The announcement on Facebook came as a surprise, but the co-owner of one of Redding’s most popular delis said it’s been something he has pondered for months.

“I've been talking about it for a while, for the last six months, and my wife and I basically went out and had lunch yesterday, and I’m just done. I’ve just come to the point where I can’t do it anymore. I’ve been working 80 plus hours a week for years and I just think it’s time to find a new owner and carry on my legacy,” Lucky Miller’s Deli & Market co-owner Jason Miller said Monday morning.

Miller posted the news on Facebook on Sunday and by late Monday morning it had 172 comments and had been shared 180 times.

He was at the restaurant on Athens Avenue on Monday to gather some things and greet customers who might have not heard the news.

One of them was T.J. Stewart, who said he eats at Lucky Miller’s two to three times a week and has been going to the deli since it opened in 2019.

“It’s really heartbreaking to see them closing. It’s emotional to think about it,” Steward said.

Stewart’s favorite was the Trinami sandwich, a combination of pastrami and tri-tip. “They just had the best food,” Steward said.

He gave Miller a hug and wished him well before leaving to go back to work.

Miller said he wanted to be at the restaurant Monday because not everyone follows Facebook. “I wanted to be here when people showed up and kind of explain it,” he said.

Miller and his wife, Kelley, opened Lucky Miller’s on El Reno Lane in February 2019. The business relocated to the Cypress Square shopping center off Athens Avenue in late 2021.

Jason Miller said business has been good.

“We took off from the beginning. We were slammed from day one and we still continue to be busy to this day,” he said.

He said now is the time to sell.

“You don’t want to go out on the bottom when your business is horrible. You sell it when you’re on top and somebody can come in and actually take it over and continue it,” Miller said.

There has been a lot of interest in buying the business, Miller said.

“I’m selling the recipes, I’m selling everything. They can continue to operate under the Lucky Miller’s name. And I’m going to stay on and train them. Everything they need to know to run it the way I ran it,” he said.

The news came just a few days after Lucky Miller’s on Facebook posted that it would be celebrating a fifth year in Redding. The windows of the restaurant are festooned with St. Patrick’s Day decorations.

“I continued to run the business just like a day-to-day operation even though (closing it) was in the back of mind,” Miller said.