RC’s Restaurant and Lounge may have served its final fried chicken dinner.
Rob Paxton, who owns the Martin City restaurant and its building at 330 E. 135th St., said RC’s has closed while he looks for another owner or tenant for the space. “High property taxes and overhead are reasons for the closure,” he wrote in an email to The Star.
Paxton and his wife, Sommack, bought RC’s in 2023 from the Van Noy family, which had owned the restaurant since 1973, when it was built by Raymond Charles Van Noy. RC, as he was known, had previously worked at the Martin City steakhouse Jess & Jim’s. He split off and started his own fried chicken restaurant nearby at 200 E. 135th St. (currently home to KC Running Company). In 1977, he bought Jess & Jim’s and gave RC’s over to his sons, Chuck, David, and Mike.
The restaurant moved down the street in 1982 to its current location, a 14,000-square-foot building that is now for sale for $2.1 million. RC’s grandson, David Van Noy, is representing the Paxtons as a real estate broker on the building, “due to my knowledge of the property and the business,” Van Noy said. “It’s a very unique building, made completely of concrete,” Van Noy said.“There’s an opportunity for a buyer to construct upward three or four floors. It could remain a restaurant but also be turned into flex space, office use, lots of things.” The Paxtons, who also own Thai House at 9938 Holmes Road, opened Rockin’ Wok Thai Room in the second-floor space at RC’s in 2023. It closed at the end of September.