It appears that Robert Irvine decided not to renew the lease, and that the restaurant will be closing for good after December 31st. There will be a New Years Eve farewell party at the restaurant, which will be the last night it is open.
On a post on the restaurant's Facebook page, the restaurant stated:
"The lease was coming up at our current location and we were unsatisfied with the amount of rent that we were paying. The decision had to be made whether to find a new location or close the restaurant altogether. Ultimately we made the decision to close."On the same post, an apparent waiter at the restaurant said the rent was "ridiculous" to which someone responded:
"You maybe a waiter at EAT! but you are NOT at all familiar with the Lease terms. The Lease terms were not "RIDICULOUS" and are actually BELOW what other tenants are paying in the SAME SHOPPING CENTER."Here is the listing that has the space for a lease price of $22.50 per square foot per year. With 5,000 square feet, that equates to $9,375 per month for the restaurant.
While we may not know the specifics, this doesn't look good for someone whose main job is to rescue restaurants and prevent them from closing. Perhaps there should have been a special Restaurant Impossible episode filmed at his own restaurant?