A shuttered Buffalo Township restaurant and New Kensington’s newest brewery are evolving together.

Evolution Grille, which chef and owner Michael Barbiaux closed in September, has moved into the kitchen at Tortured Souls Brewery, which is marking its first anniversary on Sunday.

Barbiaux learned through a friend in a band, The Knockoffs, that was playing at Tortured Souls that its kitchen was closing. Since closing his restaurant, he had moved on to another job while his wife, Courtney, continued teaching in the Burrell School District.

“The opportunity just kind of came to us,” Barbiaux said.

When Angie and Scott Wyman held the grand opening for Tortured Souls on March 23 last year, they were subletting their kitchen to Mike Barnes, a Pittsburgh-based caterer offering authentic New Orleans food under his business, Roux Orleans.

But they found his food “wasn’t a good fit for the community,” Angie Wyman said, with his offerings being “too niche” and expensive for the families they hoped to attract from the Pittsburgh Ice Arena across the parking lot.

“It wasn’t a good fit for either of us,” she said. “We left on good terms.”

With Angie saying she and Courtney Barbiaux have common traits, as do their husbands, they are all excited about working together.

“They’re bringing a great customer base and a great following they already have from people that desperately miss them,” she said. “I think it’s going to be super successful on both sides.”

Barbiaux opened Evolution Grille in 2010, and moved to a larger location in 2014. Its hallmark was fresh, local food with a menu that changed based on the season and customer feedback.

“Operating such a large restaurant became too much of an expense,” he said. “It was like, we were busy, but we were never able to have enough employees, and the rent was really expensive out in that area.”

Evolution’s move into the brewery was celebrated March 15.

At Tortured Souls, Barbiaux said he’ll be doing fresh bar food.

“It’s a change,” he said. “It’s going to be a change in the food, too.”

Instead of full-course meals, the focus will be more on shareable appetizers and sandwiches.

“It’s going to be totally different but we’re still going with the same concept of using everything fresh and changing the menu,” he said. “The whole thing behind Evolution was if something wasn’t selling, we’d just change it and take it off the menu. It will be the same concept.”

Barbiaux said he’ll try to match up some of his food with the Wymans’ beers.

“I’m hoping the Evolution name will bring (customers) and the food will keep them coming,” he said.

Where Evolution Grille had been BYOB, that obviously won’t be the case now, Wyman noted.

While the Wymans opened Tortured Souls in March 2024, they didn’t start brewing there until October, she said.

“We learned a lot between brewing the beer, working on getting our inventory up and moving, learning the process of building a good relationship with the community and making sure that we are sort of catering to the community, wherein lies bringing in Evolution,” she said.

“One of the things that has pleasantly surprised us is how many supporters and regular customers we have. We’ve been really blessed to have such a great community backing.”

The Evolution kitchen will be open the same hours as the brewery, which is open seven-days-a-week. Wyman said they’re working on opening at 4 p.m. on Fridays for happy hour instead of 5 p.m.

“We made it through the first year, and a lot of businesses don’t make it through the first year,” Wyman said. “We’re hoping this is the next step to continuing to build the business. Hopefully it catapults us into the second year and further.”