They fought the pandemic with burgers. Now Fine Folk has found its forever home.
The timing is not perfect for Chris Lopez and John Kleinert to open their first restaurant.
Because that would mean that the forces of a global pandemic, an upended industry and a year of anxiety had been fortunate events. No, Lopez said, the timing isn’t perfect, but it’s here anyway.
Lopez and Kleinert, better known as the guys behind Gov’t Cheeseburger, will open Fine Folk as a new Raleigh restaurant later this year.
Fine Folk will be in the former BREW Coffee Bar in Gateway Plaza, with Lopez saying they hope to open by late summer or early fall.
“There never is a right time,” Lopez said. “We talked about going and getting other restaurant jobs, but were approached from a good number of people who encouraged us. The end goal was always a restaurant of our own. So right now became the right time.”
BREW opened in January 2020 with a bright new coffee shop, but became one of the many restaurant and cafe casualties of the pandemic. The space is a couple doors down from Union Special, where Fine Folk is currently running an evening dinner pop-up. That residency is expected to run until Fine Folk opens its own brick and mortar.
Pandemic pop-up
Last year, Fine Folk and Gov’t Cheeseburger became emblematic of restaurants in 2020, of the reality that the pandemic had changed what restaurants once were.
Their gooey cheeseburgers, cooked out of the former Postmaster kitchen where they once worked, became cult favorites of the pandemic, gobbled up by the dozen from diners seeking something fun during a difficult and uncertain time.
The dishes embraced the moment with State Fair flair and the talent of Lopez and Kleinert, over the year serving up things like Monte Cristo corn dogs, a sandwich of fried chicken skins, a patty melt burger with collard kraut and another burger with a glazed doughnut bun.
The Fine Folk menu won’t be studded with fast food takes from the last year, but will be plenty playful. Look for the spatchcocked whole chicken, a brothy chicken and dumplings, char-kissed steaks and a pork porterhouse. Lopez said there will also be a high amount of vegan and plant friendly dishes, plus regular in-house pastas.
“We’re looking to move away from riffs on fast food,” Lopez said. “The fast food thing came out of the brand of Govt. Cheeseburger. ... We’re not trying to reinvent anything. We’re just doing what tastes good.”
What will live on is the spirit of the daily special, the tried and true day of the week standby popularized by diners and chain restaurants like Applebee’s and Chili’s, which Lopez counts as sources of inspiration. Lopez expects one night to be devoted to campy Italian specials and another to a solid roast chicken.
“Something we love that those restaurants do is every Wednesday you know you can get this,” Lopez said. “Like burgers might not be a fixture on the menu, but you can know that on one day of the week you can get the Government Cheeseburger.”
No snooty wine bar
On the bar side, Fine Folk is trying to wrestle a unicorn and put Coors Banquet on draft, plus a couple other beers. Cocktails will be familiar classics from good well bottles, Lopez said. The star of the bar will be wine, and Lopez hopes to find a new beverage director keen on un-snootifying wine.
“We want the wine program to be the main focal point of the bar,” Lopez said. “We don’t want it to be a snooty wine bar. ... We want it to be built around what’s new out there and what’s not going to break the bank.”
The former BREW space will need a new kitchen, and Lopez expects to make a few cosmetic changes.
“We’re going to rough it up a little,” Lopez said. “We’re going to play off what’s already there. Our big thing is making it feel more like a lived-in space. We want it to feel like a place you’ve been to, even if you’ve never stepped foot inside.”
Part of that will be commissioning local artists to paint a series of large panels, Lopez said, adding color to the clean lightness of the space. The bar will be sanded down and stained a deeper brown. Vintage booths will be added, along with a new flourish of greenery.
The last year was a hustle, one that led Gov’t Cheeseburger and Fine Folk to serve some of the most popular food of the pandemic. But Lopez said he and Kleinert are happy to have a more permanent home.
“We love the experiences we’ve had over the last year, but that’s ultimately not what we’d want to do with a restaurant,” Lopez said. “It’s done wonders for my confidence, but I’m tired of changing concepts and locations. This is the end goal in sight. This is the last one. We’ve made the joke that this is our forever home, like being a dog in the pound.”
This story was originally published April 2, 2021 at 9:00 AM.
