The restaurant business is weird and insanely fickle. It's a weird alchemy of product, location and time to be successful. Hitting 2 of those 3 factors might allow it to hang on a while, but it's dicey.There was a restaurant in the small town I live in. It was a staple of the town. However, they up and bailed under cover of night so they could open a spot in Ankeny.
A few months later, they did a series of FB posts about how they were on the brink of failure. They were pleading with anyone and everyone to come eat at their new location just so they could keep the doors open. They didn't necessarily blame anyone, but they did not look inward, either. I told my wife "they're going to fail." Begging people on FB to come buy your food is not a long-term business strategy; it's a band-aid. Make a product people are willing to pay for if you want to survive. The google reviews of their Ankeny location were repeatedly "this is very expensive for the quality and quantity you get." They made it about another week after their desperation post before they closed for good.
I worked for a place right after high school and when I was back home on breaks in college. Their first location was downtown and was going gangbusters. They opened a second location - same concept, menu, everything - on the other side of town out in the suburbs. After a few months of initial success, the second location became such an albatross that it almost took the whole thing down. The owners closed the second location and managed to salvage the first, but it was dicey for awhile.