Update – 4:25 p.m. – Chef Geoff’s in Rockville is now closed.
Geoff Tracy, the owner of the restaurant, confirmed the news Tuesday afternoon. He said he couldn’t generate enough revenue to keep the restaurant in business.
“I ended up losing a lot of money on this deal,” Tracy said. He added that recently the hot water heater at the restaurant broke and it was going to cost $30,000 to replace it. “That was the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
Tracy said he’s working to try to find positions for the Rockville employees at his other restaurants. He said the staff was notified Monday that the restaurant would close.
The American restaurant at Lerner Enterprises’ Towne Plaza is the second-most recent one opened by Tracy, a well-known Washington D.C.-area restaurateur. It opened in 2012.
Tracy operates five other restaurants, including Chef Geoff’s Downtown on Pennsylvania Avenue and Chef Geoff’s on New Mexico Avenue in Washington, D.C., Lia’s in Chevy Chase, Chef Geoff’s Tysons Corner and a Chef Geoff’s at Dulles airport.
Editor’s note: The initial version of this story incorreclty noted that the Rockville location was the most recent Chef Geoff’s to open, in fact the Dulles Airport location opened in 2015. The story has been updated.