Smoked Meats and Bourbon Return to Downtown Minneapolis with a Familiar Chef in a Familiar Location

Although most of the details sound familiar, this new restaurant at 1121 Hennepin Avenue is called The Butcher’s Tale. Kaskaid Hospitality, of the Crave chain of restaurants, Union, and Brit’s Pub, has purchased the old Butcher & the Boar restaurant location on Hennepin Avenue in Minneapolis. Bringing all the smoke and meat experience to the eatery is chef and the original butcher of the namesake, Peter Botcher.

Botcher was a part of the kitchen team that first opened Butcher & the Boar under the leadership of co-owner Jack Riebel. Riebel left the company in 2014. Botcher then stepped up to lead the kitchen before eventually moving outstate in 2015.

Under his stewardship, Butcher & the Boar launched a successful grocery store line of sausages with Botcher’s recipes.

The Butcher’s Tale will serve a menu familiar with those missing the old spot, which permanently closed after the pandemic hit last year. Expect meats, smoked sausages, giant ribs, perhaps a bit more fresh seafood, and plenty of bourbon drinks both indoors and outside in the year-round beer garden.

Overseeing the hospitality side of the operation will be Chad Waldon, a 25-year industry veteran well versed in meaty fine dining, with longtime experience at Manny’s Steakhouse.

The restaurant expects to open in May.

The news comes on the heels of another restaurant group, Jester Concepts, who operated Borough, Parlous, PS Steak, and more, announced that they had purchased the Butcher & the Boar name and recipes. They are still looking to nail down a location for that restaurant.

At the time, Kaskaid Hospitality objected, saying that they had purchased Butcher & the Boar. They do have possession of the building, are employing the OG butcher, and will serve similar items, under The Butcher’s Tale moniker.

Kaskaid has a history of purchasing popular restaurant buildings with varying degrees of success, like Brit’s Pub, the beloved downtown bar and restaurant with the fabulous space for lawn bowling. But, this is also the company that opened and ran restaurants in the Old Chicago address in Uptown, such as the unfortunate and now shuttered Piggy Bank.