A prominent Highlands restaurant closed Thursday without warning.

In a press release, Yang Kee Noodle stated that it would no longer operate its location at the busy intersection of Baxter Avenue and Bardstown Road.

"It was a great location and the neighbors were very supportive but, unfortunately, it just doesn't fit into our new growth plan," founder Dan Huckstein said in the release. "We believe that the best path forward is to focus on other company priorities."

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Yang Kee Noodle owns two other Louisville locations at Oxmoor Center and the Middletown Commons Shopping Center. Both of those restaurants will remain open, the release stated.

The company, which specializes in Pan-Asian stir-fry entrees, opened its Highlands restaurant in June 2016, about a year after it announced that it would take over the home of the experimental KFC Eleven.

The location at 1004 Bardstown Road sits across from a Mellow Mushroom that closed in January 2018 and a Buffalo Wild Wings that closed in November 2018. Neither of those spaces have been filled.

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Bailey Loosemore: 502-582-4646; bloosemore@courier-journal.com; Twitter: @bloosemore. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: http://www.courier-journal.com/baileyl.