WINTER PARK, Fla. – Bad As’s Sandwich has closed its second location in Winter Park after a little more than a year of operation.
The restaurant made the announcement Tuesday evening on social media.
“We thank the community of Winter Park for all the love and support for the past 15 months but we have made the difficult decision to permanently closed (sic) our Winter Park location in order to focus on new projects that better fit our concept,” the post reads.
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The post goes on to explain that the staff at the Winter Park location will be moved to the original Bad As’s location at 207 Primerose Drive in Orlando’s Milk District.
“I don’t want the public to think that because we closed (the location on) Fairbanks (Avenue in Winter Park) that we’re suffering and that we’re actually weak as a company,” John Collazo, the owner of Bad As’s Sandwich said. “We actually keep building up and we’re also expanding more and doing different things with our branding. So, I’d rather focus on that.”
The Winter Park Bad As’s on Fairbanks Avenue opened in June 2020. Shortly after opening, News 6 spoke with Collazo. At the time, e said the original location in the Milk District lost about 80% of its business due to the pandemic and was still down by about 30% when the second location opened.
“We started the deal here back in December so nobody knew,” Collazo said in June 2020. “We’re already so invested in it that we have to keep going.”
Collazo said he and his staff “gave it our best for the past 15 months” and that it was “just time to move on.” He added that this closure is not keeping him down.
“I don’t want people to think that I’m depressed,” he said. “We’re just focusing on our staff, our current location and the future projects that we have planned.”
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Collazo said he is now showing the former Bad As’s location on Fairbanks Avenue to potential tenants.
“We’re blessing somebody else with the location for a new restaurant for them,” he said. “So, I don’t want people to feel bad, it’s actually a blessing for another company, another person.”
An Oct. 1 Facebook post from The Milk District’s Main Street program said, at the time, that a third location of Bad As’s was “in the works.”
Collazo said that location will be in Edgewood at Holden Hub which bills itself as “a collaborative social gathering space,” according to its website.
“It’s going to be a really good move for us,” Collazo said
Holden Hub is opening up near the intersection of South Orange Avenue and Holden Avenue in Edgewood.
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