Chef Geoff’s closed its doors this past weekend after three difficult years in the former home of Houston’s on Rockville Pike. “That spot just turned out not to be good for me,” says owner/celeb chef Geoff Tracy. “I’ve been doing this work for 15 years, and every once in awhile you lose one. If I’d been smart about this financially, I would have bailed on it 18 months ago.” Chef Geoff’s was a hit when it first opened, Tracy says, but sales soon declined and the overhead was too high. Over the weekend, a broken water heater was the last straw. “We tried all kinds of things — switching around the menus, offering discounts, lowering prices,” he says. “But it was a big, expensive place, and I just couldn’t generate enough sales to make it work.” Tracy, who splits his time between D.C. and New York with news anchor wife Norah O’Donnell, says he’s been working to find jobs for his 40-plus Rockville employees. “When you’re responsible for people’s rent, getting their kids through school, it’s pretty stressful. I wanted to make sure that I could keep a lot of those people working. And now I actually feel a sense of relief, just knowing that I’ve made my decision and I have to move forward.”
