Bubbalou’s Bodacious Bar-B-Que, a staple of the Winter Park food scene since 1986, recently announced in a Facebook post that it officially closed the doors to its original Winter Park location on Lee Road on September 11. According to its announcement, the 35-year-old barbecue restaurant’s closure comes as a result of being “unable to properly staff the restaurant.” In its Facebook post, the restaurant stated that it closed the restaurant with only four employees.
The post reads in part: “Business has been off considerably, but the hardest part [was] the inability to find staff to hire… We fought the Covid Pandemic with our best fight. We lost.” It goes on to say that the location had already been forced to close multiple days per week “due to the fact we have no staff and can’t find any.”
The restaurant’s difficulty finding staff is part of a larger trend as restaurants around the country are facing a labor shortage of food service workers.
The Winter Park team will be moving to Bubbalou’s Apopka location. The restaurant also has locations in Altamonte Springs and Orlando.