The acclaimed Standard Foods closes restaurant with its grocery store to follow
Standard Foods — an acclaimed restaurant attached to a grocery store and butchery — has closed.
The restaurant off Person Street, near downtown, closed March 29 after chef Eric Montagne and other staff members left the restaurant, Montagne said.
The grocery store will remain open through Sunday, said an unidentified store employee, but will close after that for at least a week. The employee suggested the grocery store could reopen.
Standard Foods, owned by developer John Holmes, was built as a showcase for local farmers, both with its menus and dishes and products in the grocery store. Holmes could not be reached for comment.
Standard Foods was one of 2015's anticipated openings, thanks to award-winning chef Scott Crawford, who helped the restaurant achieve high praise. But Standard closed five months later after Crawford left to open his own restaurant, Crawford & Son, around the corner.
In October 2016, Standard reopened with Montagne as chef, matching its reputation for excellent food, according to N&O restaurant critic Greg Cox. Cox gave Standard Foods 2.0 four stars, saying Montagne, who had worked as executive chef for Vivian Howard's Boiler Room Oyster Bar in Kinston, "lost no time in establishing himself as a rising culinary star in his own right."
But its handsome dining room, with large windows looking out on Raleigh City Farm, where it got much of its ingredients, wasn't as busy as they would have liked, Montagne said.
"I was at a point where I was ready to move on," Montagne said Friday.
Montagne said he intends to stay in the area and that he's taking meetings on future projects. He said he still believes in the mission of Standard, even if the restaurant didn't work out.
"I was very lucky to work there," Montagne said. "It's a really special project doing really good things, bringing (small) farmers into Raleigh. I definitely want to see the place go on and survive."
Standard Foods is at 205 E. Franklin St.
This story was originally published April 6, 2018 at 5:21 PM with the headline "The acclaimed Standard Foods closes restaurant with its grocery store to follow."