11/28/2024
Happy Thanksgiving from all of us The PorterHouse!
We want to start by saying we are grateful for the wonderful families that have supported our family adventure and that we have had the pleasure to get know. We will be open tomorrow, the 29th, from 4 to 9pm and Saturday 11-9pm. It’s with some sadness that we announce Saturday will be our LAST DAY to serve you. If you care for details then please continue reading. Those that have come to know me some know that I’m pretty transparent. I would like to share why we are making this decision after a short time, but this has been a year journey for us due to all the time it took to get opened up. Also me sharing eliminates speculation and you’ll know the reasons are coming straight from me. 🧡
My husband has always wanted a restaurant to own, more of a downtown feel, but this opportunity was here since his family owns the place and we took a shot. Our intention from the beginning was to find someone to run it and us still be able to operate our very full lives and other businesses. Or for it to have enough coming in for him to be paid to operate it in place of part of our construction company. We quickly realized the money wasn’t there for this possibility therefore the restaurant became my second home. Often I was there more than home, while still trying to juggle the rest of my life. We cut the days back that were costing us to be open and that extra time away made me realize even more how much I’m missing, plus it gave me a moment to clearly see the added stress I was taking on without adding income but instead adding debt. People often ask is this your dream, although connecting with people is something I feel called to and love, my dream is my family and being with them as much as I can. We are a family of 8 so a lot goes into that! We have one graduating this year and two weddings to plan, that new development has become its own job for me. 😅I doubt I would have opened the restaurant this year if I knew somethings I know now timing wise. I have two younger kids that I didn’t ever plan to be away from this much, I don’t miss their stuff and I’ve had to this year. On top of those personal reasons stacking up we are not in a place to take on the debt that we now see coming for the typical time of 2 years for a restaurant to profit. With it being a small town and not having other things to draw people in we are quickly not having the traffic needed if events or circumstances place a lot of people else where. For example, right now everyone is Christmas shopping so naturally they’re eating in the areas they are shopping or at home to save money. Porter isn’t a town people are coming to shop and most of our support throughout being open came from out of town. From what we are currently seeing this could put us in a predicament of not being able to cover bills for a couple months and add to the debt even more. Our decision has nothing to do with the success of the restaurant itself. Overall, we have had throughout being open very high reviews, nominated to be on the news which we were, in magazine articles and reviews with various local social media presences. We see the potential which brought us to look in another location, but the cost to operate was three times as high and again not something we felt we should currently take on especially if it didn’t give us the quick opportunity to bring someone else in to help run things. After much back and forth, pros and cons, tears and much prayer this is what we believe is best for our family. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for all those that have came and added extra light to our lives and shown support. Some that I have shared this with privately before announcing publicly have asked how we can be supported moving forward. I’m a full-time realtor and even will be more so again with this change and we have owned a construction company for over 14 years. Being referred for either is always greatly appreciated And truly means a lot especially as we transition. Please know that we took great care in making sure that our full-time employees had other jobs secured before closing, and the rest of our staff is mostly our own children and their friends that are in school.
To our staff: I can’t say this without tears in my eyes, but how proud we are of you! None of you had ever worked in a restaurant and you worked so hard to quickly be amongst the best! Evan, you’re one of the hardest workers I have ever known and the most loyal. You didn’t complain, always showed up, and ready for whatever I had up my sleeve for the day 😂and I could trust you if I had to step away. I can’t wait to see all the great things that you do with your life and I hope to stay a part of it to have a front row seat. To our “babies” and your friends- working beside you was absolutely the best way to work. We couldn’t have done this without you! To those that showed up at moments and stepped in, thank you! I pray over all that have stepped through our doors and into our hearts. I hope to see as many of you as possible over the next two days! 💙
With love your friend, Brandy
P.S
If we get enough request for people to reserve the restaurant for us to serve their events on site then we will do that through December, pm me for details if interested.
