Taylor Gourmet Suddenly Closes All Stores a Decade After Opening the First on H Street NE

Washingtonian reported on Friday that all Taylor Gourmet shops would close by Sunday (yesterday) after the private equity firm KarpReilly, which owns the majority interest in the sandwich chain pulled its funding. The Washington Post also covered the story. According to Washingtonian the restaurant's management team only learned of the closures on Friday, meaning employees at the shops had little to no notice they would soon be unemployed. In a bit of bright news, the Washington City Paper reports that another locally born chain is stepping up to help the now jobless Taylor employees. CAVA, which sells Mediterranean inspired fare, announced it will hold a job fair tomorrow for former Taylor employees at two of its locations. A few other local District spots also told the City Paper they are looking to hire experienced sandwich makers. They are listed at the bottom of the WCP article.
Taylor Gourmet opened its first shop at 1116 H St. NE in November of 2008. Their Philadelphia style hoagies quickly became popular in the District and other locations in the DC area and beyond would follow. Owner Casey Taylor Patten caused a stir in January of 2017 when he met with President Trump as part of a round-table discussion with small business owners about the challenges they face. Patten sought to clarify the context and explain that he had attended similar meetings with President Obama and his staff, but the damage was done. Any willful association with Trump is basically toxic as far as many in the District are concerned and the backlash was swift with many promising to boycott the sandwich chain. While that can't have helped, the rapid expansion of Taylor following KarpReilly's capital infusion in 2015 (Washingtonian goes into more detail on all of this) may have also just been too much too fast.