Revival abruptly closes all restaurant locations

Revival, the fried chicken, barbecue and most recently Chicago sandwich and pizza restaurants, has closed all four of its locations effective immediately.

A tipster told the Minnesota Star Tribune that employees were informed via email overnight or this morning, and the restaurant posted an announcement via Instagram Monday morning. Revival had locations in Minneapolis, St. Paul, St. Louis Park and Market at Malcolm Yards.

When reached by phone, chef and co-owner Thomas Boemer was resigned. “It’s heartbreaking. All good things come to an end. We had a really good run,” he said.

Boemer and co-owner Nick Rancone founded Revival as a casual fried chicken offshoot of their fine-dining restaurant Corner Table. February would have marked 10 years in business.

It’s also marks the end of the duo’s 14-year restaurant partnership as the Twist Davis Group, which was founded when the two took over Corner Table from its original owner.

In their time together, the restaurants would be celebrated as some of the best in the Twin Cities and receive recognition from the James Beard Awards when Boemer was recognized as a semifinalist in the Best Chef: Midwest category.

Corner Table closed in the summer of 2019. Another one of their restaurant efforts was In Bloom, the original anchor of Keg and Case Market in St. Paul, which officially closed in the summer of 2020 during the pandemic.

Both of those restaurants were fine dining, but Revival was always the more casual outpost built on fried chicken. It was a concept that started as a pop-up, but eventually opened as a full-time restaurant known for long waits and lines out the door.

Locations were added and menu options grew, but a change for the St. Paul restaurant earlier this year, when the menu expanded to add Chicago-style beef sandwiches and tavern-style pizzas, might have been the Hail Mary pass that didn’t catch on with the enthusiasm the company needed to move forward.

“With St. Paul, we were trying to interject some fun and find a path forward,” Boemer said. “The worst part is that our team right now is amazing across the board. That is the hardest thing. Across four restaurants, we were trying to steer the Titanic. That only happens by the hard work and grace by the people you’re surrounded by and they all gave it all.”

And now, in the midst of the slowest season in the industry, more than 100 restaurant workers are — without notice — without jobs.

Co-owner Rancone said the decision came after a hard look at the company’s finances. “Anything but a sudden closure would have put our staff and vendors at risk of not getting paid,” he said.

Boemer added his perspective saying, “It’s been a very difficult few years. We fought through COVID. There are a lot of people in our industry having a really hard time right now. January and February are hard on restaurants. Winter is a difficult time and this one was ferocious.”

As to the nature of the announcement, he conceded: “The abruptness is hard. It’s hard, but it’s part of the nature of how these things come and go. Sadly, restaurants are not a forever thing.”