VINTON, Va. – Two homestyle restaurants in the Roanoke Valley served up their last meals this weekend before they shut their doors due to COVID-19.
Jerry’s Restaurant in Vinton closed on Sunday and will remain shuttered until the spring. Manager Lisa Payne said the restaurant is temporarily shutting its doors due to a lack of space, not a lack of customers.
“Social distancing restrictions just gives us eight tables on the inside. We need at least 16 tables to get by," Payne said. "We have to close down our eight tables outside because of the upcoming cold weather.”
Comfort food chain County Cookin officially closed the remainder of its locations on Sunday after nearly 40 years of business. The chain announced it would shut down on Friday.
Nearly all of Country Cookin’s remaining locations sold out of food by the end of Saturday. The Culpeper location was the only one to open Sunday; the Troutville, Christiansburg, Lexington, and Staunton restaurants remained closed.
While Country Cookin restaurants in the immediate area could not serve food on Sunday, customers filed into Jerry’s before they closed.
Tranacia Arris said she came to Jerry’s once a week for their signature sausage poofs. She said she made it a point to come before she could no longer get her favorite food.
“They call me the Poof Queen, because that’s all I ever get," Arris said. “These are the last ones for a while. I have no idea what I’ll do when they’re gone. I could try making them at home, but it’s not the same.”