50 Eggs Restaurant Group Gets New Offices

John Kunkel, founder and CEO of 50 Eggs, the team behind the popular Yardbird Southern Table & Bar and Khong River House, has purchased MiMo's historic building, the Sunshine Motel in order to turn it into 50 Eggs' new home. Kunkel, with plans on the horizon for Khong Fuzi and Yardbird's currently-under-construction sister restaurant, Swine Southern Table & Bar, purchased the new office space using proceeds from the sale of the Lime Fresh Mexican Grill chain, which has been sold to Ruby Tuesday. While part of the building will be used as office space for the 50 eggs team, the bottom floor will be a Test Kitchen, where Kunkel plans to hold charity dinners "to benefit culinary nonprofits like the James Beard Foundation and Common Threads". Apparently, the previous owners of the Sunshine Motel, Alex and Rena Karakhanian and Lyle Chariff, did not intend to sell at all and previously had plans to lease the space out. However, when Kunkel agreed to their selling price, which was more than double what they had bought the motel for, they reconsidered. Kunkel says "he wanted 50 Eggs to own its next base of operations and the Sunshine Motel just gave him a "certain feeling"".

50 Eggs in Search of a Home [BiscayneTimes]
All Coverage of 50 Eggs Restaurant Group [ ~EMIA~ ]
All Coverage of John Kunkel [ ~EMIA~ ]
[Photo via WLRN]