Lucy Cooper’s Ice House is seeking bankruptcy protection for its flagship San Pedro Avenue location — the only one of the once-growing chain’s restaurants that remains open.
The bar and grill at 16080 San Pedro Ave. last week filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization, telling the government it faces $3.2 million in liabilities but only has $57,620 in assets. Under Chapter 11 filings, businesses seek to realign their operations so they pay off creditors while staying in operation.
The biggest liability listed in the filing is $2.1 million debt Lucy Cooper’s owes the U.S. Small Business Administration for a disaster recovery loan. Other creditors listed in the document include federal and local taxing entities plus banks and commercial credit operations.
William R. Davis Jr., the attorney representing Lucy Cooper’s in the bankruptcy case said the restaurant is doing good business. However, the owners face financial pressure from a lawsuit filed last summer by Houston-based Savvy Holdings Texas LLC, which loaned the company money and later took control of its two satellite locations.
“The restaurant is doing fine,” Davis said. “We think it will continue to do fine. We just need to get out from under this lawsuit.”
Savvy’s suit, filed in Harris County District Court, accuses chef-owner Braunda Smith and her husband and business partner Jesse of failing to disclose the full extent of their tax and vendor liabilities while manipulating their financial records. Meanwhile, the Smiths have denied those allegations and accused Savvy of leveraging loans to seize control of their restaurants.
Savvy officials were unavailable for immediate comment on the Chapter 11 filing.
The Smiths launched the original Lucy Cooper’s in 2018 with a focus on Southern-style fare such as donut brunch burgers, fried green tomato BLTs and clothesline bacon. The adults-only spot also featured a full bar and 21-and-up age limit.
Several years later, the business opened satellite locations in New Braunfels and on San Antonio’s Far West Side. However, it handed over both of those to Savvy in August 2024, court records show. Those two restaurants have since shut permanently closed, according to Google records.
“We made the very difficult decision to sell [two] of our Lucy Cooper’s and just keep the original location on San Pedro in San Antonio,” Smith said in a Facebook post at the time of the sale. “It was a very heart-wrenching decision, but we needed to do what was in the best interest of our family. We have always been a woman-owned small business and have been very proud of that. There were opportunities to grow with [an] investment company, and it was not the right time nor right fit for our family. This is where the decision to scale down instead scale up was made.”
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