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Missy Flynn and Gabe Pryce’s “global sandwich shop,” Bodega Rita’s, will close in Coal Drops Yard. Writing on Instagram this morning, the duo said:
“After having had some great times here on Lower Stable Street it has become impossible for us to continue safely towards our long term goals with new trade restrictions in place.
The decision has been made with the support of our Kings Cross landlord to terminate our lease early, which means Bodega Rita’s will not be re-opening on Lower Stable Street.”
Flynn told Eater that while COVID-19 had accelerated eventual plans to find larger premises, landlord Argent were “very accommodating.”
Bodega Rita’s opened in winter 2018, a degree of separation rather than a departure from the original Rita’s Dining that they opened in 2012 at Birthdays, in Dalston; it moved in 2013, to Mare Street, and closed in 2016 before being revived at the Redchurch Brewery, in the summer of 2018. Upon opening, Flynn described Bodega Rita’s as a “way stripped back version of anything we have done before,” relishing the chance to more meaningfully interact with customers than in a restaurant environment as a key benefit of the space’s limitations. Its range of carefully messy sandwiches, which took influences from global cultures without minimising them to tropes, made it one of the best sandwich shops in the city.
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More soon on the future of Bodega Rita’s.