Social Kitchen owners close Downtown Market location

Social Kitchen owners close Downtown Market location
Grand Rapids Downtown Market <strong>Courtesy GR Auto Gallery</strong>

A metro Detroit-based company closed its 4-year-old restaurant and bar location inside the Grand Rapids Downtown Market.

Bloomfield Hills-based Peas & Carrots Hospitality made the decision to permanently close Social Kitchen & Bar last month after about a year of conversations with the Downtown Market team about its desire to focus on growing its restaurants on the east side of Michigan, according to Downtown Market President and CEO Mimi Fritz in an email to the Grand Rapids Business Journal.

Fritz said after these talks, the company owned by Zach Sklar decided not to renew Social Kitchen’s lease in the market, which expires Aug. 31.

“They had planned to stay open through the end of August, but due to (the) executive order, and as with all other restaurants, they were required to shut down for a period of time. This was followed by continued operating restrictions with 50% capacity, additional bar service restrictions and then rehiring difficulties,” Fritz said. “Because of this, and the later it got in the year, it just did not make sense for them to reopen with that decision being made a few weeks ago at the beginning of July.”

Social Kitchen & Bar was known for its “modern comfort food,” including build-your-own salad and pizza menus, as well as crispy Brussels sprouts, chicken and waffles, pita-wrapped turkey burgers and generous portions of shoestring fries.

The restaurant served lunch, dinner and weekend brunch, along with happy hour specials.

Fritz said the Downtown Market is working on a plan to fill the space, which houses one of the market’s only two full-sized restaurants, with the other being Slows Bar BQ.

“Since early 2020, the market has been working through a variety of options that we are considering for the (Social) space, including the possibility of reducing the size of the restaurant space in order to add some very needed indoor public seating, which as you may know is quite limited given the foot traffic counts that our tenants experience,” Fritz said.

Social Kitchen’s other location in Birmingham remains open.