RICHMOND, Va. — Southbound, a restaurant that combined the visions of two of Richmond's most lauded chefs, is closing after a 10-year run at Stony Point Shopping Center in Bon Air.
"It’s with a heavy heart that we share the news that Southbound will be closing on November 16," a post on the restaurant's Facebook page read. "Unfortunately, we were unable to negotiate a new lease that is fair and reasonable."
Richmond chefs Joe Sparatta (Heritage) and Lee Gregory (Alewife, previously Roosevelt) were the big names behind the restaurant when it opened at 3034 Stony Point Drive in 2014.
Sparatta deferred Gregory when asked to comment on the restaurant's closing.
"We accomplished all the things you dream of," Gregory said this week when asked about Southbound's decade-long run. "Ten years at a restaurant is like 150 years in real life."
Gregory said their restaurant became a destination and helped raise the profile of the shopping center it called home.
Gregory said Southbound's success, combined with the addition of a nearby Trader Joe's grocery store, were reasons behind the increased rent.
That rent increase, 60 percent Gregory said, made it hard to keep Southbound open.
"It was an impossible number to keep up with," he said. "It stinks to go out this way."
A representative from Cushman & Wakefield — Thalhimer, the Richmond-based company that helped manage the shopping center, told Richmond.com it had seen "tremendous rent growth at all grocery-anchored assets in our market over the last few years."
Gregory said it, "just didn't make good sense," to keep Southbound opened with the new rent price.
"Obviously, I’m sad," Richmond restaurant critic and Eat It, Virginia podcast co-host Robey Martin said when asked about the restaurant's closing. "Southbound helped the center where it was located become a 'place to go.' It’s hard to watch a restaurant get priced out of something they ultimately assisted in creating."
While Martin said she was "more than hopeful" someone else would make space available for the Southbound team to relocate, Gregory said there were no immediate plans to open a new restaurant. He did say he remained open to new restaurant ideas and business opportunities.
Gregory said while he and Joe were the names in the headlines when Southbound opened, it was the team they empowered around them, including chefs Bobo Catoe, Craig Perkinson, and Andrew Manning, that made Southbound so special.
"When you make the decision to work with someone you put egos aside and learn how to blend ideas to make everyone happy," he said. "It was a unique experience and we wanted all our employees to love the restaurant as much as we did. Those guys made that easy for us. Those guys led the charge."
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