Cochon Butcher in Germantown will close, multiple sources have told Bites. The restaurant, a partnership between Fresh Hospitality and New Orleans chef Donald Link's group, has called an all-staff meeting for Tuesday night. The property has been open since 2015 in the same building with Little Donkey and Juice Bar, also Fresh properties.
It’s hard to believe that Cochon Butcher, which has displayed consistently good quality since opening, would suffer from a lack of diners, but Germantown is tricky. Destination restaurants have done well in that area — City House, Silo, Rolf and Daughters and Henrietta Red to name a few — but the foot traffic that can be beneficial for fast-casual concepts is spotty. One source described Cochon as doing a solid lunch business but said that dinner could be challenging.
The original Cochon Butcher opened in New Orleans in 2009. A spokesperson for the Link Restaurant Group declined to comment.
The move would appear to open a space for a second Vui’s Kitchen, another Fresh Hospitality property, which features Vietnamese food in a fast-casual environment. A spokesperson for Vui’s declined to confirm the move, saying only that Vui’s was looking for space in Germantown to open another restaurant. The first Vui’s is in Berry Hill.
The closure would represent the second failed attempt to expand the popular Cochon Butcher beyond NOLA. In 2013, Cochon Lafayette in Lafayette, La., closed after being in business just one year. Link told the New Orleans Times-Picayune that the second location was too dependent upon the original location for personnel. The partnership with Fresh Hospitality was supposed to solve that part of the equation.
