Shoo-Fly will close in Belvedere Square tonight. The restaurant's closing was first announced on May 13 by owner Spike Gjerde, but no closing date was given.
"Your friends at Shoo-fly would love to raise a glass with you tonight to the best little diner this side of the turnpike," said an email Shoo-Fly sent Friday to its patrons. "Stop by any time after nine to say 'hasta luego' and help us polish off the Dad's Hat."
A Shoo-Fly employee said that people are welcome to come before 9:00 but that the goodbye toasts would begin at 9:00.
Shoo-Fly was the third restaurant from Spike Gjerde, the James Beard Award-winning chef whose previous restaurants include Woodberry Kitchen, and Artifact Coffee. In the spring of 2014 he opened the restaurant-butcher shop Parts & Labor in Remington. All of those restaurants remain open.
The family-friendly diner opened in the fall of 2013 in a free-standing building at Belvedere Square that was once home to a Hess Shoes store and, later, the restaurants Taste and Crush.
When he announced its closing, Gjerde said that Shoo-Fly might relocate in the Belvedere Square Market building. He said that his restaurant company, Foodshed, which he co-owns with his wife, Amy Gjerde and their business partner, Corey Polyoka, might bring a different concept into the Shoo-Fly space.
No one with Foodshed was available to provide an update on the company's plans at Belvedere Square.