Local favourite is closing due to a rough recovery from COVID

A neighborhood favorite and winner of the best burger award is shutting its doors at the end of the month after nearly seven years. 

Obie’s Bar and Grill at 209 Pinebush Rd. has decided to turn off the grills and shut down at the end of July after what has been a difficult recovery since the pandemic. 

“The business just isn't the same,” said Justin O’Brien, owner of Obie’s. “We have a lot of loyal guests who've come here, customers, friends and family; It's nice, but it's not enough.” 

The restaurant is down almost 60 per cent since the pandemic hit and they just haven’t been able to bounce back, he said. 

The chef has been running the restaurant with his wife Lyndsey since 2015 and has been serving their signature Obie burger to hungry crowds to great acclaim. 

With so many positive reviews and decent dinner crowds, why is Obie’s shutting down? 

Ever since the pandemic hit, the bar and grill has suffered major revenue loss. From turning away people at the door to having empty tables at lunch time, the customers just aren’t showing up. 

There are many factors, Justin said, that play into this, the main one being the lunch crowd has disappeared because most of the customers that filled that time slot are now working from home. There is also a drop in average disposable income with the rise of inflation and living costs. This has caused Obie's to shorten their hours to mainly dinnertime, offering lunch only two days a week. 

"We used to be open from lunch to dinner, seven days a week. Now, we're open four days at reduced hours," Justin said.

He thinks the rising costs are keeping people at home cooking meals instead of sitting down at local restaurants. 

“It's weird, because McDonalds drive thru will be lined up around the block for people to pay as much as they would at a sit down and eat real food,” he said. 

The price of running the restaurant has also gone through the roof. According to Lyndsey, the price of chicken has nearly tripled, the cost of a box of beef has increased by almost half and fresh local produce has skyrocketed as well. 

With the operational costs, they couldn’t justify raising the prices of their food and were not going to compromise on the quality either. 

“I try to give the best quality food I can, but it's hard,” Justin said. “I don't want to charge too much, because I know people don't have a lot of money so I'm still trying to keep my prices fair, but make money at the same time, it's just too much.”

One of the saving graces the couple has had, especially during the pandemic has been their landlords. 

“They've never raised my rent my whole time here during COVID. They even gave me like three months to not pay,” Justin said. 

Coming out of the pandemic, Obie’s couldn’t wait to get back in the kitchen and start cooking. The O'Briens loved seeing the reaction of people when they saw one of their burgers for the first time. 

“You’d bring it out and you just see their eyes go wide. It looks just like the picture,” Justin said. “I'd be lying if I didn't say it's the best burger I’ve ever eaten. I eat a lot of burgers and yeah, my burger has ruined burgers for me at most places.”
 
Cooking has always been a passion for the restaurateur. Having been in the service industry for over 25 years, all he wanted to do was open his own restaurant and serve people good food. 

Living that dream for seven years, he and his wife are ready to hang up the apron and call it quits. With two kids at home, the couple is excited to spend some time together as a family and enjoy a much needed rest, he said.

Despite all of the adversity the restaurant owners have faced over the years, they somehow managed to pull through and make it, but now they just want to sit back and reflect on all they have accomplished. 

“We made it through roundabout construction, made it through the bridge being torn down, made it through COVID, but it's just not enough to keep going through it,” Justin said. “This is bittersweet, we hate to be shutting down, but are happy to leave.”

The restaurant has been sold and the new owners are looking to make it into a Greek takeout spot, he added.