LAKEVILLE — After 15 years running the Black Rabbit Bar & Grille, Kendra Chapman decided it was time to stop working 70-hour weeks and spend more time with her family.
The restaurant at 2 Ethan Allen St. closed Sunday, Nov. 8, following a busy final week filled with farewells from longtime customers. She announced the Nov. 8 closing date on Oct. 31.
Chapman, 56, said the workload had been weighing on her for some time. After more than 27 years in the restaurant business, she said she was exhausted.
“I’m tired,” she said. “The restaurant business is hard.”
The final week brought an outpouring of support — and enough customers to prompt a joke from one of her kitchen staff: “Are they trying to support you or kill you?”
“It was a joke but honestly summed it up in a nutshell,” Chapman said.
Chapman thanked her patrons for their loyalty over the years and for reaching out to her when word got out she was closing.
“I cannot even begin to express the overwhelming, heartfelt, warm, loving wishes I experienced this past week,” she said. “The amount of guests, friends, patrons that expressed their well wishes to me and my staff were truly humbling.”
Kendra and Corey Chapman opened the Black Rabbit in 2011, offering casual, family dining for local residents and weekend visitors. Its menu included Kendra’s New England clam chowder, burgers, sandwiches and pizza, and the restaurant became a gathering place for regulars who had followed her through earlier ventures.
Chapman credited Scott and Roxanne Bok, former owners of the White Hart inn in Salisbury, with giving her a start in the community when they hired her to run its bar and restaurant in 2000. She stayed for 10 years.
“I really don’t think the Black Rabbit would have been as successful as it was without the opportunities the White Hart provided,” she said.
Before opening the Black Rabbit, the Chapmans operated Chapman’s Chowder House within the Sheffield Pub in Massachusetts. Customers and employees followed them along the way.
Although the pair are no longer married, Kendra said they remain extremely close. Corey continued helping with the business over the years, and they opened and closed the Black Rabbit together.
For now, Kendra has no immediate plans beyond spending time with her family, particularly her mother, 87, and her father, who turns 88 this year.
“I am so fortunate to still have two amazing parents at my age and I’m really looking forward to spending some long overdue time with them,” she said. “I have not been able to celebrate a Mother’s Day or a Father’s Day with them in 27 years.”
The space is likely to house another restaurant. Chapman said she is leaving the equipment in place so the next tenant can take over a turnkey operation. “I’m hoping to pay it forward,” she said.
She also thanked her 25 employees.
“I really want to give a huge shout out to my employees that stuck with me through all the good times and the bad,” she said.
Regulars say they will miss the restaurant, describing the warm welcome they received and the friendships they developed there.
Some had followed Chapman from the White Hart to the Black Rabbit. Many expressed sadness while wishing her well and acknowledging her need for a break.
Chapman said she enjoyed being part of the community.
“The people I met have become lifelong friends throughout that experience,” she said.
