2 more Richmond restaurants are closing: Saison and Saison Market

Saison restaurant and its adjacent Saison Market in Jackson Ward are closing at the end of service Monday, Dec. 12, after nearly a decade in business.

Why it matters: The restaurant was lauded in local and national media for its inventive Latin-influenced menu and elevated bar program, and the market served the best damn chicken biscuit in town.

Jay Bayer and chef Adam Hall opened the restaurant and its cafe/market cousin in 2012 and 2014, respectively. Hall left in 2020 and opened the Feed Store in Goochland with his wife and former Saison general manager, Sara Kerfoot.

A reason for the closing wasn't given, and Bayer was unavailable to discuss it, but local restaurant owners have been telling Axios for months that the future is bleak for independent restaurant owners.

Costs are up in nearly every restaurant operation category, from labor and food to utilities to takeout containers, meanwhile the industry continues to struggle with staffing challenges.

Restaurants notoriously run on extremely small profit margins, and a pandemic followed by a spike in inflation has made it brutal, restaurant owners tell Axios.

• "The numbers just don't work anymore. It's math 101," Jake Crocker, who closed his last restaurant this year, recently told Axios.