Also, I think you can thank Growler for upfitting the space so that others can come in and work with it. I imagine that the first tenant in a brand new space is the biggest hurdle.
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“This location will be closing temporarily.”
But doesn’t sound like they plan to reopen this location.
I wonder if this is a result of rising retail prices downtown? I get landlords wanting top dollar but it drives out good local businesses.
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That’s sad. I like that place. I wish they’d say why. I feel like Fayetteville St was the epicenter of downtown when I moved here 10 years ago, and now it can barely hold on to any decent businesses except Foundation.
One thing I’ve been telling people, a theory of mine, is that to make it in downtown, the sales have to come from behind the bar, especially if the space is rather large. Does anyone know if Living Kitchen was relatively busy during the dinner hours? I have the impression that Living Kitchen was a lunch-time busy place and with no bar sales, they probably only pulled in so much.
Again, just a theory.
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The key is in small footprint business. So many businesses DT operate as if they are taking a strip center space in the burbs. That’s not going to work.
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It was packed everyday at lunch time, but dinner was VERY slow. They also didn’t have the biggest weekend business either, but lunch time during business days was always crowded.
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From my perspective, this is a deadzone of downtown… On the very south end of Fayetteville with no regular nighttime activation in the Marriot, to the South and West, and limited connectivity from the East. It’s off the beaten path and I figured it wasn’t going to make it.
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I’m sure the construction on that side of the street wasn’t helping things.
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For sure, and once charter North is open with residents, perhaps this are will see more retail success
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Ugh. Hate to hear this. What a great space designed by a local architect. I think location really did them in. Parking was always a complete sh1tsh0w in front of the place and this prevented me from spending probably a few hundred dollars over the past year popping in to grab a juice or some take out. I mentioned this to their employees several times and they felt equally frustrated and claimed to be “working with the city” on this but nothing ever changed.
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I went to Living Kitchen a few times for dinner and while there were people there, it was never crazy busy.
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This makes no sense — there was a Living Kitchen location in Chapel Hill, but it seems to be gone now, just since November when Google drove by:
Now it’s closed, and the Raleigh location is relocating to Chapel Hill? 
Maybe the chapel hill one will relocate to Raleigh!
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I was really disappointed to hear about the Living Kitchen and Growler USA. While I wasn’t a big fan of either place, I don’t drink a lot of beer and I always left Living Kitchen hungry, I was hoping there would be a niche for both of those concepts downtown. I agree that both places took on large amounts of real estate and maybe that isn’t what works downtown. Glad to hear they have a new tenant at Growler.
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Both are chains. Chains don’t do well Downtown…something I’m happy about.
Living Kitchen will die in chapel hill unless it’s in some suburban mall. CH doesn’t care for chains either…maybe they should go to charlotte USA. They love Applebee’s and other crap like that…if they think it makes them feel “global”…
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Um, Living Kitchen is the opposite of Applebee’s in basically every way. They’re also barely a chain. They have a few regional locations.
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If I left a restaurant hungry, it would be the last time that I stepped foot in it.
Well John, since I have family members who are vegan and I am not opposed to the occasional compromise I have eaten there a couple of times. The second time I knew to plan the walk home so I could grab an oak City meatball. LOL
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