The signage is down and the furniture and appliances were on their way out of Cherry Hill’s Brio Italian Grille on Tuesday after the restaurant permanently shut its doors.
“We have made the difficult decision to permanently close our Brio location in Cherry Hill,” a sign posted to the restaurant’s entrance reads. “We are grateful for the opportunity to have served this community and are committed to supporting our team members during this transition.”
Calls to the restaurant went unanswered Tuesday and the location had been removed from the Brio Italian Grille website.
The closure comes less than two months after staff at the restaurant emphasized that the doors were still open amid rumors of a potential closure.
The other Brio Italian Grille location in Marlton closed in May, less than a year after the chain’s parent company filed for bankruptcy for the second time in five years.
South Jersey residents interested in a visit to the Italian restaurant will now have to travel more than 200 miles to the nearest location, in Connecticut.
Is Fogo de Chão moving in?
As rumors of closure swirled last month, so, too, did rumors that Fogo de Chão Brazilian Steakhouse would move into the space.
42 Freeway, a publication covering development in South Jersey, first reported the news in May, followed by NJ.com, which cited project plans filed by Fogo de Chão and the owners of the Towne Place shopping center to the Cherry Hill Township Zoning Board of Adjustment in April.
Those plans propose a remodeled restaurant with 296 seats, and the required zoning permits for the conversion to the steakhouse have already been issued, Cherry Hill Township attorney Cosmas Diamantis previously told The Inquirer.
Now, with Brio closed, it is still unclear if the steakhouse plans to lease the property.
A spokesperson for Fogo de Chão declined to comment on the matter last month and again on Tuesday.
Joe Morris, an executive for M&M Realty Partners, which owns the landlord entity that manages Towne Place tenants, previously said that the chain has inquired about joining the Cherry Hill retail center for more than a decade. Morris did not respond to requests for comment this week.
“I can absolutely tell you, if Brio gives their space back, Fogo is 100% a tenant we would be interested in speaking with,” Morris said last month amid the first round of closure rumors.
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