Citronnelle to close Lancaster city restaurant; ‘We have so much to be grateful for’ | Local Business

The owners of Citronnelle have announced plans to retire and put their Lancaster city restaurant up for sale.

The French restaurant at 110 W. Orange St., which opened in 2013, will close after a final dinner service on Dec. 21.

“We are humbled by your continued support over this past decade. Thank you for allowing us to serve Lancaster and beyond for over 12 memorable years. We have so much to be grateful for,” owners Susan Louie and Rafael Perez wrote in a post on Citronnelle’s Facebook page announcing the closure.

Citronnelle offers seasonal menus of globally inspired modern French cuisine. The current menu includes a creamy crab croquette appetizer and entrees such as grass-fed New York strip steak and Moroccan lamb Bolognese.

Citronnelle has inside seating for 30 as well as room on a patio for around 15.

Louie and Perez own the two and a half story building that houses the restaurant and say they plan to put it on the market early next year as a turnkey operation. In addition to the first-floor restaurant, which has a kitchen in the basement, the building has an apartment on the second floor. Louie and Perez bought the property in 2010 for $115,000.

Globally inspired Lancaster restaurant

Louie is a native of Hong Kong whose father was a chef. Her husband, Perez, has Dominican heritage and grew up in New York city where the couple lived and where he worked in a variety of restaurants.

Louie and Perez bought a weekend home in downtown Lancaster in 2007 and then moved here permanently in 2012. The next year they opened Citronnelle where they feature French dishes inspired by their extensive world travel.

Their restaurant’s name is the French word for lemongrass, a tea native to Asia that has been cultivated around the world. In a description on the Citronnelle website, the couple say the tea was the perfect inspiration for the French restaurant they describe as “globally inspired.”

The couple originally hoped to serve alcohol at Citronnelle but have maintained a BYOB policy because of the high cost of buying a restaurant liquor license, which in Lancaster County can now exceed $300,000.