After 19 years of serving up all-day breakfasts, the Cityside Grille will be pouring its last cup of coffee on April 28.
Staff were told Sunday night that the restaurant would be closing down, said kitchen manager Patrick O’Hanlon. There was little warning otherwise, but he said the owners recently moved down South.
Cityside Grille opened in January 2000, according to its website. In the 1950s and ’60s, the location held an A&W restaurant, an old-school style drive-thru whose servers roller skated to your car to take your order.
Locals, remarking that the business always seemed busy on the weekends, were surprised by the news.
“I was kind of dumbfounded to hear that,” said Steve Blanchard of Concord, coming off a lunch of a made-to-order cheeseburger. “It’s known mostly for its breakfast, its fairly inexpensive and quality foods, the service is good – all the boxes are checked as far as I’m concerned.”
Laura and Eric Lambert of Epsom have fond memories of Cityside – it was the site of one of their first dates. After being married for two years, it’s still a staple spot for them and the kids.
“I always said they should make another building,” Laura Lambert said. “Honestly, we’re going to have to find another place to have breakfast now.”
Brothers Patrick and Shamis O’Hanlon both started at Cityside as dishwashers about 10 years ago and worked their way up to kitchen manager and prep cook, respectively. They both stayed for the “tight-knit” group of people while working toward other careers.
“We have some waitstaff who have been here for 19 years,” said Patrick O’Hanlon, who studied HVAC at night while working at Cityside. “… I hate to see the place go, but I was on my way out.”
The building, built in 1976, is located near Terrill Park, which the city plans to eventually revamp with a lighted turf field, ADA-accessible playgrounds and bigger dog park, and also connect it to the Merrimack River Greenway Trail.
According to city records, the property is in a trust, co-owned by a Roland Carantit of Concord, who took it over after his father, Conrad Carantit, died in 2015.
A phone number for Carantit could not be found.
(Photo editor Geoff Forester contributed to this article. Caitlin Andrews can be reached at 369-3309, candrews@cmonitor.com or on Twitter at @ActualCAndrews.)