A Buckhannon staple for more than two decades has closed its doors.
Audrey’s Downtown Restaurant announced on Facebook late Sunday afternoon that the restaurant had closed its doors as of 2 p.m. Sunday.
“I want to announce with saddened heart Audrey’s Downtown Restaurant closed at 2 p.m. today,” read the Facebook post. “We struggled very hard to overcome the incident in late October, unfortunately overhead was too much to endure. We want to thank each and every person that stood by us in our rough time. Thank you so much Buckhannon and surrounding cities for your patronage. We will still be doing banquets.”
The incident in October refers to a post on Facebook claiming that a cockroach was found in an order of green beans. While many defended the restaurant, the post was still shared 597 times.
Audrey Goins noted on Facebook that the restaurant tried to stay open as long as possible to make it easier on employees with the holidays right around the corner.
“If there had have been a better way to do this Edwina, we would have done it,” Goins wrote in response to a comment by Edwina Howard-Jack. “We have been struggling for a couple months, not taking any money ourselves, trying to keep everything going until after Christmas for the employees. This just didn’t happen overnight.”
Howard-Jack and others offered to help staff with gifts and food for the holidays.
Goins, the general manager, had been overseeing the restaurant while her daughter, owner Audrey Posey, was on medical leave, according to a My Buckhannon story on free community Thanksgiving dinners.
Audrey’s Restaurant was located on the Clarksburg Road for more than a decade, but closed briefly due to a tax snafu involving the IRS. The restaurant reopened in the Moose Lodge and then moved to it’s current location in 2015.
The restaurant was known for offering homemade food at reasonable prices and ranked in the Top 10 Buckhannon restaurants on TripAdvisor.
We’ve reached out to Goins for comment and we’ll update this post if we hear back.
