Monuts lets go of original downtown Durham location

In a heartfelt letter posted to fans on its Facebook page, owners Lindsay and Rob Moriarty detailed the reason why they decided to sell 110 E. Parrish St. location, where they had planned to open an entirely new restaurant.

"We made plans, we spent money (lots of it), we renovated. Then, life happened in that way it sometimes does. For us, it came in the form of exciting news, followed by some not-so-exciting news. The exciting part: Lindsay is pregnant, and we're expecting our first child this January. At our first OB appointment, however, we also found out that Lindsay had cancer. As I'm sure you can imagine, news of that nature can change your plans. For us, it meant saying goodbye to Parrish Street so that we could focus on treatment and babies (and not being extra stressed out by the prospect of opening another restaurant)," Rob Moriarty wrote.

The business began in 2011 as a tricycle delivery service that was quite popular at local food truck rodeos. It opened its first location on Parrish Street a year later.

Monuts opened its second location at 1002 Ninth St. earlier this year and closed its Parrish Street location.

"The last few months have been hard. Outside of going back and forth to work and the hospital and the OB, we've not had a whole lot of time to worry about much else. We've been in the awkward space of really wanting to be excited about having a baby, but simultaneously terrified of cancer. It's not a great place to be. It makes you grumpy and tired and unpleasant to be around. It makes you happy that you only have one restaurant and not two.

"Lindsay had surgery earlier this month and fortunately, the news that followed allowed us both to sleep easier at night. Treatment isn't completely over, but her prognosis has improved greatly. That being said, the entire process has made us incredibly grateful for what we have and acutely aware of what we don't need. We love Downtown Durham, and we really love our 1100 square feet on Parrish Street. At the end of the day though, we don't need it. Monuts is so much bigger than the space it occupies. It's come so far from where it started three years ago. When Lindsay and I quit grad school to pursue Monuts, our intent was never to run a restaurant empire or franchised chain. We wanted to run one restaurant right and that's exactly what we're doing," Moriarty wrote.