It’s hard out there for a libertine. Parasole restaurant group has temporarily closed its restaurant in Calhoun Square in Uptown for a little lowering of the concept bar. The restaurant has, until now, been known as the meaty concept put together by the large local restaurant group and James Beard Award winning chef Tim McKee. Beginning March 29, the restaurant will be more bar and known as “Uptown’s Rec Room,” according to a post on the restaurant’s Facebook page.
Libertine will retain its name and, thankfully, its gorgeous rooftop patio, but will add games into the mix. The menu will shift to more bar food and games, which is right on trend with places like Up/Down nearby and the recent runaway success of spots like Can Can Wonderland. (Although, perhaps they should take heed of the burnout of Bearcat.)
This will be the third concept for Parasole at this location. They opened the restaurant as Uptown Cafeteria and Support Group back in June of 2010. Cafeteria closed and reopened as Libertine in 2014 when the company crowd-sourced the name. It was overseen by McKee, but chef Stephan Hesse ran the kitchen until he left the company last year to open his own restaurant, St. Paul’s Pajarito.
Parasole also owns nearby Chino Latino, along with Muffuletta, Salut, Pittsburgh Blue, Burger Jones and Good Earth. The company closed its pizza restaurant Mozza Mia last week.
When Libertine: Uptown’s Rec Room reopens later this week, the slogan will shift to “come for the games and stay for snacks and cocktails.” It will be more drinks and bar food than dinner. (Although, a spokesman assured GoMN.com that it would “really good bar food.”)