NEWARK — The Barrel & Boar is leaving downtown Newark but continues its presence in Licking County.

The Barrel & Boar restaurant is in its final days in downtown Newark after nearly seven years. Barrel & Boar at the Homestead Tap Room remains at Cherry Valley Hotel after a merger last year.

"As we have merged with Homestead, we are just putting some resources into some different places and switching some concepts around and pivoting with the new environment," Barrel & Boar owner Stan Riley said. "It was time to make a change."

The company announced earlier this week on its Facebook page it is closing its Newark location after selling the property on North Third Street. Riley opened the location with business partner Alex Athan, of Granville, in March 2016.

"I love Newark. I love downtown Newark. When Alex was my business partner and running that place, we definitely had some good times," Riley said. "I love the community."

The post noted that they were made an offer they couldn't refuse by a third-party buyer who is bringing "an exciting new concept to the location," but noted people would have to stay tuned to learn what that will be.

The business, which is open through Saturday, at the time was the restaurant's third location joining those in Gahanna and Westerville. Barrel & Boar now has six properties, since adding locations in Canal Winchester, Lancaster and Columbus, too.

"This upcoming Saturday will be our last day of business, and we would love to give the opportunity to all of our friends and fans to come to see us during this last week," read the Facebook post. "Many of you know our hospitality and culinary team in Newark, and they all would love to say goodbye to you as well."

The downtown restaurant was an expansion into Licking County in the midst of downtown Newark's revitalization plan and had to navigate through the restrictions of the Covid-19 pandemic.

"Downtown was really hard through these six years," Riley said. "I probably only had maybe two years and not even a stretch of two years that we weren't under construction or closed for Covid. Just that building that burned down and shut down West Main Street for six months, we never got a straight runway, but we did fine. I was happy to have done it."

This article originally appeared on Newark Advocate: Barrel & Boar closing Newark restaurant