
Update: This article has been updated to include a statement from John Lennon, River Bluffs’ Director of Operations.
NEW HANOVER COUNTY — Porches Cafe in River Bluffs will serve its last customers Friday — for the time being.
“The restaurant really is the fabric of the River Bluffs community,” John Lennon, director of operations of River Bluffs Development Corporation, said Wednesday. “But it doesn’t make sense to keep it open right now.”
Lennon said he does not know exactly when, but he intends to reopen the restaurant at some point in the future.
In a Facebook post, the local cafe attributed its closure to hardships encountered during the Covid-19 pandemic. The cafe was lauded for its use of local produce grown on its own farm.
“Limits on capacity, reduced interest in dining out, and increased operating costs related to new safety measures have all wreaked havoc on the #restaurant industry throughout the country and certainly in #WilmingtonNC,” the cafe posted Monday.
Porches Cafe’s entire menu is sourced from the River Bluffs Farm. The development was the first neighborhood in the region to use its own community farm to support its restaurant when it first opened in 2016.
After Friday’s dinner service, the cafe will close its doors indefinitely. The cafe will remain open this week for lunch between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. and for dinner between 5 p.m. and 9 p.m.