Signage for Citizen Burger Bar already had been removed as of Wednesday afternoon. (Mike Platania photo)
Correction: An earlier version of this story identified Bachitar Singh as a purchaser of the assets of Citizen Burger Bar. Singh was not part of the buyer group.
A Charlottesville-based tavern has flipped its last burger in Carytown, but its building won’t be offline for long.
Citizen Burger Bar’s Richmond location at 2907 W. Cary St. has closed after a seven-year run and its assets have been sold to a local restaurateur Naveen Sadana.
Sadana, who co-owns Jannat Indian Cuisine at 7801 W. Broad St. in Henrico with Bachitar Singh, is now preparing to open Carytown Indian Cuisine in Citizen’s old space.
Citizen Burger had been owned by Charlottesville-based The Virginian Restaurant Co., which also co-owns local spots Jardin in the Fan and Grisette in Church Hill.
The company sold Citizen’s equipment and business assets to Sadana for an undisclosed sum. Citizen owner Andy McClure held on to the Carytown real estate, which he bought in 2021 for $1.45 million. Nathan Hughes of Sperity Real Estate Ventures represented McClure in the May 31 asset sale. The value of the deal was not disclosed. Richard Holden of Holden Realty represented Sadana.
McClure is based in Charlottesville and runs the Citizen Burger there that remains operational. He said proximity between the two locations played a major role in the decision to sell the Richmond spot.
Sadana said the new Carytown restaurant will have a different menu from Jannat but will be priced similarly, with entrees ranging from $14 to $21. He said he’s planning some cosmetic renovations for the Carytown building and is hoping to open it in two or three months.
The new concept will be at least the fifth restaurant to open in the space in Carytown. Along with Citizen, the space has previously been home to Portrait House, BlowToad and Double T’s Barbecue.
As Citizen exits the local burger scene, burger chain Shake Shack is preparing its entrance.
Earlier this week the New York-based restaurant brand announced it’ll be opening its first Richmond-area restaurant on June 9 in a from-scratch building constructed on the site of a former Applebee’s at 5400 W. Broad St., just west of Willow Lawn.
Signage for Citizen Burger Bar already had been removed as of Wednesday afternoon. (Mike Platania photo)
Correction: An earlier version of this story identified Bachitar Singh as a purchaser of the assets of Citizen Burger Bar. Singh was not part of the buyer group.
A Charlottesville-based tavern has flipped its last burger in Carytown, but its building won’t be offline for long.
Citizen Burger Bar’s Richmond location at 2907 W. Cary St. has closed after a seven-year run and its assets have been sold to a local restaurateur Naveen Sadana.
Sadana, who co-owns Jannat Indian Cuisine at 7801 W. Broad St. in Henrico with Bachitar Singh, is now preparing to open Carytown Indian Cuisine in Citizen’s old space.
Citizen Burger had been owned by Charlottesville-based The Virginian Restaurant Co., which also co-owns local spots Jardin in the Fan and Grisette in Church Hill.
The company sold Citizen’s equipment and business assets to Sadana for an undisclosed sum. Citizen owner Andy McClure held on to the Carytown real estate, which he bought in 2021 for $1.45 million. Nathan Hughes of Sperity Real Estate Ventures represented McClure in the May 31 asset sale. The value of the deal was not disclosed. Richard Holden of Holden Realty represented Sadana.
McClure is based in Charlottesville and runs the Citizen Burger there that remains operational. He said proximity between the two locations played a major role in the decision to sell the Richmond spot.
Sadana said the new Carytown restaurant will have a different menu from Jannat but will be priced similarly, with entrees ranging from $14 to $21. He said he’s planning some cosmetic renovations for the Carytown building and is hoping to open it in two or three months.
The new concept will be at least the fifth restaurant to open in the space in Carytown. Along with Citizen, the space has previously been home to Portrait House, BlowToad and Double T’s Barbecue.
As Citizen exits the local burger scene, burger chain Shake Shack is preparing its entrance.
Earlier this week the New York-based restaurant brand announced it’ll be opening its first Richmond-area restaurant on June 9 in a from-scratch building constructed on the site of a former Applebee’s at 5400 W. Broad St., just west of Willow Lawn.
It seems worth noting that the labor at CBB found out about the closing with no notice and are now unemployed. Should be part of the story.
That is standard policy
This is what I wanted to see in the comments. Agreed 100%
You failed to mention the entire staff was fired without notice and now 40 people are without jobs the day before rent is due
http://www.indeed.com
Carytown Indian Restaurant. I just can’t with that. I give it 6 mo max.
Could you elaborate? Tulsi seems to do very well, but they set the bar high.
I think they are referring to the boring name. I too worry about people not taking it seriously with a name like that.
Exactly. Probably will have a banner instead of real signage.
This article is fluffy BS – weak, irresponsible coverage of this news story. Entire staff was fired with zero notice and CBB owners should be held accountable for their terrible handling of this.
I’m sure it’s not much consolation, but the labor market for restaurant workers is such that CBB’s staff won’t be unemployed for long.
I know that this is going to be an unpopular post, and it’s certainly not something I agree with, but closing a restaurant with little-to-no notice isn’t really that unusual. I spent almost 4 decades running and working in restaurants. When management/ownership decides to close an operation, the folks in the daily grind – cooks, servers, dishwashers, and even management – are often the last to know. It’s considered a measure to protect the restaurant’s assets. If you tell everyone that they’re getting fired, there’s the risk that they’ll rob the place blind, vandalize, criticize, etc. Again, it sucks for… Read more »
I worked my way through part of my college career doing dishes and short order cook stuff – they didn’t close they just fired the whole staff and hired new. Seems pretty typical in a certain level of restaurants.
Your experience does happen, but it’s not the norm. It takes time & money to hire & train. If I hired a dishwasher, I spent about $400 to train them. Didn’t matter if they stayed 6 days, 6 months or 6 years.
I fully enjoy Indian food and Tulsi is great; however, I neglect to see how this adds anything unique or new to Carytown. It would be interesting to hear how they plan to distinguish their restaurant from the other 30+ places to eat within a few blocks. Ultimately, I’m not sad to lose a basic burger restaurant but I always hope something new adds more variety (for example, I’d love to have a solid Korean bbq option in Carytown/The Fan).