Sunday, June 17 was the last supper for Damon's Grill restaurant, 859 E. State St.
The restaurant closed its doors Sunday night with little notice, as a result of declining sales caused by the competition springing up along East State Street.
There are no plans to reopen, said Brad Ritter, spokesman for the restaurant.
At the moment, there are no official plans for the building, former general manager Charles Kelshaw said. We don't know anything.
About 25 employees were affected by the closing, Ritter said. Everyone was paid through June 17.
Employees were given little notice that the restaurant would be closed, said Jessica Brown, a former Damon's server and Ohio University senior. She came dressed in uniform and ready to work, she said, only to find a we're closed sign on the door.
Before then, Kelshaw had told her that the restaurant would be open throughout the summer. A week later
they locked the doors on me.
When asked about the affected employees, Kelshaw refused to comment.
Before Damon's opened the Athens location nearly seven years ago, corporate executives conducted a study measuring potential business in the Athens area, said Larry Payne, membership service coordinator of the Athens Chamber of Commerce.
The study predicted that if Damon's and one other restaurant of similar genre opened, sales would be strong. If a third opened, however, sales were expected to drop 25 percent.
When it was just Damon's Grill and Ruby Tuesday, 951 E. State St., business was good, Payne said. Bennigan's, 994 E. State St., was the third restaurant. Not long after, Applebee's, 547 E. State St., became the fourth.
Since Athens can only support so much it's just the law of supply and demand Payne said.
Other businesses on East State Street said that they were doing fine.
With Damon's closed, Bennigan's is picking up the lost business, and even some of Damon's former employees, said Hughes Pineault, a kitchen manager at Bennigan's.
For us
it's really good
Pineault said. So actually
we are doing really well.
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Megan Tackett
