Downtown Minneapolis bar Devil's Advocate will close at the end of the week and then reopen with a tweaked concept several blocks away.
The restaurant at 89 S. 10th St. – which is owned by Erik Forsberg, the owner of Dan Kelly's Pub and Erik the Red – will close after brunch on Sunday, April 9. The operation will move to the current Dan Kelly's Pub at 212 S. 7th St. shortly afterward. The Dan Kelly's brand, which Forsberg added to his portfolio a year ago, will discontinue.
The building where Devil's Advocate currently is has been in negotiations to be sold for more than two years, making the move a long expected one for Forsberg.
"That was the original intention for buying Dan Kelly's," Forsberg said. "To move Devil's Advocate there. We haven't known what is going to happen with our building for a long time."
Forsberg said he hopes the current Dan Kelly's operation won't have to shut down at all, and the transition will be seamless. Knowing the move was inevitable, Forsberg had the floors redone shortly after the New Year. He says a light remodel -- including the back hallway and bathroom can be done while maintaining business. Forsberg also plans to add an alleyway patio.
Meanwhile, the menus will switch almost immediately. Forsberg said Devil's Advocate's brunch menu will be implemented at the Dan Kelly space on the weekend of the 15th. A regular menu overhaul, which he said will stray from Devil's Advocate's original, will follow in the next week or two.
"We're calling it Devil's Advocate 2.0," he said. "There will be some odes, but we want to take it in a different direction."
As of now, Forsberg said he doesn't expect to have to lay off any of his employees between work at the new Dan Kelly's and business at Erik the Red near U.S. Bank Stadium picking up.