I got word Saturday night via Greg Cox, our restaurant critic, that Frazier's has closed.
Kevin and Stacey Jennings, owners of Urban Food Group, a local restaurant company, sent a note to Cox late Saturday night. The note from Kevin Jennings' phone read: "I'm going down to Frazier's to close it for good.We will miss that place terribly."
Frazier's was the Jennings' first restaurant in Raleigh. As a young couple, they created a dining destination on Raleigh's Hillsborough Street when there wasn't much else there for grown-ups. It was a favorite among the people who lived in the neighborhoods close to N.C. State University. The couple's flagship restaurant had faltered in recent years as the city's dining scene exploded on Glenwood South and in downtown Raleigh. Most recently, the couple had transformed Frazier's into a wine bar.
The Jennings also own Porter's Tavern, Coquette, Chow and two locations of Vivace, one in Charlotte and the other in Raleigh.
UPDATE: I got Kevin Jennings on the phone this afternoon. After 14 years, he said, business was down and they decided to put the restaurant up for sale six months ago. Jennings says the owners of Klara's, a Czech restaurant in Cary, have bought the business. (No word yet on their plans.)
Jennings explained that they plan to focus on opening locations of Vivace in Denver, Washington, D.C. and Durham. For the Durham location, they have had "initial talks" with the folks behind Diamond View III, at the Durham Bulls ballpark and American Tobacco.
