11/04/2026
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1DyhTsFTSt/
It's officially restaurant closing season, y'all.
Fall has always been one of our favorite times of year. The cooler weather, Halloween, Thanksgiving dinners with family, and Christmas right around the corner. It's the season of gathering around tables with people we love.
But somewhere along the way, November picked up another tradition nobody asked for.
Restaurant closing announcements.
While the rest of us are figuring out who's bringing the deviled eggs to Thanksgiving, restaurant owners are sitting at their own tables trying to figure out whether they can afford to keep the lights on another year.
And every year, that list seems to get a little longer.
Fiction Kitchen in Raleigh is the latest, announcing November 14 will be its final day, with its last brunch coming November 8.
And here comes the part we've grown to dread almost as much as the announcements themselves.
The comments.
"Oh no! We loved that place!"
"This is heartbreaking!"
"Raleigh is losing all its good restaurants!"
And sometimes you can't help but wonder when the last time some of those folks actually ate there was.
Now, we're not foolish enough to believe a few more dinner reservations could fix everything. Food costs, labor, rent, insurance, and the general expense of keeping a small business alive have become a mountain that even the hardest-working owners can't always climb.
But there's something worth thinking about when we seem to have gotten better at mourning our locally owned restaurants than supporting them while their doors are still open.
These aren't just places to eat. They're somebody's dream, somebody's livelihood, and somebody's years of missed holidays, long nights, and early mornings.
And when they're gone, all those memories and glowing Facebook comments won't turn the lights back on.
So as we head into the season of gathering around tables, maybe we ought to spend a little more time sitting at the ones we'd hate to lose.
Because November is starting to feel less like the beginning of the holidays and more like the end of an era.
And we've still got a whole lot of November left.
OH and for the love of beef tallow tater tots, STOP EATING AT CHAINS AND SUPPORT LOCAL.
Because the places you claim to love can't pay their bills with your condolences.