“Goodbye for now,” the post read. “We will sincerely miss serving you all. We made many great friends and hope to stay in touch.”
Closing along with The Library is The Nook, its neighboring breakfast spot. Clifton and Kathy Grider, who own both places, were unable to renew their leases.
Clifton Grider said the management company for the Robinson Renaissance building, where The Library is located at 119 N. Robinson, require that the restaurants shut down by 9 p.m. weekdays and remain closed on weekends.
“This obviously affected us financially,” he said. “We began getting behind on rent.”
The couple bought the Library in January 2009, when a struggling economy and heavy construction around downtown had impeded business.
“We’ve been just holding on,” Grider said. “It’s been a matter of keeping it alive until the economy improves and the construction was over, but we didn’t get a chance to hang on until then.”
They are looking for a new location, preferably one downtown.
“We had a lot of regular customers who made The Library their place to visit every night,” he said. “My goal right now is to make a little money so we can reopen our doors again.”
This article appears in Mar 27 – Apr 2, 2013.