The curated, multi-course restaurant Journeyman will close June 3, its management said Friday.
Its location at 9 Sanborn Court, in Somerville’s Union Square, will become a new restaurant later in the summer under different management. “The people taking over will be doing something very different, but the address will be in good hands,” owners Diana Kudayarova and Tse Wei Lim said.
They cited the changes in the area since Journeyman opened in 2010, when “there were three places to get dinner in Union Square … the average price of a home in Somerville was half of what it is today, immigration reform and a new health bill were still on the horizon, and we were still celebrating the election of Barack Obama.”
“It was against this backdrop that we opened Journeyman, and we look out on a very different world today as we announce its closing,” they said. “There are more restaurants now than ever, but perhaps there is less desire now to think about what it is that we are eating and drinking, and why.”
Their Ames Street Deli and Study space in Kendall Square closed in July.
The Backbar component in Union Square will remain open, they said, with food service. “There will probably be more food,” they said.
The restaurant went through a few variations, starting with a menu, then turning to a curated experience where customers bought tickets and let the chefs decide what was served. In January 2016, it announced a turn away from sous vide cooking and molecular gastronomy in favor of a wood-burning fireplace.
The Journeyman experience, as described on its website, was a tasting menu that changed daily.
‘Depending on the season, the menu is between nine and 11 courses, and showcases the best produce, meats and seafood of the moment, cooked on our wood-burning grill.
“Nearly everything on your plate was grown, foraged, or harvested locally, usually by someone we know personally.”
Dinner cost $115, with tip included, and used a ticketing system in addition to traditional reservations.
“We are so sad to hear this. We won’t know what to do for special dinners anymore,” said a Facebook commenter identified as Michelle D. Nathan.
Journeyman will hold a final farewell event “later in June,” with details to be announced, the owner said.
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