Al and Gary Halvorsen have decided to hang up their cooks' hats.

The brothers have sold Serlin's Cafe on St. Paul's East Side to younger business partners who will close the restaurant Dec. 14 and remodel it. It will reopen a few months later with a new name, menu and look.

"We're kind of worn out," Gary Halvorsen said, between duties at the 67-year-old diner. "Your legs, hips and knees wear out. We work on concrete. We've been doing it 35 years now; we could use a break."

Neighbors need not worry that they won't be able to get their eggs and bacon, though. Partners Eddie Wu and Charles Cook plan to serve American cuisine for breakfast and lunch seven days a week.

"We want to stay true to what Serlin's is," Wu said. "Like them, we didn't go to culinary school. We're just cooks."

That sentiment -- and Charles' last name -- led to the restaurant's tentative new name: Cook.

Wu and Charles Cook, currently the COO of Cossetta's Alimentari, are lifelong friends who both have bounced around in different restaurant jobs.

That they aren't high-flying molecular gastronomists doesn't mean that the new partners don't have big ambitions for the 52-seat space.

"Everything will be made in-house," Wu said. "We'll grind our own meat. Everything will be as local and organic as possible. It'll be American food done maybe a little better. Maybe you'll find short ribs on top of your eggs benedict."

The new restaurant isn't the only business that will occupy the space, though.

Wu's wife, Eve Wu, will also run her custom cake business out of the restaurant's large prep kitchen.

"The prep kitchen is bigger than the dining room," Gary Halvorsen said.

The cake business is called Keikeu, the Korean word for "cake," and Eve Wu has been making cakes for weddings and special occasions using the kitchen at Gigi's Cafe in Uptown Minneapolis.

Eve Wu specializes in dye-free, natural cakes and makes a lot of gluten-free cakes, too, her husband said. She even made a few cakes for legendary Minneapolis restaurateur Kim Bartmann's wedding.

"Man, does she make some good gluten-free cakes," Eddie Wu said.

The new restaurant will use Eve Wu's baked goods, enhancing the two business' symbiotic relationship.

Customers can even expect a little basket of bundt cake slices (gluten-free, if requested) while they wait -- a nod to the complimentary blueberry muffins Serlin's is famous for giving out.

"It's our local twist, since the bundt was created here," Eddie Wu said.

There's also a tentative plan for serving some dinners at the restaurant eventually, but Wu wasn't ready to reveal what he's got up his sleeve.

The partners are hoping a remodel, which will include putting a bathroom on the first floor, won't take longer than a few months.

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As for the Halvorsens, they're happy the place was sold to someone who will keep serving neighbors.

Gary Halvorsen is 64. Al Halvorsen is 67. The pair took over the restaurant from their stepfather, Irv Serlin, 18 years ago.

"It's time to pass the torch, and let someone else give it a shot," Gary Halvorsen said. "We didn't want to leave here in a wheelchair."
