02/24/2026
So many changes around town and upgrades too! It's fun to see it all happen in person!
More info about the Urban life
As usual, please share
We are still finalizing things, all the legal stuff. Even though it is not official on paper, it is official verbally and with a handshake. The reason I didn't want to be flooded the other day with comments on what's going to happen to Urban, or will there be an Urban, or offers to buy Urban, is because this has been in the works for just over 3 weeks. Only one day after I met with my landlord and updated him on a life change I needed to make..
That Sunday I had a meeting with our landlord. I told him that I had to be done in the next few months. This was not working out, without Carol. I couldn't handle this anymore, physically or mentally. I was going to close Urban, very soon, whether I found a buyer or not. Little did I know that "soon" would be much sooner than I thought.
I decided at 8:45 a.m. three Mondays ago that I was done at Urban at the end of this month. No questions asked. I was done, no matter how things panned out. If I just shut the doors and left forever I was okay with it. I was going to try to sell it, but I didn't know how. If I made it public, then I would get dozens of people coming at me from all different directions with all different levels of brains. Brains that I don't have. I didn't have the mental stability to receive all of that and to take offers and to negotiate and then to go through all the processes of getting all the information for all the different people that would want that. I could not, and cannot, take that.
The only negative in that thought process is the fact that Carol and I would have been here for over 13 years, 8 years as owners, and then I would leave with nothing show for it, zero. I don't want to make the most money or be rich or benefit from OUR restaurant. In my head that's some type of reward, and I don't like that. But I know it would be emotionally hard to leave, with nothing to show for it, but Carol's death.
I decided at 9 a.m. to just nonchalantly ask, two different couples in town, if they ever had any thoughts of having a sit-down restaurant and expanding their business and might be interested in purchasing Urban. One of them texted me back 30 seconds later saying "YES!".
That couple is Ben and Hannah Jung, who are the owners of Hudco To-Go on Locust Street. Over the next couple days all three of us had only positive things to say about the chances of this happening. By the sixth day we were all 100% in agreement that this is what we all wanted and it was a done deal. Over the last 2 weeks we have been going back and forth for hours each day meeting in person and talking over text, and meeting with everyone else involved that we would have to individual meet in order to make this happen. I'm assuming you're going to get a lot of posts from Ben and Hana and Hudco telling you about their side of this story and what they have up their sleeves.
In addition to both parties having to meet with lawyers and bankers and lenders and financial advisors and any other humans that would need to be involved in a major life decision, we both had to discuss things with my landlord and their potential new landlord, Ryan. I met with the Ryan. They met with the Ryan. We all met together inside of Urban to go over all of everyone's thoughts. Ryan has been so supportive to myself and to Ben and Hannah throughout the whole process and is excited about the transition and being able to fix up his property to make it beautiful for the next stage of Urban. He is going to make it beautiful by the way. His property will benefit from me closing down so abruptly at the end of the month. He is going to do a lot of fixing up on the inside just like he has been doing on the outside.
Myself, Ben, and Hannah, and Ryan are all slightly shocked at how quickly and smoothly this is all going. I am shocked on a mental and emotional level over how smoothly it's gone for me. The only little fraction of life that is not causing me grief and anxiety right now is the process of the last 3 weeks or so. I was ready to shut the doors immediately and walk away. That was actually in my thought process 3 weeks ago. But then I would have just left with nothing and someone else would have had a deal with the chaos that would come with leaving everything as is inside this building.
Thank you, Ben, Hannah, and Ryan for helping me get through this short but stressful time. With all of the stress in my life, I didn't realize that this process could be the least stressful thing.
