Country Bistro has closed

SALISBURY — After 11 years, the much-loved Country Bistro on Academy Street has closed. The owner of the building, Susan Rand, has told restaurant owners Jacqueline Heriteau and Holly Hunter Stonehill that she has other plans for the building. Rand would not reveal to the newspaper what her plans are.

Stonehill and Heriteau, who are mother and daughter, and David Hunter, who is Heriteau’s son, held a tag sale at the Bistro on Friday, Nov. 30, and sold off the restaurant fixtures and bags of supplies, from lentils to powdered sugar. 

Two loyal customers sat at the counter, finishing up cups of coffee, apparently loathe to see their favorite eatery go. 

Heriteau, who is also the author of many gardening books and cookbooks, said she isn’t sure whether the restaurant will appear again at another location in town. 

A local business owner has invited the Bistro owners to come look at a former coffee shop space in the village. Heriteau said it’s unclear at this point whether that space will work, especially in light of increasingly stringent regulations from the state health department. 

“They want every restaurant to be like a hospital, which is very hard here in New England where the buildings are old,” Heriteau said. “It makes it very difficult for restaurant people.”