After a long pause — and a complete refresh — Forepaugh’s is coming back.

The storied Irving Park restaurant closed temporarily in 2019 after the sudden death of chef Kyle Bell and never reopened after the pandemic.

Bruce Taher, president and chief executive of Taher Inc., which owns the building, said the building had seen better days and needed serious renovations.

The company considered selling the property but decided to bring the restaurant back. Taher said that more than a year of work went into the refresh, which includes new carpeting, lights, air conditioning, a remodeled kitchen and a new porch that cost $350,000.

Taher brought in James Beard Award-winning chef Tim McKee to consult, and the executive chef will be Jeremy Wessing, whose résumé includes opening chef de cuisine at Baldamar and stints at the Dakota and Sea Change among others.

The menu will lean toward modern Italian cuisine. There will be steaks and seafood, but also fresh, made-in-house pasta.

McKee said pastas will range from a version stuffed with shelled peas and ricotta and topped with a lemon-creme-fraiche sauce and bits of blue crab to a red-wine orecchiette with duck sausage and rapini.

Cocktails will be created by local consultants Earl Giles.

The stately Victorian building is the former residence of St. Paul pioneer Joseph Lynbrandt Forepaugh, who built it in 1870. It was turned into a restaurant in 1976 and operated as such until the 2019 closure. Taher purchased the building in 2007.

The restaurant is still training and waiting on a liquor license from St. Paul, but the team is shooting for an early August opening.

“We’re all part of the community and we just love that Forepaugh’s is part of that institutional community in St. Paul,” Taher said. “So many people have had their proms and celebration parties there and they want to come back. We’re so excited to have some fun and we’re giving it our best right now. The proof is in the pudding about how it comes out, but I think it’s going to be great.”

Forepaugh’s: 276 S. Exchange St., St. Paul

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