After reporting the sudden shuttering of the Little Italy location last week, we have learned that all remaining PrepKitchen restaurants are now closed.
The PrepKitchen location in San Diego's Little Italy closed suddenly to start the month with alleged plans to relocate the restaurant to the Gaslamp Quarter space that last housed Monkey King. The remaining restaurants have since been closed, including Del Mar, La Jolla and San Marcos. We reached out to PrepKitchen owners David & Deborah Krause for comment on the reason behind the closures, but we did not receive a reply by time of publishing.
The PrepKitchen brand has been a mainstay in San Diego’s gastronomic arena since its inception in 2009 with the launch of the La Jolla storefront, followed by locations in Del Mar in 2010, and a larger site in Little Italy that debuted in 2012. Originally founded by Whisknladle Hospitality owner Arturo Kassel and Chef/Partner Ryan Johnston, the farm-to-table chain of restaurants was sold in December 2017 to David and Deborah Krause of Las Vegas' A5 Group, a hospitality management, marketing and advertising firm.
Deborah Krause is the former Chief Operating Officer of Pure Management Group of Las Vegas, while David Krause was its former Chief Marketing Officer. Deborah's resume includes more than 20 years of hospitality experience, with former executive roles with Starbucks Coffee Company, Starwood Corporation, and The Kimpton Group, but the PrepKitchens were her first independently owned restaurants. The couple hoped to expand the PrepKitchen concept around California and Las Vegas and in May 2018 opened a 3,000 square-foot outpost in San Marcos as part of Block C at the North City mixed use residential and retail development. The company also announced plans for a branch at 701 W. 7th Street in downtown Los Angeles that was scheduled to open in summer 2018, but that never happened.
This is a developing story: We will update this post as we learn more.
