09/22/2026
This is a post we never wanted to have to make.
After six long weeks of waiting, hoping, asking questions, and holding onto the possibility that we might somehow be able to reopen, we have officially been notified that the building that has housed Railroad Bar & Grill is unrepairable.
And with that news, we have had to make the heartbreaking decision to permanently close Railroad Bar & Grill.
It is difficult to put into words what this place has meant to us.
More than four years ago, we started Railroad from the ground up. We poured our time, energy, money, ideas, and so much of ourselves into creating a restaurant that we hoped our community would love. We watched it grow from an idea into a place that became such a big part of our lives.
Those walls held so much more than a restaurant.
They held birthdays and anniversaries. First dates and family dinners. Live music and packed nights. Employees who became like family. Regular customers whose orders we knew before they even placed them. Laughter from the kitchen, conversations across the bar, friendships made, and more memories than we could ever count.
Railroad became our place, and we loved sharing it with all of you.
That is what makes this so incredibly hard.
We didn’t get to decide when our last night would be. We didn’t get to prepare our employees, our customers, or ourselves for goodbye. We closed the doors thinking it was temporary, never imagining that we had already served our last meal.
After six weeks, we now know there is no going back.
While we have considered what it would look like to start over somewhere else, we keep coming back to the same thing: Railroad was Railroad because of where it was, what we built there, and the people who filled it.
We just don’t believe we could pick it up, move it somewhere else, and recreate what made it so special. So rather than trying to recreate something that cannot be replicated, we have decided to close this chapter.
And that hurts.
Our hearts hurt for our employees who showed up, worked hard, and helped us build this business. We hurt for our customers who supported us week after week. We hurt for our downtown family and for the loss of a place we truly believed had many more years ahead of it.
The restaurant business is tough, and the statistics are not always kind to small, locally owned restaurants. But we made it more than four years because of you.
You showed up.
You ate with us. You celebrated with us. You brought your families and friends. You came for the music, the food, the drinks, the atmosphere, and sometimes just to sit and visit. You shared our posts, recommended us to others, supported our events, and continued choosing a locally owned restaurant.
For that, our family will forever be grateful.
We are sad. We are disappointed. And if we’re being completely transparent, this is not at all how we wanted the Railroad story to end. But nothing about the way it ended can take away from what we built together over the last four years.
We are proud of Railroad Bar & Grill.
We are proud of the people who worked there.
We are proud of the memories made there.
And we are incredibly thankful that our community gave us the opportunity to live this dream for as long as we did.
So, from our family to yours, thank you for a great run. Thank you for believing in us. Thank you for supporting us. And thank you for making Railroad Bar & Grill so much more than just a restaurant.
We will miss it more than we can say.
From the bottom of our hearts — thank you, Railroad family. It’s been one heck of a ride. ❤️
Boyd & Sharlene McLaurin
Todd & Tracie Stubbs
