The Hill restaurant Burnt Toast, located at 1235 Pennsylvania Ave., closed its doors on Dec. 24 and is expected to reopen as Café Aion in early March.

Burnt Toast owners Ellen Dale and Buddy Kring sold the restaurant to one of its chefs, Dakota Soifer, on Dec. 21.

“Burnt Toast was a great community,” Kring told Boulder Weekly. “People took real ownership of the place.”

Soifer said he plans to remodel the interior, renovating the bar area and rearranging the seating to be more comfortable and intimate. He explains that the new name of the restaurant is intended to recognize the bookstore of the same name that used to be there.

Soifer, whose culinary experience includes serving as executive chef at the Kitchen, spent the summer working for Meadow Lark Farm Dinners. He says the connections he made with local farmers is helping him work up a new menu for Café Aion, which will primarily serve small tapa-style plates, incorporating Mediterranean and Californian themes.

Soifer says he plans to concentrate on providing simple dishes with food grown by local farmers, and will initially emphasize the café’s dinner menu, since Burnt Toast was known primarily for its breakfast and lunch offerings.