What had slowly become a staple of Mexico eats is now no longer in business.The Brick City Buffet and Grill, located at 641 West Jackson Street, suddenly closed its doors Sunday due to a concern for …
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What had slowly become a staple of Mexico eats is now no longer in business.
The Brick City Buffet and Grill, located at 641 West Jackson Street, suddenly closed its doors Sunday due to a concern for keeping up the building to an appropriate level for a quality restaurant, according to owner Ronda Burry.
She said the closing was sudden and it was facilitated by the need to fix a number of issues with the building itself and not due to a lack of business.
“It did kind of happen,” Burry said. “We lease the building, and it needs a lot of work to continue. We have not been able to recover from COVID to make those changes and we don’t own the building.
“The money operator was debating it and he was hoping to buy the building, but they would not sell it. He’s been trying for the last six years to buy that building because it needed improvement from the beginning.”
Burry said the building needed new electric panels, hoods, water heater, air conditioning and one cooler. Burry said they did manage to perform a remodel during their time running the buffet.
“It was really sad,” she said. “We really did good business. It just wasn’t good enough to put 100 grand into it and in a building we didn’t own. We would be willing to do it if we owned the building.”
Essentially it boiled down to upkeep plus economics divided by reality.
“My partners have talked about opening up in the future in Mexico,” Burry, of Millersburg, said. “It’s a beautiful community – everybody was very caring, loving and supportive.
“It was a loss for our churches – they were devastated. It was doing great, just not great enough for all that.”
After six years in business, the buffet would no longer be one of the most popular Sunday afternoon stops or a place for clubs to meet.
“It’s very heartbreaking, we developed very strong bonds and relationships with the community, guests and our staff,” Ashlea Nicole Burry, the general manager of the restaurant, said. “We viewed them all as part of our family. We made it through a lot things with the pandemic and we kept going and it’s not what we wanted to see happen.
“Hopefully, one day, there will be something in the future.”
