Employees, diners, and the restaurant owners themselves were surprised on Christmas Eve day when they showed up at local favorite, Bodine’s All-American Diner at 2525 East Street to find that the locks on the doors had been changed, and the restaurant is now “out of business”.
Employees went to social media to exclaim their surprise and in some cases anger over the closing, the owners were doing their best to reply to social media comments regarding the closing and clear up some confusion around what was going on and what had led up to the closing of the diner.
We spoke to Shanna Beard Matthews, one of the owners of the restaurant and asked her for a comment and she replied with this statement,
Bodine’s diner is no longer open. This happened at a very bad time and for that, we as owners are terribly sorry. The doors have closed because the building as a whole was sold and so our contract not coming due yet we either had to come up with money to buy or move so we choose to move. I know it put everyone in a bad spot and for that, We are deeply sorry. Employees were hurt for sure, we just had a new guy start the other day who is great, He is willing and wanting to follow us to a new location. Hopefully will have our new location ready soon. Again we are deeply sorry and will pass on a good word about any of our employees who needs a reference.
We hate to see any business close their doors, and restaurants, in particular, are difficult to keep alive, but to us, there appear to be some legal issues with this particular business, lease contracts, sale of building, etc., because the restaurant was always busy with large lunch crowds and had a large group of regulars at their current location. We hope they are able to relocate quickly and that the employees are able to get back to work, or find something else fast.
