Closing the doors

Hi everyone,

I begin this new blog with a bit of sad news.  Today I made the unhappy decision to close the doors to the brick and mortar Keeping Room.

It is not a move I anticipated when I re-opened last year.  I had high hopes for it and was excited to have another chance to bring it back to the community.  (Those of you who know me well are aware that this restaurant was and has always been "my baby", even after I closed it the first time.) 

During the past year, I tried to make it unique and inviting, and we started off great.  I attempted numerous things to make the menu interesting and diverse to satisfy a variety of tastes.  I bootstrapped it myself, pouring a lot of money into it, trying to make it a nice place to eat.  I attempted to figure out the best way to offer a different dining experience...something different from fast food or heavy buffet choices...spending countless hours researching recipes and menus, trying to come up with the perfect mix of cost and value and taste and visual appeal.  I worked six and seven days per week, sometimes 10-12 hours a day. 

In spite of all this effort and investment, things aren't going so well.  Our business has slowly decreased over the past few months.  There is absolutely nothing more disheartening than to see a lovely little dining room that is completely empty at 12:15 p.m. - prime lunchtime.  Or to have people park in front of my restaurant and walk across the street to another one.  Or to have someone completely dismiss us as a dining option because they didn't like the soup we were serving that day.  One of my former high school classmates (a guy) recently told me, when I invited him to come have lunch there sometime, that he "didn't eat at places like that".  I know what he meant - he thought it was a ladies' kind of place, all tearoom-ish and such.....but he was so wrong in his perception.  And it isn't the first time I've heard it.  But short of overhauling the entire place, I don't know how to change that perception. 

I'm sure there are many other reasons for this decrease in sales....one being that the economy is still not well.  The Keeping Room isn't the least expensive place to eat, and competition is heavy among the dollar menus and less-than-$5.00 lunch meals.  It's hard to compete with that.   I haven't found an effective way to advertise that doesn't absolutely break the bank, and many people who don't typically go downtown may forget we are there (if they even know we are there).   

So....even though I've never considered myself a quitter, at some point there comes the realization that it just isn't working anymore. 

I will be selling the contents of the restaurant.  If anyone would like to see a list of items for sale, please send an email to thekeepingroom@bellsouth.net.  Or if anyone wants to buy the whole thing...hey, just let me know. 

I will always have a love of food and baking, and I enjoy writing about it, so I'll continue on with this new blog as it evolves into a recipe board and who knows what else along the way.  I hope some of you will visit here and find some useful information.  I may even share a few of those closely-held Keeping Room recipes.

And finally....to my core customers who faithfully visited the shop, to the businesses and schools who utilized us for lunches, and to those travelers who were delighted to find us: I cannot thank you enough for your continued support and patronage.  It was a pleasure seeing and serving our old customers again, as well as meeting new ones.  I will miss you all.  Unfortunately, and for me, heartbreakingly, there just aren't enough of you.