Groundbreaking Raleigh restaurant Irregardless Cafe has new owners
As New Year’s Eve turned into New Year’s Day, a Raleigh dining icon passed its torch.
At midnight, Irregardless Cafe changed ownership, as founder Arthur Gordon sold the beloved restaurant to Lee Robinson and David Meeker. On Wednesday the restaurant opened for its annual New Year’s pajama brunch, and the new owners promise the rest of Irregardless will stay the same.
“Irregardless Cafe is a Raleigh icon,” Robinson said in a phone interview. “We want to keep a piece of Raleigh history alive for another 30 years.”
Gordon and former co-owner Andy Arnold opened Irregardless at 901 W. Morgan St. in 1975 as Raleigh’s first vegetarian restaurant and over the years, the cafe has become a true neighborhood spot, creating and carrying on traditions like the pajama brunch and nightly live music. Gordon is considered one of the Triangle’s early champions of local, seasonal eating, often making North Carolina’s produce the stars of the dish. The menu has catered to omnivores since the 1980s, and the restaurant survived a fire in 1994, closing for nearly a year while being rebuilt. (The names of the original owners of Irregardless have been corrected.)
Meeker, co-owner of Trophy Brewing and the son of former Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker, said he grew up eating at Irregardless. When he heard Gordon was considering retirement he said he wanted to be the restaurant’s new steward.
“I went to Sunday brunches, celebrated birthdays and anniversaries at Irregardless, or just celebrated surviving the week,” Meeker said. “It means a lot to us. We’re family friends with Arthur, and three things became clear in this deal: he’s a fair guy, an honest guy and a guy who has a lot of fun.”
Gordon could not be reached for comment on the sale.
Robinson, who is the managing partner in the deal, has been working in Raleigh restaurants for more than 20 years, notably as the general manger of the popular NC State hangout, the Players Retreat. He said Irregardless remains as popular as ever and has a loyal following, pointing to data from reservation website Open Table showing some diners visited the restaurant 50 times in the last year.
“Arthur was a visionary,” Robinson said. “He opened Raleigh’s first vegetarian restaurant, and people at the time said what a dumb idea they thought it was. It really paved the way for a lot of today’s restaurants.”
Eventually, Meeker and Robinson suggested Irregardless would go through some light visual changes, like a new coat of paint. The menu will remain largely the same. Robinson described his and Meeker’s goal in the sale as having something of a preservationist’s goal, to give a few more decades to one of the important stepping stones to where Raleigh is today as a dining city.
“Irregardless is really special to a lot of people,” Robinson said. “I just want people to know that it’s OK, I’m not going to break it.”
This story was originally published January 2, 2020 at 4:04 PM.
