The Peruvian restaurant Chicken + Whiskey, known for its rotisserie chicken and punchy cocktails, closed Monday at the Mall in Columbia after about three years in business.

Two days after the sudden closure, owner Desmond Reilly, who also operates the eatery’s successful Washington, D.C., locations in Navy Yard and Logan Circle, said that expanding to the spot into Columbia in 2022 may have been the wrong move.

“This concept wasn’t right for the area,” Reilly said, adding that taking up such a large space in an expensive, bustling property was destined to spark challenges. Rising rent in the area along with the high cost of utilities left the restaurant struggling to keep up early in its tenure. The challenges gradually grew over the years, he said.

Reilly’s no stranger to the area. One of his other businesses in Columbia, The Walrus Oyster & Ale House, debuted an elevated, more coastal menu with hints of French cuisine last year as part of an effort to better compete with the surge of new Howard County eateries. Bennie’s Pizza, his pizzeria that shares a kitchen with Chicken + Whiskey, also remains open.

Bennie’s is able to stay operational largely because of its dependence on less labor and lower-priced foods, Reilly said. Buying bread and marinara sauce isn’t the same as having to source fresh yucca and plantains. Then there’s the price of chicken — a fundamental part of his Chicken + Whiskey menu — that became increasingly expensive to procure amid the bird flu that hit poultry producers this winter. While eggs saw the largest increase, such outbreaks are proven to raise the costs of chicken and turkey meat, according to a Poultry Science report that examined costs going back to 2005.

The reasons for Chicken + Whiskey’s departure are similar to those of its predecessors in the space. Urban Plate, which also offered a chef-driven concept, could not keep up with rising expenses.

Reilly hoped bringing in Michelin-starred chefs to jumpstart his businesses would lead to a different outcome. At Bennie’s Pizza, Reilly enlisted Gerald Addison to create pies reminiscent of the old-school New York-style slices he grew up eating. At Chicken + Whiskey, former Alma Cocina Latina chef Enrique Limardo helped guide the business with fresh takes on arepas and a unique spice blend for its Peruvian chicken.

In a 2022 Baltimore Magazine article, Limardo described the Columbia location as the original Chicken + Whiskey “on steroids.” The restaurant offered a selection of 99 different whiskeys, an extensive cocktail menu and food that fused together the three dominant cultures of Peru: Peruvian, Chinese and Japanese.

But costs of bartenders and other staff, along with the escalating price of utilities from BGE, the costly fuel for their natural wood-burning charcoal oven imported from Lima, and the national decline in alcohol sales proved too much to overcome.

Reilly wants people to know his restaurants are nothing like the major chains that saturate Columbia’s mall. He’s not operating a Cheesecake Factory or a P.F. Chang’s; his are small, local and tailored to their community.

“Whenever an independent operator has to close a store, it’s really disappointing,” Reilly said. “The community loses — people lose jobs.”

Reilly’s not sure if his pitch will be enough to save Chicken + Whiskey’s neighboring pizzeria in the long run, but for the next 30 to 60 days, he said, his remaining eateries aren’t going anywhere.