When Russell Birk opened Maya’s Modern Mediterranean in East Dallas in 2017, it was his first restaurant venture. His small business defied the odds and survived its first year. Then, it defied the odds again and survived the Covid-19 pandemic.
After seven and a half years, though, Maya’s Modern Mediterranean has met its match in this economy, Birk said. Due to an unrelenting nosedive in sales, his restaurant will close Dec. 23.
The closure of Maya’s Modern Mediterranean in Casa Linda Plaza comes two months after the closure of Be Home Soon in the same shopping center. That restaurant also shuttered due to declining sales.
“As a small business owner with a family and obligations, I just can’t make it work,” Birk said. “My sense is it’s more the economy than it is anything else. All the sudden over the last year, it’s just been a steady decline and nothing I’ve done has worked. I keep waiting for sales to return to normal but they just aren’t.”
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Independent restaurants like his are vulnerable, he said. With minuscule margins, they are sitting ducks in challenging economic environments.
Russel Birk, owner of Maya’s Modern Mediterranean, and his family
Russel Birk
“We can handle a downturn, but we can’t handle a downturn that lasts this long,” Birk said, “or at least I can’t. I won’t speak for everyone else. High-end restaurant are still doing really well but a lot of restaurants like mine are struggling.”
The closure is especially tough, he said, because the restaurant, which is down the street from where he lives, has been a family effort. It is named after his daughter, and all of his kids have helped out behind the scenes and behind the cash register over the years.
The drop in restaurant sales has been widespread across Texas over the past year, according to data from the Texas Restaurant Association, which recently sounded the alarm on the viability of the state’s restaurants.
“It’s a perfect storm honestly,” the association’s president and CEO Emily Williams Knight told The Dallas Morning News last month. “You have a fatigued consumer and a fatigued restaurant owner.”
Birk, who left a finance career to get into the restaurant business, opened a second Maya’s location nine months ago in Dallas’ Hillcrest Village. That restaurant’s sales are increasing and it will remain open, he said.
He attributes part of the success at that location to a smaller footprint than the one in Casa Linda, which has 125 seats.
“That’s a lot of seats for a fast casual restaurant and it never filled up,” he said.
To anyone in the process of opening a restaurant in this economy, Birk’s advice is this: “Whatever you think you need, double it. People just don’t build up enough working capital to stay open. Both of my restaurants opened under-capitalized and that’s hard to survive in that first year.”
The Casa Linda location of Maya’s will offer specials like 50% off beer and wine as it prepares to permanently close, Birk said. They will also have Booker T. Washington jazz students perform on the patio on Dec. 18. from 6 to 8 p.m.
Maya’s Modern Mediterranean will close Dec. 23 at 9540 Garland Road, Ste. C362, Dallas. The location at Hillcrest Village will remain open. mayasmediterranean.com.