Next time you think you’re busy, give a thought to Patrick Scott Moore, who is opening a new restaurant (Even Keel) and throwing the inaugural Uptown Vibes Music Festival for the debut. It’s exciting and anxiety inducing is equal parts but I’m sure looking forward to learn more about a sustainable restaurant with changing menu and a festival that features hip-hop to ska music.
Please tell us about yourself and your interest in food, music and festivals. (In creating them, I mean, I think we all love them!)
I am a California-raised entrepreneur, organic chemist, and Michelin-trained chef whose diverse 35+ year career spans from throwing underground punk, reggae, & electronic shows and produced & managing major music festivals to cooking for A-list celebrities on luxury yachts, working in world-renowned international kitchens like Les Prés d’Eugénieand La Maison Troisgros, and operating a multi-state restaurant consulting firm where I managed, ran, and opened multiple venues both nationally and internationally—all culminating in my current hyper-local lifestyle ecosystem in Minneapolis’s Lyn Lake neighborhood and my newest sustainable restaurant concept, Even Keel Provisions.
What is your vision for your new restaurant, Even Keel Provisions? And why in Minneapolis? I love the idea of culinary experience from the travels of a boat but’s unusual to have that coastal perspective in the Midwest.
The vision for Even Keel Provisions is to create an uncompromising, community-driven restaurant that balances elite culinary precision with a relaxed, unpretentious atmosphere, rooted entirely in an unyielding commitment to sustainability and a deep respect for the bounties of the Earth. True to its name, the concept is built on the philosophy that wherever the keel of a boat can take you, that coastal culture and culinary heritage is available to build a menu around. This global seafaring spirit centers on a dynamic, bi-weekly rotating small plate menu, a raw bar, hand-sliced steaks, and a daily fresh-catch chalkboard showcasing pristine seafood sourced directly from fishermen alongside wild game, humanely raised proteins, and a constantly evolving selection of innovative plant-based dishes, all deliberately offered at an accessible price point for everyone in the community. Choosing Minneapolis, and specifically the vibrant Lyn Lake neighborhood, was an intentional decision to plant permanent roots and finalize a hyper-local lifestyle ecosystem, connecting the new restaurant right alongside having owned multiple businesses in the same neighborhood to create an interconnected community hub. Having first moved to Minneapolis 15 years ago, I witnessed the incredible, distinct energy of Lyn Lake firsthand, and a core driver of this new project is a dedication to bringing back that vibrant community spirit and fueling its modern resurgence. Minneapolitans possess a unique sensibility that values both high-level craftsmanship and genuine, community-focused spaces, making Lyn Lake the perfect home to execute this culmination of music, science, travel, and hospitality where neighbors can gather, eat sustainably at the highest level, and feel completely at home.
As if opening a restaurant wasn’t enough work, what spurred you to want to create a daylong festival?
The motivation to launch a daylong festival alongside opening Even Keel Provisions stems from a lifelong belief that live music and exceptional food are the ultimate conduits for human connection. Frankly, launching a massive festival and opening a brand-new restaurant at the exact same time was absolutely not the original plan—I guess I just decided I needed a little extra torture in my life!
The festival actually started as a collaborative idea among a few local businesses looking to revitalize the area, and given my background producing major, world-class events like, the Fairfax World Music Festival, and on the management side Bumbershoot, WOMAD, Tibetan Freedom Concert, and Big Day Out, I was one of the few people in the neighborhood who actually knew how to execute it. The restaurant only entered the picture because one of the spaces we intended to use as a festival venue suddenly came up for lease. Knowing the neighborhood as deeply as I do and recognizing exactly what our community needs right now, I decided it was time to finally pull Even Keel off the back burner. This concept has actually been ready for over six years; we had a completely different location locked in and were ready to open right before COVID-19 hit, which was then followed by everything else our neighborhood has had to endure since. Stepping into this space felt like destiny, and it has allowed us to supercharge our original goals for the community. This daylong festival is envisioned as a premier, recurring annual staple for the city that will bridge our local community with the global stage. By drawing on my industry roots, the long-term vision is to showcase homegrown Minneapolis artists alongside and international acclaimed talent—essentially creating a hyper-local, Midwest response to South by Southwest (SXSW) right here in the heart of Uptown and Lyn Lake.
What would make the Uptown Vibes Festival successful to you?
To me, the success of the Uptown Vibes Festival boils down to seeing our streets packed with the local community, fueling a true economic and cultural resurgence for the Lyn Lake and Uptown districts after everything our neighborhood has endured over the last several years. It will be successful if we can prove this collaborative concept so thoroughly in its inaugural year that it instantly cements itself as a permanent, highly anticipated annual anchor on the Minneapolis cultural calendar rather than just a one-off party. A major part of that success means intentionally excluding outside food trucks from the event; we purposefully chose not to bring them in because the goal is to drive foot traffic directly into our brick-and-mortar neighborhood spaces, encouraging festival attendees to explore and support the incredible diversity of local restaurants we already have right here on the block. Ultimately, true success means building that dynamic, SXSW-style platform right here in the Midwest—one that gives our incredibly talented homegrown Minneapolis artists the world-class spotlight they deserve by seamlessly sharing a stage with internationally acclaimed talent, proving that our community can still thrive together through the ultimate intersection of live music, culture, and exceptional local food.
How would you like the next year to unfold? More festivals? Interesting menu ideas? Something entirely out of left field?
Looking ahead, my goal for the next year is all about balance, grounding, and executing the massive vision we’ve just set in motion. After years of setbacks and keeping these dreams on the back burner, success over the next 12 months isn’t about chasing the next flashy project or adding more to my plate—between launching a brand-new restaurant and a massive daylong block festival simultaneously, I have plenty of creative torture to keep me busy! Instead, I want the next year to unfold through deep neighborhood integration and operational mastery right here in Lyn Lake. For Even Keel Provisions, that means pushing the creative boundaries of our bi-weekly rotating small plate menu and daily fresh-catch chalkboard, constantly finding innovative ways to showcase pristine seafood direct from fishermen, wild game, and the rotating plant-based bounties of the Earth, all while keeping it accessible to everyone on the block. For the Uptown Vibes Festival, the focus is on proving the concept so flawlessly in year one that we instantly cement its future as a recurring, highly anticipated annual anchor that bridges homegrown Minneapolis artists with international talent. Rather than launching something entirely out of left field, my focus is on finally realizing the hyper-local lifestyle ecosystem I’ve spent a decade developing, breathing vibrant new life back into the neighborhood I moved to 15 years ago, and creating a sustainable, unpretentious community hub where people can gather, eat incredibly well, and feel completely at home.
Mostly Minnesota 