Fried chicken comeback: Revival chef Thomas Boemer joins suburban restaurant group

Six months after chef Thomas Boemer, with his former business partner Nick Rancone, closed all four Revival restaurants in the Twin Cities, Boemer is back. So is his fried chicken.

Boemer was announced this week as the new culinary director for the Wondrous Collective, a restaurant group based in the south Twin Cities suburbs with more than a dozen concepts.

Wondrous Collective owner Tony Donatell called Boemer “the missing piece” in the company.

“It’s going really well, but it’s all about the drinks and about the branding and the decor and the design, and I’ve just always felt like food’s been our Achilles’ heel,” Donatell said.

In talks with Boemer over the past two months, “I couldn’t resist,” Donatell said. “I’m giddy over the idea of him leading our culinary teams.”

Boemer has been tasked with updating menus at all locations; those include Tequila Butcher in Chanhassen, Whiskey Inferno in Savage and Volstead House in Eagan. He’s already contributed to a menu of “elevated bar fare” at the company’s newest cocktail bar, the Farmer’s Cellar in Lakeville.

As of July 1, he has debuted a new concept of global live-fire dishes called the Wanderer, which is set within the Apple Valley food hall Revolve Hall.

“I really get to focus on the things that I really love and I’m passionate about, and in this business, that’s the food,” Boemer said.

With Wanderer open, Boemer is embarking on a six- to seven-month tour of Wondrous’ other restaurants, focusing next on Tequila Butcher and Rum Row, a tiki bar with a Caribbean menu.

Visitors to Revolve Hall will already notice other tweaks, including a honey-butter fried chicken sandwich that’s been added to the menu at the Curiouser Coffee stand. It’s the first of a number of fried chicken sandwiches Boemer plans to bring to each of the restaurants in the Wondrous Collective’s portfolio, a boon for fans of Revival’s centerpiece dish.

Revival, which Boemer and Rancone first launched as a casual fried-chicken offshoot to their fine-dining restaurant Corner Table, had a 10-year run, expanding from Minneapolis to St. Paul and St. Louis Park, before closing abruptly in January. “The abruptness is hard,” Boemer told the Star Tribune at the time. “It’s hard, but it’s part of the nature of how these things come and go. Sadly, restaurants are not a forever thing.”

Though the Revival menus had grown over the years to include barbecue and Chicago-style beef sandwiches and pizza, the restaurants were best known for towering stacks of crunchy fried chicken.

In his new role, Boemer can continue making a tried-and-true hit while exploring other cuisines that interest him. The sandwiches will each reflect the various restaurants.

“Revival was an amazing project. It’s something that’s very near and dear to my heart, but my career is varied, and for the last 10 years has really been focused on that one brand,” Boemer said. “To be able to touch back into some of my broader knowledge and experience in kitchens for the past 30 years is a lot of fun.”