An austere bit of stationery is taped to the door of Bice Ristorante in the Galleria, indicating that mall owner Simon Property Group has changed the locks until Bice comes up with $164,731.37 in rent. The letter is dated from mid-July. And somebody has finally noticed!
“Seriously, how do you fall this far behind on rent?,” asks Tasty Bits author Misha. A few pix below:
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Misha missed it:
For about a year now, I have been planning a lunch visit, but the few reviews of it convinced me that I need to be a bit more dressed up than I usually am at work. I work for a software company. Putting on slacks is considered on occupational hazard. The few times I was appropriately dressed, I found the lure of Brennan’s or Da Marco too much to ignore.
No regrets there, but still. I waited too long.
Photos: Misha
by my rough calculation.. that space is going for 55K a month in rent?! wow! How many square feet is that?
whats ironic is for the outrageous rent costs, i’ve never seen, walked past, drove past, or have any clue where the joint is!! i have only read about it online??
It’s in the wing of the Galleria where Lord and Taylor used to be. For a restaurant, there is no foot traffic there lure customers.
Also, the concept needing to dressed up also killed business from many regular mall shoppers.
$55k a month for rent seems a bit rich. The Bice space is 7,500 SF. Assuming a NNN lease, the expense pass-through may be around $10 PSF. That means the base rent would have to be $78 PSF to equal $55k/month overall. The actual base rental rate is probably more like $30 PSF NNN ($25,000/month total) or $40 PSF NNN ($31,250/ month total).
I ate there a couple of times and thought the food was good and attractively presented, although a bit bland for my taste. I’d agree with anyone who thought their choice of location kinda predestined them for failure. The clientele seemed to be mostly wealthy visitors from Mexico and points south, which I guess was not enough to keep them going. BTW, it was not in the former Lord & Taylor area, in which the new restaurants seems to be doing quite well … it was in the section farther west, which requires walking thru the interior of Saks to get to from the “main” parts of Galleria.