Durham’s Piedmont restaurant is closing. The owners say they’re being forced out.
This is the last week of service for one of downtown Durham’s most influential restaurants.
The owners of Piedmont announced they will close this week, with Saturday, Feb. 22 being the restaurant’s final service. Husband and wife owners Richard Holcomb and Jamie DeMent said the closing is sudden and unexpected after their restaurant’s property at 401 Foster Street was sold to new owners.
“We have some incredibly sad news,” the owners announced on Facebook. “We just found out that buyers from outside of North Carolina have bought the building Piedmont is in and intend to ‘recapture’ our space at the end of February.”
In a phone interview, DeMent said Piedmont found out via email that the building had been sold and that they were losing their space. The new owners, she said, were invoking their “recapture” rights, enabling them to cancel the remaining six years on the lease, DeMent said.
DeMent said they did not know the name of the new owners, only that they are a Washington, D.C.-based company. She said Piedmont explored its legal options, finding none.
“We’ve done everything we can to challenge it,” DeMent said. “We have zero recourse.”
Piedmont was tied to NC seasons
Piedmont opened as an Italian restaurant in 2006 and was purchased by Holcomb and DeMent in 2010 and turned into a farm to table concept tied to the North Carolina seasons. Its menu is one of the most fiercely local in the area, with many ingredients often sourced from Holcomb and DeMent’s Coon Rock Farm in Hillsborough.
“We have loved being in Durham,” DeMent said. “I couldn’t think of a better place for a a farm to table restaurant than in Durham. We’re grateful for the people and the friendships. It’s been a blessing to be a part of this community. This is heartbreaking for us.”
DeMent said Piedmont will serve dinner as usual through Saturday and then pack up the restaurant in an effort to be out by the end of February. She said the owners would work to find employees jobs within Durham’s restaurant community.
“That’s the real tragedy,” DeMent said of Piedmont’s employees losing their jobs. “We couldn’t just shut down and tell them they’re not going to have a job today. So we’ll be open for one more payroll cycle and a week of service.”
