After four years in operation, Restaurant IPO at 421 N. Third St. downtown has ended its lunch and dinner business. However, the establishment, which has a second-floor private event space, will continue to be available for private parties and banquets.
Owner Eric Macicek and chef Scott Varnedoe had been mulling a possible closure for several months, Varnedoe says. The recent string of events this summer—protests related to the Alton Sterling shooting, the August flood and a downtown curfew—pushed them over the edge.
“We had a rough summer, and it was rough for everybody,” Varnedoe says. “Between riots and curfews and floods … we decided if we’re going to do this, now is the time to do it.”
Varnedoe says IPO’s restaurant business was too unpredictable and that it was too hard to adequately plan and staff for the variable crowds. IPO’s event business, on the other hand, has been a moneymaker.
Varnedoe also attributes some of the restaurant’s problems to the inherent challenges of being located downtown, which has a shortage of convenient parking options.
“Downtown is working hard to do everything it can to make it a great downtown,” he says. “I’m not trying to take that away from them. But parking is an issue any way you look at it.”
Downtown Development District Executive Director Davis Rhorer says in the wake of IPO’s closure he contacted the owners of two other Third Street establishments in that block—Little Village restaurant and Matherne’s Supermarket—and was told “both are doing great.” He says IPO’s problems could have been the result of a number of factors, but he doesn’t think location is one of them.
“Obviously, we have many successful restaurants downtown,” Rhorer says.
IPO opened to rave reviews in mid-2012 under Macicek and then-chef Chris Wadsworth. Wadsworth left a year later and Varnedoe took over as chef and co-owner.
“We had a good run,” he says. “We were always proud of what we pushed out food-wise.”
—Stephanie Riegel
