Three Monkey’s Chophouse is closing its doors on May 21, 2023.
The restaurant on Main Street in Downtown Manassas opened four years ago and quickly became known for its dinner and drinks but also for its community service. Since opening in 2019, the eatery partnered with businesses like the Old Town Man Cave to provide free haircuts and breakfast to those who couldn’t afford them.
Last year, the restaurant, nestled inside a nearly 80-year-old church, hosted several marriages for couples who exchanged vows through the Prince William County Circuit Court Clerk’s Office.
After several setbacks over the past year, including the death in the family of one owner and a utility outage that left the business closed on Halloween weekend, one of the busiest times of year for restaurants, and an inability to reach a new lease deal with the building owners, the restauranteurs will call it quits.
“We really loved it,” said co-owner Billy Wiseman. “We really prided ourselves on being a staple of the community. We love the sense of township Manassas has. Every time I’ve gone around with a crazy fundraiser idea, every other business owner has been on board.”
The restaurant survived the government-manded coronavirus shutdowns with help from the city and state governments, which modified parking rules and allowed restaurants to sell alcohol to go.
However, when the government relaxed its restrictions and allowed customers to return, not all of them did, and that crippled long-term business, said Wiseman.
Coupled with the coronavirus mandates with the rising cost of food, labor, and just about everything else, the writing was on the wall. Wiseman said the prices of some food items have more than doubled the cost in a week.
About 40 people will lose their jobs. Wiseman said the restaurant will help find new places for them to work.
Meanwhile, Wiseman said the restaurant will continue to give back to the community while the doors remain open for the next month.
“We’re going to go out with a bang. Anyone who knows us knows we’re going to be giving back to the community as much as we can up until the end,” said Wiseman.
Here’s the full statement about the restaurant’s closure posted to social media:
We are overwhelmed with sadness to announce that May 21st will be our last day in business. A LOT of thought, stress and tears have gone in to making this decision.
With the economy in the state it is in and the stress that has entailed we have decided that it is time to leave the industry with our heads held high.
To offer transparency while maintaining a level of personal privacy we will share that a lot has happened in the past year for us personally and the stress has gotten to the point of seriously impacting the health of one of the owners. This has been a primary reason behind our deciding it is time to close.
Please know how much we cherish our employees! We ask all of the local owners to allow our employees to finish out our remaining time before trying to hire them. On that note we do plan to actively help our employees find something new and exciting to look forward to!
We can’t thank you enough for the amazing memories and we are excited to make plenty more with you over the next month!
We ask that you focus on the positives of the past 5 years with us and help us to bring things to a close with a sense of community!
