News

America’s Next Great Restaurant closes two of three units

June 15, 2011

Soul Daddy, which was named the winner of the America's Next Great Restaurant reality show in May, has closed its Los Angeles and New York City locations after just one month.

According to Eater.com, Soul Daddy, the brainchild of Jamawn Woods, continues to operate in Bloomington, Minn.'s Mall of America.

The premise of the show, which aired on NBC, was to find an original fast casual concept that would be funded by the show's four judges: Bobby Flay, Steve Ells, Curtis Stone and Lorena Garcia.

Soul Daddy's original premise was soul food, including fried chicken and waffles; however, several menu changes were made to reflect a healthier offering of the menu, backed by the tagline: "New Home Cooking."

Eater.com's story includes the following statement from the investors:

"The realities of running a restaurant are very difficult, more so with multiple locations in multiple cities. After a careful review of the business model and the performance of the restaurants, we have decided that our best opportunity for Soul Daddy's success is to focus our efforts on establishing a solid footing in one location, building the brand, and developing the operations from there. We have decided to close our restaurants at Hollywood and Highland in Los Angeles and the South Street Seaport in New York, effective June 14, and focus on developing the best restaurant we can at the Mall of America restaurant in Bloomington, Minnesota. While it has certainly been a difficult decision, we believe this is the best approach as we work towards ongoing success for Soul Daddy."