The restaurant that helped spark Canberra's enduring love affair with American style barbecue ribs and buffalo wings has closed.
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Smoque in Civic has shut down, with a message taped to the restaurant door in City Walk directing inquiries towards accounting firm RSM Australia.
The restaurant's Facebook page also disappeared and the Smoque Instagram account featured a photo of a "closed" sign with the message, "What a ride but sadly this is us".
Well-known Canberra chef Grant Kells, formerly of Flint at New Acton, opened Smoque in Civic in 2012, serving up jugs of smokey iced tea, pulled pork and mac and cheese.
The restaurant gained a following, particularly with the capital's US expat community who gathered to watch the Super Bowl and other sports with beer and platters of barbecued meat.
A second restaurant opened in Woden in 2014 at the Abode Hotel on Bowes Street, with expanded hours, a private function room, and a menu that included brunch waffles.
But the Woden outlet shut up shop earlier this year, a move blamed on a lack of customers. Now the main restaurant has followed suit.
The Canberra Times has contacted Kells and RSM Australia for comment.
