Get ready to say goodbye to short-lived Ringo. The restaurant is serving its last meal on Dec. 18.
First-time restaurateur Jim Ringo opened his ambitious namesake operation in St. Louis Park's West End development in April. The format was unusual: opening chef Ryan Aberle took his diners to a different international destination each month (Korea in May, Belgium in June). Aberle and Ringo parted company in July, and sous chef David Bonilla took over.
Ringo -- that's the restaurateur, not the restaurant -- opened a second restaurant, Forum, in downtown Minneapolis, about two weeks after Ringo -- the restaurant -- debuted. (By the way, if you haven't visited Forum, you owe it to yourself to take in its incredible art deco glory; the restaurant is housed in the former Forum Cafeteria interior, and it's a doozy, one of the country's great examples of the genre).
Ringo isn't the first dining casualty of the West End development. Sauce, the first Minnesota outlet of a quick-service pizza/pasta chain, lasted less than four months.
