SOUTH PORTLAND — The popular Macaroni Grill restaurant by the Maine Mall is closed.
Signs on the building Sunday, and a line on the restaurant’s Facebook page, say the closure is temporary for renovations, but no further information is given.
Meanwhile the South Portland restaurant’s web page said Sunday it is open, but not taking online orders. Phone calls to the restaurant were not answered. Messages by the Press Herald to the corporate Macaroni Grill’s social media sites did not yield any answers.
Macaroni Grill is part of a national chain headquartered in Denver. The South Portland location is the only one in Maine, according to the corporation’s web site.
The restaurant’s sudden closure was a disappointment to Sarah Joakim who was planning a Thanksgiving meal there while mourning her father’s death.
Joakim lives in Massachusetts and her mother lives in South Portland. Her father, who was 92, was in an area nursing home and died three days before Thanksgiving, she said.
“Right after Halloween, on Nov. 1, I made a reservation for Thanksgiving so we could spend Thanksgiving with my mom,” Joakim said. “I never got a confirmation call, but I didn’t think much of it.”
With her father’s passing, she and her family were staying in an area hotel.
When she and her family drove to the restaurant shortly before their noon reservation, “the parking lot was completely empty, completely dead,” Joakim said. “I called the number – an automated message didn’t say anything about being closed.”
She never received any communication that her reservation would not be honored, she said.
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