Downtown restaurant Gray Duck Tavern has abruptly closed.

A sign on the window, structured as a formal memorandum to customers, says the closure of the Wabasha Street restaurant is permanent and effective immediately.

A sign posted to the window of the Gray Duck Tavern on July 16, 2024, announced that the restaurant had permanently closed.  (Jared Kaufman / Pioneer Press)

The restaurant is owned by Madison Equities, a real estate company previously led by Jim Crockarell, who died earlier this year. Subsequently, the company — likely the largest property property owner downtown — put its entire portfolio of commercial buildings up for sale in a move that could significantly reshape the area. The building that houses Gray Duck, the Lowry Apartments, is also listed for sale, though separately.

Representatives of Madison Equities, which is now overseen by Crockarell’s widow, Rosemary Kortgard, could not be reached for comment.

Gray Duck Tavern opened in 2017 in a space that had been vacant since 1982.

Since then, it has been revamped and reiterated several times: First in early 2020, when chef Justin Sutherland did away with the “global comfort food” menu in favor of Minnesota staples; and again in 2022 when Joe Kasel, who now runs Pauly’s Pub and Grill on Selby Avenue, reopened the restaurant with a bar-food menu.

With Gray Duck’s closure, Cathedral Hill spot Handsome Hog is the only Madison Equities-run restaurant still operational. Sutherland, who was long associated with the restaurant and had expressed interest in buying it, left the company earlier this year. This summer, the chef was arrested and charged with making threats of domestic violence against his girlfriend.

The company’s other eateries at one time included Noyes & Cutler, which never reopened after a temporary closure last year; Ox Cart Ale House, whose rooftop overlooking CHS Field has become a seasonal outpost of Pauly’s; and Eagle Street Grille, in a prime spot across from the Xcel Energy Center now occupied by Zamboni’s on 7th.

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