Can Can in Carytown set to be sold for second time in 4 years

Can Can Brasserie has been in Carytown since 2005. (Mike Platania photo)

A Carytown dining institution is changing hands yet again. 

Can Can Brasserie is set to be sold to Housepitality Family, the local restaurant group that owns spots like The Boathouse and Casa del Barco. 

Can Can has been serving French fare at 3120 W. Cary St. since 2005 when the Ripp family opened it in the heart of Carytown. 

John and Paul Kincaid

A year after the death of family patriarch Dick Ripp in 2019, the Ripps’ family business, The Restaurant Co., sold Can Can to brothers John and Paul Kincaid. The Kincaids had worked there as chef and manager for years and took it over amid the pandemic as first-time restaurant owners. 

Now the Kincaids are passing the restaurant along to Housepitality in a deal Paul described as seamless. 

“(The deal) was something they approached us about and they’ve always been huge fans of the restaurant. They’ve got the resources to make it run the way it did before us,” Kincaid said. 

Spanning over 7,000 square feet, Can Can has an in-house bakery, pastry kitchen and staff totaling around 100. Kincaid said taking over such a sizable operation when they did proved challenging. 

“We came in a little disadvantaged because of COVID and just with the restaurant’s age, we had to replace a lot of equipment constantly. We did the best we could and we tried to stay as faithful to Can Can as we could in our nearly four and a half years of ownership, but this feels like the right move.”

Housepitality owner Kevin Healy said the only changes the company has planned for the restaurant is reintroducing coffee service in the mornings and opening seven days per week, up from its current five. 

Kevin Healy (HOUSEpitality)

“That restaurant, until the Kincaids bought it, was supported by The Restaurant Co. and the infrastructure behind it. We’re hoping to bring back some of that support,” Healy said.

“It’s more of an adoption. We want to watch it grow and help it thrive. There’ll be no big changes except getting it back to where it was prior to the pandemic.”

Healy said Can Can’s staff will be retained as part of the deal, which is set to close before Sept. 1 for an undisclosed amount. It also includes the Can Can Cafe that the Kincaids opened in the Library of Virginia in 2022. It’ll be the eighth restaurant in Housepitality’s portfolio, joining four Boathouse locations, two Casas del Barco and Island Shrimp Co. 

Kincaid said it’s bittersweet to sell Can Can, but that he’s looking forward to spending more time with his family, and visiting the restaurant as a guest. 

“It has been my honor to achieve my dream of owning a restaurant and work with the team I work with,” Kincaid said. “But to be able to continue this restaurant in a way where their jobs are more secure than I could ever make them is definitely the best avenue going forward.”

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