News for hungry people and downtown boosters—Zelo is reopening, targeting March 1 for its return, three weeks shy of three years after it closed at the orders of Gov. Walz during the pandemic’s first days.

Today, the corner of 9th and Nicollet is perhaps the poster child for downtown’s malaise. Once home to two of its highest volume restaurants, J.B. Hudson Jewelers, and Target’s downtown store, only Target remains in operation, with no trading hours after dark, and a seemingly perpetual police presence outside. To describe the intersection as unwelcoming is perhaps understatement.

J.B. Hudson was sold and left downtown a year ago, while McCormick & Schmick’s did not reopen post-2020 (though rumors of a new restaurant coming to the space swirl without specificity). For all that time, Zelo, on the northeast corner, remained a conundrum. Owner Rick Webb quickly resumed operations at sister restaurant Ciao Bella in Edina in 2020, which absorbed many of Zelo’s employees and customers, some dating to Zelo’s founding in 1999.

Webb says he had been mulling over when to reopen, as downtown’s prospects brightened, most recently targeting last autumn, but when the restaurant’s picture windows were shot out in October his enthusiasm waned. Still, Webb says, “we are invested in downtown and want to be a part of its return.” He believes Zelo can contribute to the critical mass downtown needs to thrive.

He admits convincing longtime staff, many of whom are earning 20%-30% more at Ciao Bella, to return downtown, will require some effort, but “our staff makes the restaurant, they build the relationships that drive customer loyalty,” and he hopes to convince many of the old faces to return in March.

For the time being, Zelo will operate only at dinner. Webb says lunch business was strong pre-2020, but the downtown workforce, convention traffic, and happy hour business are major question marks. He says he hopes to reopen at lunch and if that happens, he will reopen Zelino, the lunch-counter behind Zelo, where downtown workers would crowd for takeout.

“I truly believe the more of us that open, the better it will get,” says Webb. It was a longer time coming then he imagined, but he says he is ready to get back to business downtown.