Longtime restaurateur Randy Norman reimagining Rondo’s Golden Thyme

Golden Thyme in St. Paul’s historic Rondo community will relaunch this week as two eateries led by longtime Twin Cities restaurateur Randy Norman.

Founders Mychael and Stephanie Wright retired in 2023 and turned the Golden Thyme keys over to the Rondo Community Land Trust. As recently as last year, plans called for a new full-service restaurant guided by celebrity chef Justin Sutherland.

But after therestaurateur and “Top Chef” contestant pleaded guilty to making violent threats with a gun during a domestic dispute nearly a year ago, the land trust went back to the drawing board.

On Tuesday, Norman — think Om, Norman’s steakhouse, Seven Sushi and Bellanotte — will join St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter and Mikeya Griffin, executive director of the land trust, to officially announce the details.

“We are so excited,” said Griffin. “We have wanted to ensure that we forwarded Mychael and Stephanie’s legacy and that we didn’t close down a much beloved community anchor.”

The Golden Thyme Restaurant and Bar at the original 934 Selby Ave. location will change things up significantly from its first birthing.

This time around, the restaurant will serve elevated Southern cuisine to an afternoon and night-time crowd. Added will be a bar and eventually live music and Sunday brunch, Griffin said.

The second part of the plan, Golden Thyme Coffee Cafe at 856 Selby Ave., another property owned by the trust, will serve coffee, sandwiches and soup, and also act as a community gathering space and small-business incubator.

The Wrights’ vision grew from a seed of wanting to improve a historically Black neighborhood into a thriving business, community hub and the anchor for the 22-year old annual Selby Avenue Jazz festival.

The rebirth retains the mission of focusing on community and commerce along Selby Avenue, said Griffin, noting the restaurants will join more than 25 small businesses along a nine-block stretch.

“Golden Thyme has been a community anchor for 25 years, infusing our Rondo neighborhood with vitality, opportunity, and beloved family recipes,” Carter, the St. Paul mayor, said in an email. “As a son of Rondo, I’m thrilled to see the Wrights’ legacy grow and bring fresh energy to this historic neighborhood.”

The land trust invested $500,000 to renovate both spaces and bring the businesses to fruition, Griffin said.

The ventures will employ 35 workers.

“Over the last three years we’ve really been focused on bringing new life to the corridor between Lexington and Dale on Selby Avenue,” Griffin said. “We’ve been doing a lot and have more to do to revitalize and make this a celebration of our old historic Rondo community and local business growth.”

The new and restored eateries are expected to serve tenants, neighbors and area business owners alike.

To ensure they succeed, the venues are relying on Norman’s deep restaurant expertise and his roots in Louisiana, where he was born, and in Texas, where he was raised.

The results, according to the plan, is to create Southern classics with a modern flair. On the menu are jumbo shrimp and sausage jambalaya, gumbo, garlic wings, West African puff bread and spiced blueberry Arnold Palmers.

Norman helped create the menu and hired the staff, including chef and Rondo resident Adam Randall and operations manager Heather Raibon, both of whom worked under Norman at the one-time Minneapolis hot spot Bellanotte.

For the past five years, Randall was running his Adam’s Soul-To-Go and Tio’s Tacos at the Rosedale mall and wasn’t looking for another venture.

But then Norman called.

“This is a dream I didn’t know I had — of being a Black chef on Selby Avenue. I get goose bumps just thinking about it,” Randall said. “It’s perfect. Selby needs this,” he said.

Randall’s kitchen inside 934 Selby will serve both the full-service restaurant and the cafe.

Simon Taghioff, president of the Summit Hill Association, said he is glad to see Golden Thyme return to the area even if it’s not the same mom-and-pop entity of the Wrights’ reign.

The project will strengthen the area around it, he said.

“It’s really great to see this sort of business coming back, whether it’s the original owners or [under] the Rondo Community Land Trust,” he said. “With the way retail has been shifting, this [food venue] is the sort of concept that is obviously wanted right now in St Paul.”