Pecking House in Brooklyn forced to close for ‘foreseeable future'
PROSPECT HEIGHT, Brooklyn (PIX11) — A popular eatery that recently expanded to Brooklyn may be forced to close for good.
Pecking House, a restaurant known for its Sichuan chili country fried chicken, closed its location in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn in early May because of mandated construction. The team shared the news in an email to subscribers on Tuesday.
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'It's been both a long time coming and incredibly unexpected. Such is life, and such is the nature of the world of food, especially these days,' the email read.
The Queens-born restaurant expanded to Brooklyn in September 2022 and later to Chinatown. Restaurant owners say construction wasn't required at the time they moved into 244 Flatbush Ave but things have since changed.
More: Latest News from Around the Tri-State
The building owner needed full access to the Pecking House basement to complete the mandated construction, the restaurant's team said. As a result, they made way for the construction team but lost a space to prep food, according to the email.
PIX11 reached out to the building owner for a statement but did not hear back at the time of publishing.
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'Shutting down a restaurant, even temporarily, launches a domino effect that swiftly becomes an avalanche,' the email said.
'It takes time and a lot of coordination – and a lot of money – to both end and start again all the things that keep a restaurant churning.'
While it's possible the store could reopen in a month or two if construction goes as planned, the restaurant also faces the challenge of having to find and hire an entirely new team to reopen, representatives explained.
'Maybe there are still a lot of questions, but we're still figuring out a lot of answers. We will keep you updated as we figure them out,' the team said.
In the meantime, Pecking House says they will focus on their Chinatown location for the time being. The Manhattan store will also close temporarily on Wednesday and Thursday to prepare for the launch of a new menu on Friday.
Dominique Jack is a digital content producer from Brooklyn with more than five years of experience covering news. She joined PIX11 in 2024. More of her work can be found here.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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