The Lucky Bee Falls Victim to High Rent [Updated]

After just a year and a half on Broome Street, playful Thai restaurant The Lucky Bee will close. Owner Rupert Noffs tells Eater that the rent — $21K a month for the 50-seat space — was too high to maintain.

“We simply can’t afford the rent. We are busy and popular. That wasn’t the issue,” he says.

Now, Noffs and chef-partner Matty Bennett will charge happy hour prices on all drinks this weekend until the restaurant runs out of food and liquor.

Noffs and Bennett opened the colorful, quirky restaurant — their first — in January 2016 with one angel investor from Australia. Bennett’s menu focused on farm-to-table street food paired with cocktails that emphasized honey as a principle ingredient. The restaurant was generally well-received by The Village Voice, The New Yorker, and Eater, despite ConEd never giving the restaurant a full gas hook-up.

The owners say they’re looking to reopen in another space, though likely closer to home in Australia. “We have some strong interest and people who really believe in us and what we do, which is nice,” he says.

This post has been updated to reflect new information.

• All Coverage of The Lucky Bee [ENY]