Beloved restaurant to close this month; owner switching gears

After 16 years, Gordonville Grill will close its doors to the public Thursday, Aug. 31. That isn't the end for the business, though; merely the end of it as a restaurant.

"I started this restaurant with the intent of doing 15 years and then semi-retiring to spend time with my kids before they're gone from the home," owner Andrew Hancock said. "We're in year 16. I thought I would find someone to transition the business to and take on the ownership, but I have not been able to do so."

Instead, Hancock plans to transition from a sit-down restaurant to exclusively a catering service.

"We will be an event center only for gatherings, meetings, those types of things. That will allow me to spend time with my children ... what families are supposed to do," he said.

The new service will be called Gordonville Grill Event Center and Catering. Hancock said he expects it to begin in earnest sometime this October.

By then, he said, he'll have a new website for the business and revamped social media. He said he also hopes to host weekend popups during the fall. These will focus on selling just a handful of items instead of a full-blown menu.

While the catering menu will remain largely unchanged, much of the restaurant menu will need to be scrapped.

"Most of my restaurant items are ones we make from scratch, and while we will do some of them in catering a lot of those things cannot travel well. If we're going to do a wedding, for instance, for 200 people, I can't make a shrimp reduction sauce and hold it for two hours. it just doesn't work," Hancock said.

If serving prescheduled holiday or family parties at the establishment itself, he said he could incorporate special orders of some signature items.

Gordonville Grill has served the niche of a gathering space in the community. Different groups host meetings there. Families make it a tradition. Hancock said some people who ate there as children now come back with families of their own.

Among his staff of around 30, two of them — his kitchen manager and a server — have stuck with the restaurant for its entire duration. They will be part of a core group of employees continuing on at the catering business.

"I know my customers are going to be very upset," Hancock said. "I've spoken with I can't tell you how many people in the last two days about their experiences here in this restaurant: first dates, us catering their weddings, all those special moments. The restaurant business is personal."

At Gordonville Grill it was more personal than most. Hancock said he called everyone who worked there the "Gordonville Grill Family". He said he made numerous friendships with customers and staff and hopes to continue to build relationships through catering events.

If the right person came along, Hancock said, he would consider selling the business to someone who wanted to reopen it as a restaurant.

"Everything I have is for sale except for my family," he said, "... but at this time I think it's viable for us just to move forward in a limited capacity and provide for my family."

Hancock took over a new restaurant in 2007, reopening it as Gordonville Grill in May of that year.

"At that time, the pharmaceutical sales representatives were feeding these doctors' offices and hospitals every single day and they continued to call us. That's how we got into catering," he said. He primarily focused on serving food inside the building, building a new bar, acquiring new kitchen equipment and completely reworking the menu.

The restaurant currently seats 102 people inside and around 35 out on a patio. While the patio will remain untouched, Hancock said he'll remove some indoor seating to make room for buffet tables, bringing capacity to around 90 people.

Hancock said a familiarity to the restaurant business is what led him to choose catering and event hosting as his next step. He has done other jobs in the past, but he said he has a passion for serving food.

With four children ranging from 11 to 16 years old, and the coronavirus pandemic and rising inflation straining the restaurant business, Hancock saw it as a logical time to switch gears.

"I feel it's imperative for me to be there during this time they're growing up. That's what drives me. Fortunately, I've planned for this so we're able to do it," he said.

Hancock said he will miss meeting and making friends with customers the most.

"I feel bad about taking that away, but all things change and we have to move forward," he said. "... We can still have a little piece of the Gordonville Grill through our catering."

Hancock recommended customers use any gift cards they have before the restaurant closes. If they can't be used by then, he said he'd reimburse the customers.