![James Winberg, Bob Gerken and Mike Brown of Travail in Robbinsdale. ] CARLOS GONZALEZ • cgonzalez@startribune.com – Robbinsdale, MN – December 5, 2019, 3 chef/owners of Travail (Mike Brown, James Winberg, Bob Gerken), in their new space in Robbinsdale.](https://arc.stimg.co/startribunemedia/KZGFAJYGRI3CENKOXAZYKLI3LM.jpg?&w=1080)
Has anyone had a more productive year than the ownership trio behind the Travail Collective?
Let's run down what James Winberg, Bob Gerken and Mike Brown accomplished over the past 12 months.
They converted their flagship Travail Kitchen & Amusements in Robbinsdale into a new home for their top-flight Pig Ate My Pizza, expanding the pizzeria's ambitions and adding a brewery component.
While construction commenced across the street on their new home for Travail, the trio and their crew decamped to Minneapolis and launched the Travail Mpls. Residency, which, as the year progressed, morphed into four distinctly different restaurants.
The range — and the turn-on-a-dime focus — was astounding: a re-creation of Umami (a callback to the trio's wildly successful 2013 Asian pop-up), an homage to 1990s fine dining, a celebration of contemporary Mexican cooking and then an affectionate salute to Solera, the former downtown Minneapolis tapas restaurant. All followed Travail's should-be-patented prepaid tasting-menu format.
Along with the insatiable need to burn off creative energy the way a CrossFit enthusiast consumes calories, Winberg, Gerken and Brown used the Residency to remain in touch with their enormous fan base. And to keep their coterie of highly skilled kitchen personnel employed and immersed in a fruitful on-the-job training opportunity.
"We're sharpening our chefs like knives," said Brown with a laugh.
Along the way, the Travailians collaborated with a host of top chefs, including Doug Flicker, Tim McKee and Gustavo Romero.
