Just eight months after opening in Uptown Minneapolis’ Calhoun Square, restaurant Primebar ceased operations late Sunday.
 
The restaurant debuted in July 2012 in the space at the corner of Lake Street and Hennepin Avenue.
 
On Monday, it offered this message on its Facebook page: “Unfortunately, we had to close our doors yesterday. We're sorry to say goodbye, and thank you all for your loyalty. We hope our paths cross again in the future.”
 
Few details are available about the reason for the closure, and on Monday afternoon, calls to the restaurant went to a computer-generated recording indicating that no messages could be accepted.
 
However, on Sunday evening, a patron of the restaurant told City Pages’ The Hot Dish food blog, “At about 9:00 p.m., they found out they were getting evicted so they told us all to pay our tabs and leave.”
 
The Hot Dish pointed out that Primebar’s business seemed to be okay, although the restaurant reportedly hadn’t received rave reviews.
 
Primebar is part of Chicago-based Restaurants-America, which operates other Primebar locations in Florida, Illinois, and Texas. The company also operates 12 other restaurant concepts.
 
Several restaurants have come and gone in recent years in the space most recently occupied by Primebar. The location was previously home to Parasole’s Il Gatto, and Figlio was there before that.

Last year, Twin Cities Business Executive Editor Adam Platt explored the history of the space that Primebar occupied, asking why Parasole abandoned Calhoun Square and looking at whether the commercial real estate market was rendering Uptown uninhabitable for all but the highest-volume businesses. Read that feature story here.