The basic appeal remains the same though. The Melting Pot serves a menu of different fondue styles, starting with cheese, ending with chocolate and with multiple options for meat, seafood and vegetables cooked in broths or oil in between.

It’s the format itself that gets to the underlying appeal, Johnston believes.

“It’s as much about what’s going on around the fondue pot as what’s in the fondue pot,” he said. “People are coming together who care about each other, or maybe hope to, if it’s a date night."

"It’s an opportunity for people to pull together," he said. "They’re not on their phones. Their focus is on the same thing at the same time. It’s a really ripe environment for people to make memories.”

Wherever any prospective new Melting Pot location ends up, it will not be at the original spot at 1820 St. Charles Ave. That is now being turned into a new and very different restaurant called Gaia, which is promising to be a different cut on the steakhouse format (yes, with gold coated steaks among its menu options). Gaia is now slated to open in mid-September.