Loring Park mainstay Café & Bar Lurcat to close in September

It inhabited a storied Loring Park address for 23 years, but with its dangling crystal chandeliers, black-and-white tiles and starched linens, Café & Bar Lurcat dripped with Old Hollywood glamour.

It became a celebrity magnet, a top-chef training ground, a Pride party hot spot and a romantic date-night go-to in the D’Amico & Partners portfolio.

But as its lease runs out, Café & Bar Lurcat’s time on Loring Park is coming to a close. The classic Minneapolis restaurant will end its run Sept. 5, the owners announced Tuesday.

“For 23 years, Café & Bar Lurcat has been a beacon of celebration, a space where every meal is a memory, and guests are family,” said co-owner Richard D’Amico.

“It has been an incredible honor to be a part of so many lives and to create a space where memories were made and celebrated,” co-owner Larry D’Amico added.

Café & Bar Lurcat is the latest Twin Cities institution to announce a closing in recent days. The 119-year-old dive bar legend Palmer’s will close in September. And Dinkytown burger-and-malts diner Annie’s Parlour ended its half-century run July 1.

The D’Amico brothers, with Paul Smith, opened Café & Bar Lurcat in 2002, taking over the onetime artist haven Loring Cafe. It joined D’Amico Cucina and Campiello Uptown in the company’s collection of standard-setters for Twin Cities’ fine dining.

Among the long list of Lurcat alumni who went on to eminent careers of their own was Isaac Becker, who owns 112 Eatery, Bar La Grassa and St. Pierre Steak & Seafood with his wife, Nancy St. Pierre.

Cooking at Café & Bar Lurcat “was life altering, very rewarding, and taught me the guest experience is as vital as the food itself,” Becker said in a statement. “Nancy and I always say our goal is to own and operate a restaurant that we’d want to work in and dine at — that was Lurcat.”

Amid the engagements, wedding parties and Pride celebrations, the restaurant drew just as many regulars for a martini and a matchstick salad of apples, cheese and chives at the grand bar.

Then there were the famous guests: Lady Gaga, Mick Jagger, Prince.

Lady Gaga dined on beet salad and filet mignon. Jagger’s favorite meal? “He liked the French fries. He went [to Lurcat] for the pommes frites‚” Larry D’Amico told the Star Tribune in 2023.

For its last weeks, Café & Bar Lurcat (1624 Harmon Place, Mpls.) will add a menu of “Lurcat Classics.” After Sept. 5, gift cards can be redeemed at other D’Amico & Partners restaurants, including three D’Amico & Sons delis in the Twin Cities, and Campiello and the Continental in Naples, Fla.

The D’Amicos closed their long-running Campiello in Eden Prairie in 2023. Besides their casual cafes, their Twin Cities business now focuses mainly on catering events at venues across the metro.