Skip to main contentAcadia, one of the finest restaurants in the city demonstrating the brilliance of food from the Southern bayou, has served its last crawfish.
On Jan. 15, the 20-year-old bistro on Northeast Fremont Street announced on Instagram it would be closing its doors for good following two years of rocky operations due to the pandemic. Eater Portland first reported the news. The plan, at that point, was to offer one last weekend of takeout service to give longtime customers a chance to indulge in favorites like soft-shell blue crab, earthy catfish lounging in a corn maque choux, and deep-fried hushpuppies stacked on an orange horseradish glaze.
But the final farewell never transpired.
Just hours after the original notice about the impending closure, chef Seamus Foran followed up with another social media message stating that a coronavirus exposure would prevent him from opening the restaurant that weekend.
“The hits keep coming…,” the Instagram post stated, which was accompanied by a photo of a masked Foran giving the peace sign. “Friends, we’ve been exposed to the COVID again. So it’s off to get tested. Can’t even be open to say goodbye. Thanks again for all your support. It’s meant the world to us.”
Acadia’s compact yet cozy dining room remained closed for a good portion of the early pandemic since it was just too risky to pack people into a tight space, especially pre-vaccine. The business survived by offering comfort food like shrimp, gumbo and andouille sausage in takeout form.
Once inoculations were widely available, indoor seating returned, however, that proved to be an on-again, off-again arrangement. Positive exposures and breakthrough cases kept temporarily shutting down the restaurant’s on-premises service, before finally taking it down for good.