Twin Cities restaurants face shifting landscape amid Revival's closure
ST. PAUL, Minn. — After nearly a decade, owners Thomas Boemer and Nick Rancone have announced their restaurant Revival is closing its doors.
"It was a combination of rapidly increasing costs with a rapidly decreasing revenue," said Boemer.
The suddenness of the closure was to ensure their 100 employees, across four locations, still get paid for time they've already worked, Boemer said.
January is traditionally a slow month for restaurants like Revival, but Boemer said this was the slowest January he's ever seen.
"The costs jumped so high, in such a short period of time, that the value proposition for our customers isn't there," said Boemer.
"Now is the time where we usually start to see a lot of closures," said Joy Summers, food and drink writer for the Minnesota Star Tribune.
Despite news of closures, Summers said this past year was actually a remarkable one for local restaurants. In 2024, the Star Tribune tracked 161 restaurant openings and 44 closures.
Usually, Summers said, the opening and closing numbers are about equal.
"Everything is more expensive and we're kind of reaching a threshold for what people can afford if they want to go out and eat and support our local independent restaurants," said Summers.
For restaurants to survive, Boemer said people need to accept that higher menu prices are the new reality.
"It's really going to take our customers to be comfortable with and be able to pay the higher price for dining that it now costs across the board," said Boemer.
On Friday, Saint Dinette in St. Paul announced it will be closing its doors in March. The restaurant said in an Instagram post that "many factors" played a role in their decision to close.