A year ago in June, 502 Crab House opened in south Louisville. The Courier Journal’s Dahlia Ghabour had the report.
It’s owned by Peter Tran and his brother Shawn, both of whom are new to the restaurant industry. “My brothers have a nail salon for 15 years, L’Amour Nails & Spa in Elizabethtown,” Peter Tran said. “I’m hoping my new restaurant will become [successful] the same way.”
Tran was bullish about the prospects for the exploding crab ‘n’ seafood boil concept.
Tran said he would like to expand the business in the future with between five and 10 locations in Louisville, Bowling Green and Lexington.
Ghabour was back last week to report 502 Crab House’s demise.
Just under a year after it opened, 502 Crab House has closed at 5023 Mud Lane in south Louisville.
This is by no means a slam at the Trans. Trends come and go, and when it’s time for calculating winners and losers, enduring food service fundamentals come back into play. Seafood costs have been especially prone to recent inflationary pressures, and we’re all familiar with current staffing and supply chain issues.
Folks, it’s brutal out there, and now more than ever, a majority of new restaurants do not succeed. As Ghabour notes, two Million’s Crab locations that opened in 2021 are now gone, along with The Bayou in downtown Louisville and presumably The Juicy Crab in Clarksville (“marked temporarily closed on Google, but it no longer appears on the Juicy Crab parent website.”)
Meanwhile at 2116 E. Spring Street in New Albany, Hing Wang Cajun Seafood & Sushi has bucked the bad tidings and finally opened for business after a build-out that took more than a year. The owners of Hing Wang Chinese Restaurant (directly across the street at 2123 E. Spring) tackled a decaying former Dairy Queen, completed the task, then had to deal with the ongoing labor shortage.
Hours of operation do not appear on the Fb page, so it would be a good idea to call first.
Photo credit: Laura Melton
