AFTER nearly three years trading, a food hut in East Reading is to serve its final burgers this weekend.
The Smash N Grab burger hut at Cemetery Junction was opened by husband-and-wife team Farouk Bhatti and Uzma Qadir in February 2021.
A post on its Instagram page states: “It is with the saddest of hearts that we must tell you, that we are announcing the closure of Smash N Grab.
“We want to say a massive THANK YOU to all of you for supporting us all these years and we could not have done it without you.
“We will cherish the memories and especially the friendships we have made with you.”
Smash N Grab specialised in smashed burgers, a method which involves smashing the meat to expose more of it to the cooking heat.
The owners were involved in a dispute with neighbour site Fat Twins and Kaspas Desserts located in The Granby Tavern over a pergola that was put up by without planning permission in the summer of 2022.
Retrospective permission was made by Fat Twins and Kaspas in August 2022 but withdrawn that November. A follow-up application described as a ‘glazed veranda’ over the outdoor seating area (reference 230329) was approved last July.
It is understood that the project will involve replacing the existing pergola with the veranda.
At the time, a Reading Borough Council planning officer judged the veranda, which will have glass to protect diners from the rain, would be an improvement.
“There are no neighbouring residential properties adjacent to the eastern elevation of 120 London Road, therefore officers do not believe the proposed Traditional Victorian style Veranda will be harmful to neighbouring residential properties,” the officer wrote.
“The proposed structure will be less intrusive than that of the existing, considered less overbearing to the neighbouring properties and to the host building.”
The officer established that the area the pergola covers is contained within The Granby site, which formed part of the dispute.
The closure of Smash N Grab will mean that the hut it occupies will become vacant.
It was previously occupied by the Bellaflora Florist, which closed in 2009, and was afterwards taken over by several takeaways.
