Last days of the Goat: Smoking Goat Soho will close for good this month

The original Soho-based outpost of Thai barbecue restaurant Smoking Goat will close permanently on 14 January.

Owners Ben Chapman and Brian Hannon had expected that the lease on the Denmark Street spot would not be renewed at the time the Shoreditch sister restaurant opened late last year, and this has now been confirmed.

The team initially signed a six-month lease on the Soho site back in October 2014, and although they say they would “love to stay longer”, they added that they “can’t really complain”, as reads a post on the restaurant’s Instagram page.

The area is undergoing extensive development in preparation for the arrival of Crossrail, which many locals have objected to, describing the plans as “culturally devastating” and a “dystopian nightmare”. 

"We’ve had an unforgettable three years on Denmark Street,” says Chapman.

"Denmark Street is undergoing some exciting changes and the developers have been hugely supportive to allow us to continue service amongst it all,” adds Hannon. “But it’s now time to leave them to crack on." 

The restaurant is celebrating its last days by hosting a series of ‘Last Days of the Goat’ dinners, serving a selection of the kitchen’s most popular dishes since it opened three years ago, alongside free fish sauce chilli chicken wings for each table.

The group’s two other restaurants - Kiln on Soho’s Brewer Street and the aforementioned Shoreditch sister site of Smoking Goat - will continue to operate as usual.