🚫 Underground Burger, the Queen Creek burger spot, has shut its doors after four years on the southeast corner of Rittenhouse and Ocotillo.
Earlier this week, the restaurant posted on Facebook with no warning: “We are closing permanently, effective immediately.” A follow-up post explained the painful details.
The owners cited a brutal stretch of industry headwinds, pointing to the ‘‘Liberation Day’’ tariffs as a turning point. Restaurant traffic, they wrote, ‘‘took a nose dive’’ following the tariff announcement and still hasn’t recovered while the cost of goods has climbed significantly.
A brief uptick in February raised hopes, but rising gas prices pulled things back down.
What pushed them over the edge, however, appears to be a landlord dispute. Despite being contractually locked into their current rent rate, Underground Burger says the landlord began demanding expensive repairs that multiple licensed professionals inspected and deemed unnecessary.
📧 Subscribe to the free MXSW Daily Email here for the latest news about food & drink in the Phoenix metro area.
