Friday is the last chance to buy a jumbo shrimp cocktail at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport’s most popular restaurant, as Legal Sea Foods shuts down after a failed lease negotiation with the airport and a failed bid in court for a temporary reprieve.
A federal judge ruled last week against Legal Sea Foods’ request for a preliminary injunction as part of an ongoing lawsuit to prevent another restaurant from taking its place. The move left the eatery no choice but to close, said General Manager Soline Simenaur.
“It’s been a sad week,” Simenaur said, adding that most of the restaurant’s 50 employees will be relocated to different locations. The chain has a restaurant downtown, one in Crystal City, one in Bethesda and another in Tysons Corner.
The Boston chain has been at the airport since 1997; the restaurant has won seven awards. According to Legal’s lawsuit against the airport, it’s one of the top revenue-producing concessions at the airport and is a flagship restaurant for the chain.
The restaurant chain Sam & Harry’s steakhouse is expected to take over Legal’s space, the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, which manages Reagan National and Washington Dulles International Airport, said earlier this summer.
The dispute over Legal’s lease started in spring 2008, when the company began negotiations for a new lease with the firm hired by the airports authority to handle concession leases, court documents said. Legal said itwas operating “in the dark” throughout the negotiations because it wasn’t made aware of the requirements for signing a lease for the space.
Legal’s attorneys say the airports authority violated the law by conducting “a completely closed and secret selection process.”
A spokesman for the airports authority said it would continue to “present [its] case in court” during the ongoing lawsuit.
