Restaurants closing in Hampton Roads

HAMPTON ROADS, Va. - WAVY.com is following a troubling sidebar to the sagging economy.  These tough times have forced a number of highly regarded restaurants to close up shop. 

Among the casualties are Comfort in Portsmouth, Bobbywood in Norfolk and Beale Street Barbeque in Virginia Beach.

Officials with the National Restaurant Association tell WAVY.com business is the worst it has ever been and that proof of that can be seen in Hampton Roads.

On one side, the sign above Beale Street Barbeque in Virginia Beach reads, "Closed till our Government Bail out Check Arrives."

On the other side it reads, "Closed for the recession. Hope 2 C U soon."

Jesse Walker is the mastermind behind the signs and Beale Street Barbeque.  He's packing up and turning the "open" sign off.

"It's devastated my whole family," says Walker.

Walker and his family started the restaurant six years ago on Shore Drive. The now empty seats used to be packed, but Walker says the economy changed all that.

"Our clientele that came in was definitely the people that had to cut back themselves,so needless to say we suffered from it and had to make the decision to close."

Chef Bobby Huber of the high-end Bobbywood restaurant and La Galleria in Norfolk, relates to Walker's hurt.

"It was a fairly quick decision. It wasn't anything that we had planned on," says Huber.

Huber says the economy, construction of the Wachovia Center across the street and light rail were a triple threat to Bobbywood's business.

"They tore down our parking, a parking garage that we were utilizing, which is fine, it's for progress. It's for building new parking, but it doesn't help in the interim."

Huber's restaurant doors shut in October.

"This looks more and more like going into a depression than a recession. I mean it's bad."

To find out how bad it really is, WAVY.com contacted officials in each Hampton Roads City. Portsmouth responded saying 11 restaurants closed since January.  Chesapeake officials say while 58 closed this year, 89 opened.

That news is promising for both Huber and Walker who say customers will sit at their tables again.

"We do plan to re-open. That's in the cards," says Huber.

As for when the restaurants will re-open? Both men say it depends on the economy.