No personal experience, but I would look into the single speed chainrings. I was looking at the SRAM X11 stuff and they had a pretty gnarly chainring tooth profile to keep the chain on that single front chainring in all gears.

Putting the derailer on would ruin the set-up IMO. You'll still have to trim it to keep it from rubbing, and once you are at that point you may as well put the other chainring back on and run a double.