Butcher & the Boar will reopen in the North Loop in 2022

Butcher & the Boar anchored a downtown Minneapolis corner for eight years until it closed in fall 2020. And while that corner, at 12th and Hennepin, has since become the Butcher's Tale, the original restaurant has found a new place to lay down roots about a mile and a half away.

The new Butcher & the Boar, which is now part of the Jester Concepts restaurant group, will open at 901 N. 3rd St., Mpls., in summer 2022.

"We really wanted to find the neighborhood that was the right fit," said Brent Frederick, owner of Jester Concepts. "Right now, the downtown core is ailing a little bit, not everyone is back to work, it's a little empty, so we wanted to find the right pocket."

Their search brought them to an industrial corner of the North Loop, to a building that used to house the offices of Mpls. St. Paul magazine.

"There was already a polished concrete floors, already exposed timbers," Frederick said. "Every single one of our restaurants is in a historic building, and this isn't, but it gave that feeling that there's some soul here." Outdoor space and lots of parking were other draws.

It's also around the corner from two of Jester's other restaurants, Borough and Parlour, both on Washington Av. N.

Jester announced early 2021 that a post-bankruptcy Butcher & the Boar would join its portfolio, after acquiring the rights to the name and recipes but not the original location. Soon after, another restaurant group, Kaskaid Hospitality (owners of Crave) opened the Butcher's Tale at 1121 Hennepin Av., Mpls. Some key staffers of the original restaurant signed on to that project.

Is there room for two Butcher-esque restaurants in such close proximity? It's a question Frederick has thought about.

"I wish them well," he said. "I never want to see another restaurant fail, and I'm hoping to lay to rest the confusion. Butcher & the Boar is our concept and we are going to do the best we can with the 2.0 version."

Gift cards and event deposits from the original Butcher & the Boar will be honored at the new restaurant when it opens next year, Frederick added.