Razava Bread and Owamni's Turtle Island Dinner Series
The Tap for Friday, January 31, 2025
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THE RISE AND FALL OF REVIVAL
When I interviewed Thomas Boemer in 2012, he was the chef at the rebooted and white-hot restaurant Corner Table, where he and partner Nick Rancone were bringing approachable warmth to truly enjoyable high end dining. After we talked, I suggested that his affinity for high quality chicken would lend itself well to an upscale fried chicken joint, a hole in the local market that his mid-South background was ideally shaped to fill. It could be the Brasa to Corner Table's Alma. [1]
Maybe Revival was already on his mind, or maybe that conversation was the seed that grew into the local fried birds and smoked meats mini-empire. Either way, the seed landed in fertile ground, and with a lot of work and a whole lot of chickens, the concept blossomed. After launching in 2015, it became wildly popular, spread with vigor, evolved for nearly a decade and - with grim finality - died off suddenly earlier this month, with all the swiftness and shock of delicate herbs zapped by an early frost.
The implosion of Revival was notable for its scale (four restaurants with more than 100 employees) and its speed; the closures happened literally overnight, catching the public and media equally unaware. Weeks earlier, the Revival team had debuted a Chicago-style beef sandwich and tavern-style pizza concept that might have caught on and floated the chain back to safety, but it launched at a difficult time of year and without the necessary funding to allow for iteration and publicity.
I haven't been to Revival for a while - I'm cursed to constantly haunt new restaurants and I had the chain filed under "often good, sometimes dodgy, always expensive," a category that I don't often revisit. When I'm researching for Heavy Table, the sky's the limit and I'll take any sort of chance on the menu (I just went in on a $155 dish at La Estancia [2]), but when it's my own meager bankroll you'll usually find me and my family at Los Ocampo or Curry Corner.
But Revival deserves a salute for setting the standard for quality fried chicken in a city that had very little before its arrival. Now between classic fried chicken, hot chicken, and Korean-style chicken we've got dozens of independent options, varying in quality but often very good. I started writing about food in Minneapolis-St. Paul nearly 20 years ago. Since then, the scene here has gained depth, breadth, and quality, to a dizzying degree. The rise of Revival and similarly imaginative independent restaurants has been a major part of that Minnesota food story. – James Norton
THE TAP
The Tap is the Heavy Table’s ongoing biweekly account of noteworthy Minnesota restaurant openings, closings, and future openings. Please send any tips to editor@heavytable.com. All dates are approximate based on best information available; opening dates, in particular, tend to shift around a lot.
NOW OPEN (Up to 3 Months)
EGGFLIP/SUSHIFLIP, The Market at Malcolm Yards, 501 30th Ave SE, Minneapolis ■ Korean-inspired egg dishes and sushi anchor the menu at this new restaurant under the roof of the Market at Malcolm Yards. The egg dishes skew rich and meaty, the sushi side of things includes poke bowls and plenty of sauced up and modernized roll options. Opened January 20, 2025.