21 Spoons restaurant to close this month unless it lines up a sale

21 Spoons is planning to close this month, which would cap off a four-year run.  (Jack Jacobs photo)

Midlothian restaurant 21 Spoons is planning to shutter later this month unless it can find a buyer to take the reins and keep it alive.

Owner Ann Butler said she is stepping away from the business at 13568 Waterford Place because it has become too challenging to run the restaurant and oversee the other arms of her Edible Education Group, which includes selling portable kitchens and offering culinary classes for kids.

21 Spoons opened as a pandemic-era pivot for Butler nearly four years ago, and at launch it was open a couple evenings a week. Butler said there was a need to increase hours to ensure the long-term viability of 21 Spoons, which bills itself as a higher-end concept.

“We had opened another evening, Wednesday nights, and that’s too many hours for me at the restaurant. I have two other businesses,” Butler said. “Honestly, we need to open up another three shifts to be profitable and that’s not doable. Our food is intensive and we’re charging Midlothian prices.”

The restaurant is open 5-9 p.m. Wednesday to Saturday and 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Sunday. It’s in the Food Lion-anchored Village at Waterford shopping center.

Butler said on Monday that while her current plan is to close 21 Spoons on Dec. 22, she is exploring a sale of the restaurant and said she had two offers under consideration as of this week.

21 Spoons opened as a way to expand Edible Education’s business during the pandemic, when teaching-kitchen sales and the company’s youth culinary classes were disrupted by COVID-related public health regulations.

Butler said cheap rent and the availability of restaurant equipment as other eateries closed during the period set the stage for 21 Spoons to open. She said that 21 Spoons was able to build a following and noted the restaurant earned accolades, such as being named best locally owned restaurant in Virginia by Southern Living Magazine in 2023. She said it’s been bittersweet in recent days to see loyal customers come in for what could be their final meals at 21 Spoons.

“We love our people, we’ll miss them,” she said.

Butler plans to continue the 21 Spoons catering operation even if the restaurant closes.

Closing 21 Spoons would allow Butler to focus more energy on the sales of portable teaching kitchens under the Kitchen a la Cart brand, which she said is a more lucrative venture and one that generates most of the Edible Education company’s revenue.

Edible Education’s portable kitchens have an oven, burner, sink, counter space and other features. They’re intended to teach children about healthy cooking and dietary habits, and are sold to schools and libraries. Full-size kitchens start at about $13,600 and compact units start at $4,300, according to the company’s website.

Edible Education recently increased the production capacity for its kitchen units. The company inked a deal earlier this year with an Amelia-based manufacturer to make the units, joining a Norfolk-based manufacturing company also contracted to produce the stations.

Rounding out Edible Education Group’s offerings are cooking classes and a summer camp program for children. The company currently has one local spot for that programming at 13566 Waterford Place, which is next door to the 21 Spoons storefront.

The outpost is one of three Edible Education locations. Butler licenses the concept to an operator who runs two locations in the Atlanta suburbs. Edible Education briefly leased a space for cooking classes at Stony Point Fashion Park, but that location closed in 2022.