Dolce Group Closes Ketchup Restaurant In Alabama

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Sep 22nd 2009 at 1:02AM

Dolce Group, the restaurant group which boasts celebrity investors like Ashton Kutcher and Jamie Kennedy, has had many successes with its brands including Dolce, Geisha House and Bella. But the group has decided to close one of their many outlets, the Ketchup Restaurant in Huntsville, Alabama. Dolce Group continues to run Ketchup Restaurants in Los Angeles and Washington DC and its Dolce restaurant in Huntsville will stay open. Lonnie Moore, who is, along with former reality TV star, Mike "Boogie" Malin, one of the two main partners in the Dolce Group, said the competition for American dining on the Huntsville dining scene is "very fierce" and so the group decided to focus on their Italian restaurant Dolce, instead. Ketchup, which boasts a red-and-white retro-inspired design scheme serves pepped-up American fare.

Gallery: Restaurant Woes

Tags: alabama, dolce group, DolceGroup, huntsville, huntsville alabama, HuntsvilleAlabama, ketchup, ketchup restaurant, KetchupRestaurant, lonnie moore, LonnieMoore

Filed under: Dining

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

greg britton Sep 22nd 2009 3:35AM

Hate that ketchup is closing in huntsville,I have always enjoyed the food and service.Never had a bad meal there,Food always tasted very good.
My favorite entrees are,The Ketchup Burger,Cajun Chicken Pasta,and Skewer Me This.It is a brilliant concept,but it is very competitive here in huntsville.I am glad that Dolce is staying.Hopefully in the future if Dolce works out,an things get better with economy etc.Ketchup will be back in the future!!

NATAL123 Sep 22nd 2009 10:43AM

Been there a few times, two times service was marginal, and third time the waiter forgot to put in our food order, we were sitting outside having wine wating for about $50 in appetisers, and he never came back with them!! When we asked, he said "OH darn..will do it now but it will take awhile, are you sure you wanna wait that long? " We left...last time there, and we would have been regulars as we love Bridge Street, and the Ketchup concept. The first time there, the burger was RAW inside, and when we asked for it be cooked they said no problem, and brought it back on SAME plate with blood running on it!!! wow! what a trip...anyway, bad service in a town chock full of $10 burgers will not work...hope the managers see this...

Shane Donovan Sep 22nd 2009 10:46AM

I'm familiar with both Ketchup and Dolce at Bridgestreet in Huntsville. I know several people whose companies are vendors to them. Both restaurants are notorious for not paying their bills. One of the janitorial services for one of the restaurants finally walked out after not being paid for something like five months. Something tells me that if I ate there and told them "I'll pay you in a few months" when handed the bill, that wouldn't go over well. No wonder they are having trouble.

kluj Sep 22nd 2009 1:09PM

i hope the whole lot of the celebs lose their shirts in all these deals!

Betsy Sep 22nd 2009 1:25PM

To me, over time most of the "celebrity" owned restaurants and bars have closed.
These guys hire "friends" or people that may know something but are "star" struck and take the "stars" advice instead of having good restaurant education.

I remember Joe Namath and his bar in NYC, when Joe left football the bar closed, I think Planet H is terrible food, yet I recall when Bruce Willis, Jean Claude Van Damne, and many more stars went to a series of openings around the world years ago. And I laughed, because I could NOT imagine them eating this yucky food.

I think Kenny Rogers chicken chain went belly up and a lot of stars who opened just one restaurant in Los Angeles, have found making a profit is a lot harder, once people have come Grand Opening week, and never come back.

Why is it "stars", movie, tv, singers, sports, feel it is necessary to open a dining place or a bar. Stick to what they are good at.
PS
I felt both the food and the service at Ketchup were so uneven, they should have closed before now. And it sucks that they owe money to many local vendors, plus they are not paying the rest of the lease.