Merriam Park’s Modern Farmhouse Restaurant Has Closed

Heirloom, the farmhouse inspired restaurant in St. Paul’s Merriam Park closed as of July 31. Chef and owner Wyatt Evans made the Facebook announcement hours before the final dinner. The restaurant first opened in the winter of 2015 just over the Lake Street Bridge from Minneapolis on Marshall Avenue near the Cretin intersection.

The restaurant was the work of Evans, a longtime chef at W.A. Frost, also in St. Paul. Heirloom was his first restaurant under his ownership.

Evans again in a Facebook post, “This neighborhood has been my second home for the past two and half years, and we have shared some great times, I only wish it could continue,” said Evans.

Back when the restaurant opened, it had hoped to be one of the first to pay all employees a fair wage and do away with tipping, but customers couldn’t let the habit and control of gratuity go and the program was eventually dropped.

During its tenure Heirloom earned a three star review from the Star Tribune, where Rick Nelson raved about the always wonderful “interesting vegetables,” dish. “This cornucopia was arranged with a Cézanne-like improvisational quality, although I’m fairly certain that the 19th-century French painter did not have gossamer (and delicately, wonderfully buttery) whey foam at his disposal.”

• A Look Inside Heirloom [ETC]
• Heirloom Offers Updated Farmhouse Cooking [STRIB]