A Buffalo Township restaurant known for its farm-fresh entrees and bold flavors has announced plans to close.
Evolution Grille along Route 356 posted to social media Friday, saying it is extending heartfelt gratitude to diners who have showered the restaurant with love.
“Life, my friends, is a fickle sous-chef,” the post read. “The past five years? A soufflé that stubbornly refused to rise.
“The sauce, once velvety, now fractured like a broken promise. The bread — ah, the bread — went stale, as if it had lost its zest for life.”
Owners declined to discuss the announcement when a TribLive reporter visited Saturday, all while it appeared to be business as usual with staffers taking calls for reservations and the kitchen crew prepping for dinner.
The social media post went on to say that the pandemic bore a large part of the blame, having “swept through our kitchens like a tempest, leaving empty stations and silent stovetops.”
The restaurant will remain open until September.
Opened by Valley High School graduate Michael Barbiaux in 2010, Evolution Grille was first situated in South Pike Square Movie Theater Plaza before moving to the current location not too far from there.
Barbiaux previously said the restaurant’s name was a nod to the ever-changing menu, one that would represent patrons’ wishes.
Known for handmade pasta and off-the-chart desserts, Evolution Grille boasts a menu filled with veggies fresh from local farms. The current menu features an autumn pear salad and butternut squash ravioli.
From now until closing, the post said, the restaurant will “plate our season specials, uncork the wine and toast to Evolution.”
Tawnya Panizzi is a TribLive reporter. She joined the Trib in 1997. She can be reached at tpanizzi@triblive.com.