BALTIMORE — Medium Rare, a popular restaurant in the D.C. area, has closed its location at The Rotunda in Hampden - less than a year after it opened.
The Baltimore location is the only one of the chain's seven restaurants that was losing hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Owner Mark Bucher said the closure is only temporary. He expects business to pick up when area business picks back up - which he hopes will happen when another dinner restaurant, The Barn & Lodge, opens next year, Warehouse Cinemas gets "some more movies," and the shopping center makes some improvements, including parking.
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"We love Baltimore and we love Hampden and we love The Rotunda and we love the landlord there," he said. "We have very high hopes that things improve in that area of town when it comes to dinner."
Medium Rare shut its doors this past Sunday. It's tucked in the back southwest corner of the shopping center, parallel to Elm Avenue.
Bucher said he was there from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. and only two people walked by.
The Rotunda location was earning in a week what some other Medium Rare locations earn in a single brunch.
The shopping center does have numerous other restaurants, but Bucher noted that most are quick-serve eateries that are busy at lunch, not at dinner.
"We had expected it to be gangbusters. We expected Baltimore to be a hungry market for something a little different," he said.
Bucher assured that Medium Rare isn't moving anywhere. The chain, meanwhile, is expanding nationally, having just opened a New York City location and getting ready to open in Houston, Philadelphia, and the Boston area.
We want to reopen [in the Rotunda.]... and be part of the vibrancy and part of the story there... Baltimore's got to come out to eat as often as they can, at every restaurant they're by. You've got to come out to support your restaurants, Baltimore. Go out to eat as often as you can.
