Dining News

Galloway Village Tea Room closes, Agrario stays open and more local dining happenings.

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Galloway Village Tea Room closes

Galloway Village Tea Room, well known for its coconut cream cake, was to close by March 31, owner Susan Fudge told us at press time. The reason? Parking. And, it turns out, everyone involved feels bad about the situation. Here’s the backstory: Until June 2006, the tea room, at 4112 South Lone Pine Avenue, had free use of the small parking lot just to the north. Since then, an architecure firm has occupied the building that edges up to the north side of the parking lot at 4064 South Lone Pine. The firm, Creative Ink, is owned by Robert and Mickey Stockdale. The married couple bought the 4064 building in April 2005 from Karen Foster Byrd, who at that time owned both structures and the parking lot. The sale included not only the building but most of the parking lot. Since then, Mickey says, Creative Ink has frequently been unable to use its own parking spaces, particularly during lunch. Galloway Village is open from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.; Creative Ink staff have been faced with leaving for lunch appointments and returning to find no parking spaces. “If you bought a house from someone, and they continued to use your driveway to park, you wouldn’t appreciate that,” says Mickey Stockdale. “My business has dropped 50 percent, according to my bookkeeper,” says Fudge. The original property owner, Foster Byrd, says that she tried to add new parking to the existing land, but it wasn’t workable within the framework of city zoning—nor was it financially feasible. “I did not save enough parking,” she says. “It’s a shame, ’cause it’s a nice place.” “We’ve really bent over backwards to save the tea room, we love the tea room, and Susan is such a nice person,” says Stockdale, who feels that her and her husband’s architecture firm is caught in the middle of a dispute between property owner and tenant. For her part, Fudge is ready to close. “I don’t want any bad feelings more than there already is,” she says. “I am a very down-to-earth person, and I just want everybody to be happy.” Foster Byrd says she’s selling the tea room building through Carol Jones Realtors. In the near future, she plans to sell off many of the building’s fixtures, including its tables and chairs.

Agrario is still open

At press time, Agrario owner Eric Zackrison was circulating an e-mail (to well-connected Springfieldians such as Metro Builders Supply’s Judy Bilyeu and Developmental Center of the Ozarks’ Marci Bowling) to the effect that Agrario, the embattled, bankrupt downtown restaurant, is not closing, despite rumors to the contrary. Zackrison has said he plans to move the restaurant to south Springfield, leaving its Patton Avenue space as a catering/bar venue.