The Urban Lounge and Urban Kitchen, a Monterey venue that opened last year, are closing.

The two venues located in the Red Lion Hotel building on Munras Avenue at Highway 1 in Monterey—Urban Kitchen and The Urban Lounge—are closing permanently. 

The reason for closure, according to Jacqueline Kabat, responsible for marketing at the venue, is an expired lease that brothers Rene and Rob Diaz had with Red Lion, renting space for both venues from the hotel. 

“We wanted to continue on, but had to close our doors to the restaurant and lounge as we could not come to mutually agreeable lease terms with the landlord,” Urban Kitchen announced in a statement. (That being said, Urban Kitchen will be available for catering events, along with their steaks, seafood, hamburgers, sandwiches, Mexican food and their signature salad bar.)

Kabat and Brad Mallory—who was the executive and main bartender behind the concept, which opened in March of 2022—are known in the community as founders of a music community called Tribe in the Sky, and promise to continue to organize music events. 

As far as their partnership with the Diazes and their lease from Red Lion, Kabat says, “We had nothing to do with the lease.”

“Right now, we are ready to move forward to the next opportunity,” Kabat adds. 

She says the last two months, November and December of 2022, were the time when The Urban Lounge started to really gain speed. “The audience was growing and the feedback was wonderful,” she says, calling the spot a “real community connector.” Among highlights she mentioned the 2022 New Year’s Eve event that featured The Caramel Delights Dance Company and local drummers, and a Led Zeppelin tribute night earlier in the year. The venue used to offer a full dinner-plus-performance experience, with food available both from the bar menu and from Urban Kitchen.

“It was a great stepping stone for us,” Kabat says, “and we are really proud of the last two months.”  

What will happen with the extra space on Munras Avenue? Until 2019, The Urban Lounge was The Safari Club, known for its bingo room vibe and karaoke nights. The space has a sound system, small stage, a fireplace, and space for dancing. 

Miguel Renteria, general manager at Red Lion, says no further information is available to share at the moment, and that the hotel has no immediate plans regarding the spaces.

Rene Diaz says that despite Red Lion being “wonderful,” they were not able to come to an agreement when it comes to the price to renew the lease in the current economic situation. For him and his brother it was only an additional business, he said, so they are not that much concern. He says Urban Kitchen will continue with the catering business and gives “kudos” to The Urban Lounge team for a great job they did.