‘Time To Cut Losses’: Inside The Final Days Of A Boston Restaurant

A purchaser collects a cooler from The Kitchen as the restaurant closes down. (Robin Lubbock/WBUR)

In a lot of ways, it felt like a typical morning at The Kitchen Cafe. Customers trickled in and out. Music bounced off the walls decorated with chalkboards and Banksy prints. And the air was filled with a comforting clatter: crackling bacon on the flat top grill, the squeal of steam from the espresso machine, the thump of the cash register.

Manager and co-owner Jayme Valdez called out orders in English and Spanish, and doled out elbow bumps to customers as they picked up their food.

What was not typical, however, was that by the end of that mid-November day the cafe — located a few blocks from South Station in downtown Boston — would be closing its doors for good. After four years in business, The Kitchen Cafe would join roughly 3,400 other Massachusetts restaurants that have gone into hibernation or out of business during the pandemic, according to estimates from the Massachusetts Restaurant Association.

In recent months, we’ve heard a lot about how hard it is for restaurants to stay open. But what we often don’t hear, is that closing can be just as difficult.

Read the rest of the story at WBUR’s website.