Marlborough's Villatoro Restaurant And Cafe Closes

MARLBOROUGH, MA — A beloved restaurant in the city closed its doors overnight, possibly for good. Villatoro Restaurant and Cafe was closed on Wednesday morning, the owner apologized to customers on Facebook. He said the business was in debt and owed the state money for meal taxes.

Villatoro was not only local favorite but nationally recognized for it's food. In June 2018, the restaurant was named the best diner in the country by Travel and Leisure in its list of 25 Best Diners in the U.S. Villatoro was less than three years old and opened in September of 2016.

Located at 353 Lincoln Street, the diner was owned by Herrsoon Villatoro and offered both American diner food like pancakes and burgers as well as Guatemalan food.

The Facebook message posted to the restaurant's page called the journey an "uphill battle" sincec the purchase of the space. "What we thought was a turn key restaurant ended needing major renovations that delayed our opening almost a full year and used up our savings," the post reads, "In the end we owe money to the state for meal taxes. This was not our intent. Our intent was to provide for our employees and have a successful restaurant that Marlboro could be proud of."

The restaurant tried in July 2018 use a GoFundMe page to help cover the costs of renovations and other debts.

The Facebook post closed with a plea for customers to help find possible investors so that the restaurant can live on. The post was flooded with support from customers sharing ideas and memories of the food and space.