St. Charles Exchange, 113 S. Seventh St., has closed abruptly, but the staff has hopes that the closing will be temporary. The major investors who have underwritten the business since it opened three years ago, who run a software company, Adminovate, in Philadelphia, have decided to keep their focus on software development, and want to divest themselves of other unrelated businesses.
General manager of St. Charles Exchange, Lauren Farrar-Molina, said that the restaurant had been doing fairly well, and over the lifetime of the business had developed a solid, dedicated staff, who worked well together. They had been soldiering through a slow summer, as many restaurants do, Farrar-Molina said, “but as soon as school starts again and the grills are put away, we expected people to start eating in restaurants again.”
But with the major investment support coming from out of town, the operation was not as well-supported as it might be. “Overhead is high,” Farrar-Molina said, “and we need someone locally who can support it. We are part of the local restaurant scene now, and hopefully a new buyer will come in and we can re-open with the same good people.”
