What happened to Johnny Smalls at the Hard Rock?

What happened to Johnny Smalls at the Hard Rock? It was one of my favorite restaurants and a nice change from Mr Luckys.

We liked Johnny Smalls too. They offered a small plate, tapas-style menu covering a variety of comfort food staples and more modern options. They also offered a relatively keenly priced All You Can Eat option that made the experience more enjoyable. On the half dozen times we ate there the servers were good, the food came quickly and the atmosphere was buzzy (what else would you expect at the Hard Rock?). We were not massive fans of every item on the menu, but there we liked more items than we could eat in a single visit, so it made for a good place to grab some food before an evening involving alcohol.

From what we can tell, it closed its doors for the last time in July and won’t be re-opening. We can’t help but wonder if its closure is related to the fact it is one of the restaurants that was covered by a law suit that involved the HRH management company and a group of investors including Jason Giambi, the baseball player.

Our old review of Johnny Smalls questioned whether the food was higher quality than a $24 buffet and whether it was just a triumph of presentation and delivery over actual content, but ended with the fact we liked the “uniqueness of menu and format”. Unfortunately, even now in mid 2012, we are not aware of anything comparable (if only Firefly would offer an AYCE option!).