Kimbal Musk is no longer the restaurateur next door.
In November, the entrepreneur, who co-founded Boulder-based The Kitchen Restaurant Group with chef Hugo Matheson, stepped down from the management team at one of the group’s concepts, ND streetBar, previously known as Next Door American Eatery before a rebrand in February.
Then on Tuesday and Wednesday, the investors who operate the Kitchen Restaurant Group closed ND streetBar’s locations at Union Station in Denver and in Fort Collins and laid off the staff. Two other locations, in Boulder in the Central Park neighborhood of Denver, remain open.
“ND streetBAR is under new operations management in an effort to deliver additional support for its staff and restaurants, as well as enhance the evolving customer dining experience,” said Next Door Restaurant Group in a statement to The Denver Post. “To align all resources and build for the future, we have ultimately made the decision to discontinue operations at Union Station. All team members have been offered severance to give them time to find their next opportunity.”
Mario Del Pero, co-founder of Mendocino Farms, a Los Angeles-based chain of gourmet sandwich and salad restaurants, is the new manager for ND streetBar, according to a spokesperson for the restaurant group. He will be in charge of scaling up the brand.
Musk, who is the younger brother of billionaire Elon Musk “will remain focused on leading The Kitchen Restaurant Group and overseeing its operations of The Kitchen locations in Boulder, Denver, and Chicago,” the spokesperson said. He remains an investor in both ND streetBar and The Kitchen as well.
ND streetBar originally opened in Union Station in 2014 and in Fort Collins in 2019 and was previously known as The Kitchen Next Door and then Next Door American Eatery.
At one point in 2019, the concept had 10 locations open in Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Tennessee, according to an archived version of its website. The restaurant group closed four Next Door locations during the pandemic, however, and Musk came under fire from employees who said that a fund meant to help them had been revoked.
Denver Post file
DENVER, CO. – AUGUST 15: Kimbal Musk co-founder of The Kitchen The Kitchen Restaurant Group on Thursday August 15, 2013. (Photo By Cyrus McCrimmon/The Denver Post )
The Kitchen Restaurant Group, which Musk and Matheson founded in 2004, owns The Kitchen American Bistro, a farm-to-table restaurant that has locations in Denver’s LoDo neighborhood, Boulder and Chicago. The group previously owned Hedge Row, a wood-fired restaurant in Cherry Creek, but closed it after a year of operation in 2018 due to surrounding construction.
Before that, though, Elon and Kimbal were tech entrepreneurs who sold their first company, Zip2, in 1999 for more than $300 million. Kimbal later invested in Elon’s next creation, PayPal, and later sat on the boards for Tesla Motors and Space X.
In addition to the restaurant group, Musk co-founded a nonprofit called Big Green, which builds outdoor classrooms, as well as Square Roots, an urban farming company in Brooklyn.
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