Notable closings leave noticeable hole in Twin Cities dining scene

It’s been quite an adventure in the Twin Cities dining scene since the last issue of Foodservice News hit your mailbox, hasn’t it? Yes, yes, yes, this magazine covers more than just the Twin Cities. But the events that happened here are significant, and warrant some thought. (It’s enough of an issue to drive this editor to actually leave a comment or two on certain local food blogs concerned with the topic.)

In case you haven’t heard, three of Minneapolis’ much fawned-over upscale dining restaurants—Levain, Five Restaurant & Street Lounge and, most recently, Auriga—closed within the span of four weeks. Throw in that Seth Bixby Daugherty resigned from his post at Cosmos, and that leaves four of the most talented chefs in the Midwest (Levain’s Steven Brown, Five’s Stewart Woodman and Auriga’s Doug Flicker being the others) sitting idle—a sizeable hole in the region’s collective palette.

There are many reasons being tossed around for the closings, ranging, initially, from too many fine dining seats in the Twin Cities for the affluent and interested to fill (there needs to be a recalculation now with these closings) coupled with Midwest taste buds being too conservative.

These arguments, I think, are weak. In my humble opinion, I think there’s a very adventurous crowd out there—particularly among the younger generations—wanting to be challenged. The proliferation of ethnic restaurants of late is a good indicator of that. Hit Central Avenue in Minneapolis for lunch and there’s quite a variety of folks chowing down, from downtown professionals to the locals. University Avenue in St. Paul is another area packed with ethnic restaurants, supported by diverse groups of diners. Keep driving into the suburbs and, while the independent ethnic joints thin out, there are still the Chipotles and Baja Sols—chains though they are—giving the young generation growing up out there a different flavor profile from the sub, pizza and burger joints that filled my youth.

Losing Levain and Auriga is a harsh blow to the Twin Cities’ standing as a dining destination, however. I can’t bring myself to say Five’s closing was of equal weight—there were problems with the restaurant in its short life, consistency among them (if you’re paying big bucks, it MUST be good, night in, night out). But one reason for Levain’s and Auriga’s demise—and other high-end restaurants’ difficulties—has as much to do with this younger, adventurous crowd being squeezed economically as it does with the high-income crowd having more high-end options in which to spend their money. For instance: This adventurous crowd of young professionals coupled up and probably bought a house in the last few years and is now discovering—for a variety of reasons—that their combined income of $80,000 to $100,000 no longer puts much in the bank after the bills are paid (and that’s without a kid). What might have been a three times a year visit to a high-end restaurant is now down to once or not at all.

Throw in all these inexpensive, family run ethnic joints springing up in the cities, plus the neighborhood bistro ramping up quality and serving good food at a reasonable price, well, there’s where those dining dollars are going. Oh, and don’t forget the upwardly creeping mark-up on booze. I recently paid $9 for a Stoli (Stoli!) martini. (As a food industry person, I understand the business rationale. As a consumer, I find it offensive. I’ll buy the bottle for $15 and get myself hospitalized, thank you.) This leaves a choice for that adventurous crowd with limited disposable income: Go out to dinner with friends, or meet up later for a couple marked up drinks and keep the tab down? Many choose the latter. There’s also an increasing number of this adventurous crowd choosing to cook at home, and…well, everyone knows it’s a complicated business.

In a conversation with two fellas from U.S. Foodservice-Plymouth for another article in this issue of Foodservice News, I tossed out the question of the future of fine dining in the Twin Cities. “Fine dining will always be in more demand in a market like New York City,” said Dan Salem, regional vice president-territorial sales. I bump into Salem at various trade shows—he’s one of those guys that’s been around awhile, and is a keen observer of the industry. “Upscale casual restaurants have replaced many traditional white tablecloth restaurants,” he added.

True enough. Maybe those people paying upwards of $60 for a pair of jeans expect to be able to wear them out to dinner—Lurcat is filled whenever I’ve been there. Levain tried to bridge a gap between fine dining and casual—fine-dining quality food in a more casual atmosphere—but for the prices charged, the environment it provided might not have met people’s expectations. But one could argue that for those appreciating both inventive and accessible cuisine, a posh environment shouldn’t matter. (La Belle Vie is effectively bridging the gap with its bar and lounge area and menu, without crimping the high-end panache of its dining room.)

But having great food does not always bring great profit. “Industry wide, what we’re seeing is that you can have the best food out there and have what seems to be a great business model, but having great food doesn’t always translate into great success, and that’s one of the big challenges for most restaurateurs,” said Kurt Nelson, U.S Foodservice-Plymouth vice president of marketing. “There are so many other elements.”

So back to the economic argument. Nelson suggested that another factor in the segment’s decline was an economic “compression” after 9/11, where many diners found themselves knocked down a rung on the dining ladder: many who ate at fine dining restaurants now go upscale casual, a part of the upscale casual crowd now goes to a family or casual restaurant, and so on. “Fine dining is, I think, the one that’s been hurt the most.”

I agree with this, if only for the date. True, after the terrorist attacks there was an overall economic hiccup. But even measuring by New York City—the epicenter of the attacks—alone, that hiccup ended. A while ago. Whatever’s happening out there, it seems spare cash is in short supply for the broad middle class, members of which also appreciated a nice meal at a top-end restaurant more than once a year. Pick your politics, but whatever wealth has been generated with a record-high stock market in recent years, it hasn’t trickled down to the masses.

Perhaps all this analysis is neither here nor there, however, and can be summed up simply by what Flicker, the chef and co-owner of Auriga, told StarTribune restaurant critic Rick Nelson after announcing Auriga was closing on January 27: “I think there’s a pendulum in the restaurant business and it swings every 10 years or so,” he said. “When we opened in 1997, the pendulum was swinging up to Goodfellow’s and fine dining, until people got bored with it. Then the pendulum moved in the other direction, to something radically different, with places like 112 Eatery and Town Talk Diner.”

I agree with this, too. It kinda goes back to the upscale casual argument. Both the 112 and Town Talk offer fine dining quality (and high-quality bar fare) at very reasonable prices. Auriga also took a hit, I’m sure, from the Guthrie moving to its new riverside location. But Flicker also divulged getting hit with an $8,300 heating bill, and having to cover it by cutting a prep shift. That’s a problem all of us having to watch their budgets can relate to. Stagnant wages and increased cost-of-living for the young-ish adventurous professionals equals cutting expenditures equals hurt for restaurants we wish we could visit more often.