“It’s going to be a surprise,” says Don Knight about the look and feel of his new restaurant, a steak house that will occupy part of the former Borders (the Maynard/Liberty corner). Another restaurant, the rather repellently named Slurping Turtle, will be in the building too, plus a few more as yet unannounced small retail spaces.
“We’re going to black out the windows while the work is going on. We want a ‘wow’ effect when we open”–early next spring, Don hopes. “But I can tell you it won’t be pretentious. We’re following my dad’s philosophy.” Steak king Ray Knight, founder of Knight’s Market and Knight’s Restaurant, died in February, but his five kids all work in the business. “He wanted everyone to feel comfortable, from the president of the university to a tradesman.”
The new restaurant will be managed by Susie and Dan Sutter. Susie once worked at Knight’s as a waitress, then moved to Chicago, where she and Dan worked both the front and back of the house at Chicago’s gonzo steakhouse Gibson’s.
Plans to add a bakery to Knight’s Market are on hold. “We can’t do everything at once,” says Don.
