Owner of San Antonio restaurant chain Lucy Cooper's sells two locations

Chef-owner Braunda Smith will continue to operate the original restaurant on San Pedro.

click to enlarge Lucy Cooper's Texas Ice House is known for comfort eats such as its donut brunch burger and fried green tomato BLT. - Photo via Instagram / lucycoopersicehouse
Photo via Instagram / lucycoopersicehouse
Lucy Cooper's Texas Ice House is known for comfort eats such as its donut brunch burger and fried green tomato BLT.
San Antonio comfort-food chain Lucy Cooper’s Ice House will sell its two most recently opened restaurants and focus on its original location at 16080 San Pedro Ave., according to chef-owner Braunda Smith.

“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 Thursday night Facebook post. “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.”

Smith debuted the first Lucy Cooper's in 2018 and found success with the 21-and-up concept, which features a full bar along with Southern-style fare such as donut brunch burgers, fried green tomato BLTs and clothesline bacon.

She expanded with a store at 1515 Kuehler Ave. in New Braunfels that opened in 2021 and a far West Side San Antonio satellite, 8403 TX-151, which launched last summer.

Smith didn’t identify the Houston-based owners of the New Braunfels and far West Side Lucy Cooper’s locations. However, she said the group plans to rebrand both and change their menus.

During the transition, the two restaurants will continue to operate as Lucy Cooper's.

"We are just downsizing temporarily and will always be the Lucy Cooper's!" Smith said in the Facebook post. "When the time is right ... we will grow locations again!"

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Sanford Nowlin

Sanford Nowlin is editor-in-chief of the San Antonio Current.

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