Popular CT restaurant to hold ‘thank you’ party for customers as it closes for good

It was fun while it lasted.

Now, Eli’s Restaurant is holding a “thank you” party Sunday for its customers, as they are closing for good at the Orange location.

It was a 10-year run for Eli’s, part of the Eli’s Restaurant Group, which also owns several restaurants in Connecticut.

A Facebook post announcing the closure Sunday reads, in part, “…unfortunately due to a myriad of challenges we and the rest of the restaurant industry has faced over the last few years it has caused us to evaluate the markets…”

Customers of the restaurant at 285 Boston Post Road, many of them regulars, were dismayed by the news.

“Uuugh this is our go to place,” one woman commented on Facebook.

Another wrote, “No!!! so sad! our favorite location, and staff.. ;(((.”

The restaurant is located on a strip in Orange that has many eateries and is not far down the Boston Post Road from restaurants in Milford.

One commenter wrote that he always liked Eli’s Orange, “but it was never busy.”

“Not sure why, the food and drinks were good! Sorry to see you close,” he wrote.

The company wrote on Facebook that they “are working with all of our fantastic members of our staff at Orange to integrate them into our other properties.”

The company also invited patrons of the Orange restaurant to redeem any gift cards or rewards points at any of the Eli’s properties.

The company owns Eli’s on Whitney Hamden, Eli’s Brick Oven Pizza in Hamden, Eli’s on the Hill in Branford, Eli’s Tavern Milford, Elicit Brewing Company, Manchester, and Elicit Brewing Company in Fairfield.

They are slated to soon open Elicit Brewing Company in Danbury.

The “thank you” party Sunday will be from 3 to 6 p.m. and owners and management will be there to thank customers, the Facebook post states.