pockets, a ghost kitchen solely focused on the "flying saucers of crunch."

• They'll open their first storefront — a 17-seat restaurant at 48th and Chicago in Minneapolis — next week, and debut a pop-up inside U.S. Bank Stadium later this year, owner Jami Olson told Axios.

What they're saying: "It's nostalgia," Olson said of the item's popularity and staying power. "They're just good, they're substantial, they're comforting."

What to expect: The Crunchwrap-style items on the Centro and Hippo Pockets menus, which Olson says are about 2.5 times the size of Taco Bell, go beyond traditional combos like ground beef and cheese.

• Popular flavors include Cool Ranch Chicken Crunch ($13.50) and the Pickle Pocket (about $14), a "Minnesota Sushi"-inspired combo of pickles, cream cheese, ham and Pik-Nik shoestring potato chips.
• Hippo Pockets plans to add breakfast and kids' versions to the brick-and-mortar menu.

The back story: Centro's first experiment with selling a Crunchwrap-style item — a 2019 Taco Bell-themed pop-up at a brewery down the block from its original Northeast Minneapolis location — was a smashing success.

• "We sold out of food in like 20 minutes," Olson recalled.

Yes, but: A "very nice" cease-and-desist letter from Taco Bell over their use of the chain's logo prompted them to pump the brakes.

About a year later, in a bid to attract more take-out customers after COVID hit, Olson brought the Taco Bell-inspired items back via a weekly pop-up (without the logo).

• "Insane" sales of the "Munchwrap," later dubbed the "Centro Crunch," prompted them to add it to the menu permanently.

What we're watching: Olson hopes to eventually secure a Hippo Pockets State Fair stand.

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"We are buried in sorrow right now, but I do believe that we will experience joy again and Mark and Melissa would not want it any other way. Goodbye, my friends."

Family, friends and high-profile political guests, including former President Joe Biden and Vice President Harris, packed the Basilica on Saturday to honor the slain former Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband.

• The private funeral followed a somber day at the State Capitol on Friday, as thousands of mourners — including the former president — paid their respects to the couple as they lay in state.

Gov. Tim Walz, who considered Hortman a political ally and friend, urged people to honor the "remarkable" Minnesotans by "building a state equal to their aspirations and a politics worthy of their example."

• "I know that, in times of seemingly inexplicable tragedy, people often search for some kind of meaning, some kind of lesson we can learn as we process our loss," an emotional Walz said during his eulogy.

"And maybe this is a moment when each of us can examine the way we work together, the way we talk about each other, the way we fight for the things we care about," he said.

🏀 The Timberwolves over the weekend locked up fan favorite Naz Reid to a five-year, $125 million contract and Julius Randle to a three-year, $100 million deal, according to ESPN sources. (ESPN)

🌪️ Early Sunday morning storms brought multiple tornado touchdowns in Carver County and knocked out power to 50,000 metro customers. (Fox 9)

• By Sunday evening, Xcel Energy had restored electricity to all but 4,500 of them. (KSTP)

🎯 Target CEO Brian Cornell's tenure is schedule to end in a few months. His successor — likely Michael Fiddelke — will be tasked with reversing declining sales and dealing with blowback on a DEI pullback. (Star Tribune)

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It's prime ice cream season in Minnesota and that means shops often have lines winding out the doors.

Friction point: Free sampling — which can add to the backups — is a highly divisive issue, Axios Twin Cities has learned.

Weigh in: What is an appropriate number of samples for someone to take when there's a line? Let us know via this survey.