by TM Petaccia

It’s a tough summer for local restaurants. RockSalt, the oyster bar/restaurant in the back of Park Road Shopping Center, had its last full dinner service yesterday. “Unfortunately, we’ve reached that point where it is no longer tenable to operate as a full-service restaurant, and so we will be closing the doors this week,” read the restaurant’s social media post at the close of business.

The company went on to say that it “may” be open for a few hours during the afternoons this week — essentially to liquidate existing alcohol inventories (even offering discounted bottles of wine as retail purchases), as well as bring in a few rounds of fresh oysters from its Rappahannock River Oysters beds in Virginia until the spot finally closes its doors.

This is the latest in a string of local restaurant closures this summer, most notably Dandelion Market in Uptown, Harper’s in SouthPark, littleSpoon in Myers Park, Charlotte Cafe at The Arboretum, and, just last week, Bleu Barn at Camp North End.

The industry joke is, “How do you make a million dollars in the restaurant business? Start with two million.” 

Skyrocketing rents, higher supplier and employee costs, a fickle public, and increased competition from national chains all eat into the already paper-thin margins of local businesses — not to mention sometimes just flat-out bad luck. That’s why it’s so important to support local restaurants — and why we endeavor to keep bringing you stories highlighting them.

Your paid subscription helps us bring those stories to you — plus offers other benefits like advance discount tickets to our upcoming Meet the Chef dinner with Greg Collier.

It’s too late to help businesses that have already closed, but we can all do something to keep the remaining locally-owned restaurants open.

Eat well. Eat local.

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