The owners of The Legend Classic Irvington Cafe said “several different factors” are leading them to close the restaurant and retire, including repercussions from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Patrick and Beth Aasen, who founded the restaurant at 9 W. Main St. in late 2010 with their son, Carmel City Council member Adam Aasen, said they plan to retire after 40 years in the restaurant business.
Between the pandemic, road construction and downtown safety concerns, the market has been dealing with a heavy load of challenges over the past year, and there’s no consensus on its recovery prospects.
The restaurant will be replaced by “a modern, casual, California-influenced, Peruvian-style raw fish & oyster bar with craft beer, specialty cocktails and a seasonally-rotating menu.”
The company, which opened a location in downtown Indianapolis in 2016, describes its business as being in a “mothballed period” and said that it anticipates reopening venues “once it is safe to do so.”
The longtime Meridian-Kessler sports bar and restaurant that announced last month it was closing “until further notice” is at the center of an ongoing legal dispute between the original owner and the new owner, who now wants out of the deal to buy the business.
Owners Vivian and Larry Lawhead said the COVID-19 pandemic is prompting an earlier-than-expected end to the business they started at 620 S. Rangeline Road in 2010.
The sports bar and restaurant discontinued dine-in service on Oct. 30 because of the rise in COVID-19 cases. It announced Sunday that it had decided to close “until further notice.”
BoomBozz Craft Pizza & Taphouse has called quits after four years in Fishers. A liquor store chain has acquired the building and is planning to open there in January.
Shoefly Public House suspended operations on Saturday after a staff member tested positive for COVID-19. The initial plan was to reopen, but the owners soon decided to make the closure permanent.
Neighboring 1205 Distillery plans to take over the space along with Greek’s Pizzeria, creating a combination tasting room and restaurant.
The highly rated restaurant, which opened in a century-old barn more than six years ago, plans to close for good on Nov. 1.
Indianapolis is down to just one Ruby Tuesday’s location. The chain now operates 236 dining rooms in total, a decrease from more than 500 three years ago.
Ed Sahm, the restaurant group’s founder and owner, said the pandemic-related exodus of downtown office workers meant the two locations are no longer financially viable.
In a Facebook post, the owners of the restaurant blamed “the pandemic and our inept government” for the closure.
We all know that restaurants have been devastated by the pandemic. Some have closed, and Pete predicts more are about to. He suggests determining how much you can afford to help and then spending that cash at two or three restaurants that are meaningful to you.
Meanwhile, plans are in the works for a $12 million International Marketplace welcome center and museum that would replace a former Value City Furniture store.
Primanti Bros., which is known for serving french fries on its sandwiches, has permanently closed its downtown restaurant in Circle Centre Mall, at 49 W. Maryland St., according to its Facebook page.
Carmel outdoor shopping center Clay Terrace has two sizable restaurant spaces to fill after the closures of Mitchell’s Fish Market and Biaggi’s Ristorante Italiano.
St. Louis-based Sugarfire Smoke House has closed its downtown Indianapolis restaurant following ongoing issues with the building’s landlord.
