BERNARDSTON — Local favorite the Four Leaf Clover Restaurant will not survive 2020 and will not survive COVID-19.
Owners Mark and Linda Snow say they’ll close the 71-year-old landmark at the end of the month.
The Clover opened in 1949 as a drive-in when Route 5 was the main road going north and south. Its location 19 South St. is just south of the Vermont state line. It has an old-fashioned swivel-stool service counter and a menu of pie, chops and seafood favorites.
But COVID-19 restrictions on restaurant dining make it harder to make money. Social media photos from the summer show tables and tents set up in the restaurant’s parking lot. But outdoor dining is harder now that colder weather has set in.
“It is just impossible to continue as we are,” Mark Snow wrote on social media. “We have met the best friends of our life through this business employees/customers and strangers off the street who we fed and they moved on to their next adventure.”
Snow said it was a family business with his children working there.
“But it is time for us to throw in the towel,” he wrote. “We can only hope that soon life will return to normal!”
Efforts to reach the Snows by phone Wednesday were unsuccessful.
Snow was the last owner of Famous Bill’s in nearby Greenfield until it was sold at a mortgage foreclosure auction in 2008. The building on Federal Street is now a Hangar Pub and Grill. At the time, Snow said he was going to concentrate on the Four Leaf Clover.
There is a GoFundMe online fundraiser for staffers from the Four Leaf Clover who are losing their jobs.
Massachusetts in November instituted restrictions enforcing a 90-minute time limit on eating, with restaurants required to stop service by 9:30 p.m. All restaurant-goers must wear masks at all times except when eating and drinking, and no more than six people can be seated at a table.
The Massachusetts Restaurant Association said its members reported sales declines of 35% to 50% in the first weekend of the 9:30 p.m. last call.
