
How the St. Paul Shopping Center and Stop N Shop store lights are changing and going away
Stop N Sushi, the restaurant chain founded by the late David Chang, has a new restaurant in its sights.
St. Peter’s will close its doors for good at the end of February.
It will be replaced by a new St. Anthony’s location in the same building.
The company says the St Paul location will serve lunch and dinner and have an on-site bar.
Stop N Shops will remain open, but the new St Anthony’s will only serve lunch.
The move is part of a larger shift away from chain restaurants.
The St. Petersburg, Fla.-based company has shuttered about 60 locations since 2008, most of which were located in suburban Atlanta.
It’s still one of the top-rated chains in the United States, and the St Pius X Church of Christ in Atlanta opened a new location this summer.
The restaurant chain is not the only one to consider the demise of its corporate home.
The fast-casual chain Chipotle is planning to close its stores and build a new one in Atlanta, and restaurants are starting to open up in New York and Miami.
But in the past decade, restaurant owners have been cutting back on their operations and the number of restaurants has dwindled.
“You’re seeing a lot of restaurants closing down,” said John Boulud, a senior food and beverage analyst with Bloomberg Intelligence.
“There’s just so much less demand for a restaurant as a consumer.
You can’t just go and grab a burger and a milkshake at McDonald’s.”
That trend will likely continue with the shift to fast-food restaurants, which have increased in popularity in recent years.
The number of restaurant locations has declined by about 1,300 since 2010, according to the Department of Commerce.
That’s about a 40 percent decrease.