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FeedBreaking: Bijan's Sea & Grille is closed
We just spoke with an employee of Bijan's Sea & Grille, who says the restaurant's staff was notified today via text message that the longtime fine-dining establishment on East Walnut Street has closed its doors.
The employee (who asked to remain unnamed) says the staff was told on Thursday evening that the restaurant's liquor license had been suspended ("not because they were serving to minors or anything" the employee says). During the renewal process, for reasons unknown to the employee, the cost of renewing the license was too much for the owners—Barry Kackley and Jeremy Reed—to handle. Kackley sent out a text message to staff saying he was sorry, and that the closing was unforeseen.
If Bijan's has, in fact, served its final plate of risotto, it marks the end of one of downtown's longest-running fine-dining establishments. The restaurant was the first outpost for now-ubiquitous Springfield chef/restauranteur Mike Jalili, and many a married 417-land couple had one of their first dates (and many thereafter) over sea bass and wine on Walnut Street. Reed and Kackley had done some nice things with the space and the menu, and the upstairs bar—Romeo and Julieta's—had a very avid following and some of the best bartenders in town.
Bijan's will be missed.
We will continue trying to chase the players in this story. Calls to Bijan's and text messages to building owner Mike Jalili have gone unanswered and unreturned today.
Matt Lemmon, digital director
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