Kroger plans to close two of the three Kitchen 1883 restaurants it operates on Thursday, the grocery chain disclosed in a social media post last week.
The company did not say why it opted to stop operating the eateries, which are located in Union, Kentucky, and Anderson Township, Ohio. Kroger plans to continue running a third Kitchen 1883 restaurant in a supermarket adjacent to its corporate headquarters in downtown Cincinnati and sell food from the restaurant through its catering service, a Kroger spokesperson said in a statement.
“We are incredibly grateful for the community’s support and loyalty throughout the years,” the spokesperson said, describing Kroger’s move to stop running the two Kitchen 1883 locations as a “difficult decision.”
Kroger launched Kitchen 1883 in 2017 in Union as its first full-service restaurant, noting in an announcement about the American comfort food concept that “focused on hospitality and quality service that is unmatched in the industry.”
Kroger, which was founded in 1883, revealed plans for the Kitchen 1883 location in Anderson Township in 2018, following what it said was a successful debut of the Union location. In a statement at the time, Kroger described the restaurant concept as a reflection of the grocery chain’s efforts to upgrade the customer experience through Restock Kroger, a multi-year program to drive its results forward that wound down in 2020.
The third Kitchen 1883 opened in 2019 in a two-story urban-format store steps away from Kroger’s headquarters in Cincinnati. The restaurant is part of the company’s first food hall, On the Rhine Eatery, which includes four other restaurants. The spokesperson did not respond to a question about whether Kroger intends to make any changes to the food hall.
Kroger is trimming its restaurant portfolio as East Coast grocer Wegmans gears up to open the second location in its upscale sushi restaurant concept, Next Door. The restaurant, due to begin service on April 30 at the chain’s store in New York City’s Astor Place neighborhood, joins a Next Door location in Rochester, New York, where Wegmans is based.
