NEWTOWN, Ohio — In a heartfelt letter posted online Monday, Just Q'In owner Matt Cuff shared why he decided to close his barbecue restaurant's original brick-and-mortar location.
"This was a very difficult decision for my wife and I as we have 'grown up' in business in Newtown," he wrote on Just Q'In's website.
Cuff launched Just Q'In as a food truck in 2009 then opened the Newtown location at 6901 Valley Ave. in 2011. He opened a second location at 975 E. McMillan St. in Walnut Hills in 2016. Cuff noted the Walnut Hills store will remain open.
He stated the decision to close the Newtown store had little to do with its success. The store was profitable, Cuff wrote.
The closure had more to do with realigning Just Q'In's business model in order to support the restaurant's mission of enriching the lives of its employees and surrounding community, he stated.
"This mission has been evolving ever since and has taken shape into a full on development program for individuals with barriers to employment," Cuff wrote.
He stated closing the Newtown location will allow him to focus on three pillars that he hopes will build a stronger future for Just Q'In.
By operating out of a single restaurant location, Cuff believes he and his wife will have more time to further develop their program to help people find employment; strengthen operations that will put Just Q'In in the best position to add multiple locations later; and improve efficiency through consolidation and trimming overhead.
Cuff thanked the landlords of Just Q'In's Newtown location, stating "I thank the Sprague's for being the best landlords a tenant could ever hope for and the village of Newtown, it's leadership and this community for embracing us from the very beginning. We will miss everything about our time here but as I have stated many times in coming to this conclusion 'sometimes you have to prune what's good, to make room for great.'"
