Curry House (restaurant chain) facts for kids
Curry House (Japanese: カレーハウス/カレーの館, Hepburn: Karē hausu/Karē no yakata) was a chain of Japanese-style curry restaurants. It was mainly located in California. The company House Foods started and used to run these restaurants. Sadly, all Curry House locations closed for good on February 24, 2020.
The Story of Curry House
Curry House began in 1983. It was part of House Foods America. The very first restaurant opened in the Weller Court complex. This was in the Little Tokyo neighborhood of Los Angeles. Over time, the chain grew to have nine locations across California.
Besides Japanese curry, Curry House also offered other popular Japanese dishes. These dishes are called yōshoku, which means Western-style food adapted for Japan. Some of these foods included Naporitan (a spaghetti dish), tonkatsu (fried pork cutlet), menchi katsu (fried ground meat cutlet), and hamburg (a Japanese-style Salisbury steak). House Foods also sold instant curry mixes. These were sold in special pouches under the Curry House brand.
Changes in Ownership and Closure
In June 2019, House Foods sold Curry House to a new company called CH Acquisitions, LLC. Another company, Food Management Partners, Inc. from Texas, took over running the restaurants day-to-day. Before this, House Foods had bought another curry chain, CoCo Ichibanya, four years earlier.
After the new owners took over, they made big changes. They let go of many staff members. This included most of the kitchen workers. Because of this, the restaurants had to close for a short time. They needed to hire and train new employees.
Curry House officially closed all its locations on February 24, 2020. The new owners said that problems with staff paperwork and the confusion from temporary closures led to their decision. Reports said that the restaurant staff did not get any warning about the closure.
