Revival St. Paul is undergoing, well, a revival.

Owners Nick Rancone and Thomas Boemer have gone down a best-of-Chicago rabbit hole and are now offering Chicago tavern-style pizzas and Italian beef sandwiches.

They’ve changed the look and feel of the restaurant to more like a tavern, too, and to go along with that, there’s a new name: Bar Revival.

We got a sneak peek of the menu, which still includes the fried chicken and burger the restaurant is known for but cuts out some of the barbecue options, which are still available in Minneapolis.

The idea is to make the spot less of a destination and more of a neighborhood hang with good pizza, more downscale drinks — think sweet punches, $8 rail drinks and blended margaritas — and really good sandwiches. Food prices are affordable, too, with no pizza or sandwich topping $20.

Rancone, who worked in Chicago for 10 years, was feeling some nostalgia for his favorite spots, so the duo hit them all on a delicious research mission.

Boemer nerded out on making the perfect Chicago-style Italian beef, which is dry rubbed then roasted in jus and rests at least a day before slicing. They’re making their own giardiniera, too, which is also a three-day labor of love. Like in the Windy City, you can order your sandwich wet (dipped in jus), dry and/or with cheese, giardiniera or sweet peppers.

The pizzas have an impossibly thin crust (thinner than most Midwestern pies), which really allows the ingredients — top-notch here, of course — to shine. We tried an Italian sausage giardiniera, a triple pepperoni and a wild mushroom, and there was not a loser in the bunch.

Boemer is a woodworker who makes guitars in his spare time, so it shouldn’t surprise anyone that he painted the new mural in the dining room, a graffiti-inspired Saintly City skyline emblazoned with the words St. Paul vs. Everybody.

Bar Revival is now open seven days a week. Delivery is available through Door Dash and Uber Eats.

Bar Revival >> 525 Selby Ave., St. Paul; 651-340-2355; revivalrestaurants.com

Warm up with dumplings and rewards

If you love dumplings of all shapes, sizes and ethnicities as much as I do, Visit St. Paul has a project for you!

The Dumpling Passport encourages diners to visit 33 St. Paul restaurants that offer dumplings from empanadas to gyoza to pelmeni. As a reward for each dumpling you try, you get a stamp on your passport. Rewards are offered along the way — a sticker for five restaurants, a chance to win a gift card at eight, Dumpling passport socks at 15 and all of the above when you taste 30 different dumplings.

Dumplings are the ultimate comfort food and great on a chilly day, so this seems like a great reason to get out of the house and support local restaurants this winter.

To get your pass and more details, go to visitsaintpaul.com/dumpling-passport.

OG Zaza taking over kitchen at King Coil

King Coil Spirits in Vandalia Tower is scrapping its Roman pizza program and partnering with New-Haven-style pizza darling OG Zaza.

Chef Josh Hedquist’s fermented-dough, thin-crust pizzas are already available at Potluck Food Hall in Roseville and at a second location next to Canterbury Park in Shakopee. This third location will allow the teams at King Coil and OG Zaza to team up for special events like pizza-making classes, pairing dinners and catering packages.

“We are extremely excited to team up with OG Zaza,” King Coil founder and lead distiller Matt Lange said in a news release. “Having an excellent operator like Josh take over the food program will ensure that our customers have access to top-quality food while allowing us to focus on what we do best: making high-quality, hand-crafted cocktails from our award-winning spirits.”

The kitchen switchover will happen in mid-December.

King Coil Spirits >> 550 Vandalia St., Suite 140, St. Paul; 651-243-0380; kingcoilspirits.com