Two Fine Dining Veterans Are Launching a $3 Value Menu in the Twin Cities

As fast food prices balloon, Toma Mojo Grill is adding snack wraps, value-sized French fries, and $2.99 cans of Hamm’s to its menu

There’s an antidote to the hyper-capitalist tailspin that is the Wendy’s surge pricing debacle, and its name is a Mango Crispy Chicken Snack Wrap That Costs $3. Toma Mojo Grill, the fast-casual, Spanish-style restaurant by Minneapolis fine dining veterans Paul Backer and Michael Knox, is adding a value menu to its already-pretty-reasonable pricing this Friday, March 1. All 12 items are $2.99 and under.

“We kept seeing story after story about rising food prices — we were like, all right, part of what we were trying to do was make our restaurant affordable,” Backer says. So in January, Toma Mojo added chicken snack wraps (mango, piri ranch, or spicy, served crispy or grilled) to its regular menu. They were a hit. “People got a kick out of it. Some people were like, ‘Oh my God, I haven’t had that since McDonald’s got rid of it.’” For Friday’s launch, the restaurant is adding a vegetarian hummus wrap, value-sized French fries for $2.50, and saucy chicken drummies for just $1.99, plus Hamm’s and Fulton hard lemonade, available all-day everyday.

Backer and Knox are alums of chef Steven Brown’s James Beard-nominated restaurant Tilia, where they served as executive chef and manager, respectively. Their mission at Toma Mojo has always been to serve “honest to goodness food with a price that doesn’t hurt,” as Backer puts it. They’ve succeeded: It’s easy to get a meal of hot roasted chicken, mac and cheese, and crispy Brussels sprouts — or a pulled pork sandwich or piri-piri grain bowl — for under $15.

The $3 value menu is a bit of a gamble — Backer’s not sure yet how it’ll impact the restaurant’s bottom line. “This isn’t tried and true yet,” he says. “It’s a little scary, I’ll admit that right now.” But he has noticed that the snack wraps have brought in new customers. “They literally say to us, ‘Hey, I heard you were doing these snack wraps and I go by here all the time, but I’ve never actually stopped in.”

Since opening in 2021, Toma Mojo has had to raise its regular menu prices a few times to stay afloat, Backer says. Many independent restaurants across the nation have done the same, in response to inflation, rising rents, labor shortages, wage increases, supply chain issues, and credit card swipe fees.

Even fast food restaurants, typically the home turf of the value meal, have made significant price hikes over the past few years, evidenced by $18 Big Mac combos and the like. (Taco Bell, meanwhile, is holding it down with its Cravings Value Menu, all 10 items $3 or less.) Their reasons for those increases — which, at least in McDonald’s case, seem to be driving lower-income customers away — are a bit murky. Executives have blamed inflation and wage increases, among other factors.

There’s far less talk, interestingly enough, of exorbitant C-suite pay. Chipotle CEO Brian Niccol reportedly made $38 million in 2020; McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski saw his salary nearly double from $10.8 million to $20 million in 2021. It makes you wonder — if an independent Minnesota restaurant roasting its own damn chickens can sell a $3 snack wrap, can’t they?

Toma Mojo Grill