Steak and fries chain Medium Rare has closed its Baltimore location after less than a year in operation, according to founder Mark Bucher.
Since the restaurant opened in Hampden’s Rotunda in November, “our losses were massive,” Bucher said, totaling $480,000. The restaurant — which originated in Washington, D.C., and has locations in Columbia and Bethesda, Dallas, New Orleans, and Arlington, Virginia — is “killing it everywhere else.”
The chain’s recently opened New York City location, situated just a few blocks from the Empire State Building, is performing 400% better than expected in its first few weeks in business. Meanwhile, the Baltimore location’s weekly sales were equivalent to one day of brunch sales at one of the restaurant’s other branches.
Still, Bucher characterized the closure as temporary and said he would like to reopen — with some help from landlord MCB Real Estate, which owns the Rotunda shopping center where the steak frites restaurant was located. “I would love nothing more than to reopen … but we need to be subsidized. We can’t ride the losses until the crowds come back to Baltimore,” said Bucher, who remarked that the Hampden shopping center currently lacks enough foot traffic to support the business.
A spokesman for MCB Real Estate did not respond to a request for comment.
But Bucher, who also founded Feed the Fridge, a nonprofit that provides free meals in the D.C. area, said he remains optimistic about the Rotunda’s future, given the planned arrival of the The Barn & Lodge from Titan Hospitality. But that concept isn’t set to open until next year.
“For right now,” Bucher said, “it’s rough.”