Auriga is shutting down
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Maybe there's something to that bad-news-comes-in-threes adage. First Levain closes, then Five Restaurant & Street Lounge. The next critically acclaimed Minneapolis restaurant to go? Auriga, which is closing for good on Saturday after an almost 10-year run.
"It's a wonderful thing to own a restaurant, but it's also constricting, the golden handcuffs," said chef/co-owner Doug Flicker. "Believe me, I've spent plenty of time speculating about why we weren't busier, but in the end it doesn't really matter. We always said we would do this for 10 years. We're not the first to close, we won't be the last, either. It's the way the market works."
Culinarily, the restaurant's last week will be business as usual.
"At first I thought, 'We'll change the menu and do what I've always wanted to do,' but that changes Auriga, and I don't want tha!
t," said Flicker. I've already had the time to go through anger, rage, denial and grief, so I don't want this last week to get bogged down with sadness or playing the 'what if?' psychological games. I like the menu we have right now. It's at a good place to simply stop. So that's what we're going to do."
RICK NELSON |