Cherry Hill’s Brio Italian Grille isn’t closing yet, as Brazilian chain Fogo de Chão looks to move in
Staff have been inundated with questions about the closure, which hasn’t been made official by the restaurant. So what’s going on?
Confusion about the potential closing of Brio Italian Grille in Cherry Hill has felt like a nightmare, Grace Ortiz, the restaurant’s general manager, said.
Staff have been inundated with calls inquiring about the closure, which hasn’t been made official by the restaurant, its landlord, or the Brazilian steakhouse interested in the property, causing confusion for some of the employees.
“We’re here. We want to be busy,” Ortiz said Friday. “Hopefully this blows over.”
Several media outlets recently reported that Brio Italian Grille, which opened in 2007 as Brio Tuscan Grille at 901 Haddonfield Rd., will soon close. The Italian restaurant shuttered the doors of its Marlton location last month, less than a year after the chain filed for bankruptcy for the second time in five years.
Other Camden County dining spots have faced recent struggles, too, including the closure of the Bistro at Cherry Hill last summer. The Cherry Hill Diner closed in 2023, Star View Diner in 2024, and the Collingswood Diner shut down last August. The Kibitz Room deli, which closed temporarily in January before filing for bankruptcy, has since reopened, after its King of Prussia location shut down permanently.
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Brio has 19 remaining locations nationwide, including the last New Jersey location at Cherry Hill’s Towne Place at Garden State Park. That retail complex, a five-minute drive from the Cherry Hill Mall, features about 20 eateries from the Cheesecake Factory to Kabuki Japanese Cuisine.
The next closest Brio Italian Grille for South Jerseyans is 200 miles away in Farmington, Conn.
42 Freeway, a publication covering development in South Jersey, first reported in May that chain Fogo de Chão Brazilian Steakhouse would replace the restaurant. NJ.com followed suit, attributing the news to project plans filed by Fogo de Chão and the owners of Towne Place to the Cherry Hill Township Zoning Board in April.
Those plans propose a remodeled restaurant with 296 seats. Cosmas Diamantis, the municipal attorney for Cherry Hill Township, said in an email that the required zoning permits for the conversion from Brio Italian Grille to Fogo de Chão were already issued.
One zoning permit, obtained in a records request to Cherry Hill Township, referred to the restaurant property as “the former Brio Italian Grille.” A design development presentation dated November 2025 shows renderings for what the Brazilian restaurant could look like at 901 Haddonfield Rd.
But Ortiz said Brio Italian Grille’s corporate office told her that there are no current plans to close down, and that her restaurant just got its liquor license renewed last week. So what’s going on?
Is Brio Italian Grille actually leaving Cherry Hill?
That depends on whom you ask. Brio Italian Grille did not respond to a request for comment, and a spokesperson for Fogo de Chão declined to discuss the potential project.
In Cherry Hill Township and elsewhere, restaurateurs must apply for zoning permits before any changes in occupancy are set in stone. That means there’s no guarantee that Fogo de Chão actually has a lease in hand for 901 Haddonfield Rd.
It’s common for work to never actually start on projects even when they receive zoning permits, a Cherry Hill Township attorney said. In Fogo de Chão’s case, the zoning permit just means the proposed project is permitted to happen, even if it never does.
Since rumors of Brio Italian Grille’s closure have swirled, Joe Morris, an executive for M&M Realty Partners, which owns the landlord entity that manages the site’s tenants, said he has received an influx of people interested in developing the property.
Morris, said Monday that Fogo de Chão has not signed a lease for a lot at Towne Place, but the chain has inquired about joining the Cherry Hill retail center for the last 12 years.
M&M Realty, a New Jersey-based real estate development company, has kept a close eye on Brio Italian Grille after it declared bankruptcy in August and recently closed its Marlton location. Morris said those problems could mean the chain might not reup its lease at Towne Place, and M&M Realty might have to find other viable tenants. Morris declined to share when that lease will expire, though he said the restaurant has “a semi-limited period of time before important decisions have to be made.”
Still, Morris said he has no idea whether Brio Italian Grille is in conversations with Fogo de Chão about giving up the property. He said Brio Italian Grille is “alive and well,” isn’t behind on payments, and continues to spend money on its business.
“There are certain things I know I can’t say. There are certain things I can speculate,” Morris said. “I can absolutely tell you, if Brio gives their space back, Fogo is 100% a tenant we would be interested in speaking with.”