Verses Restaurant to close as property sold to church

Verses Restaurant, which will close down and become a church at the end of September, is pictured on Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2014. (Brian Dunseith / CTV Kitchener)

One of Kitchener’s most renowned restaurants is shutting its doors.

Verses Restaurant on Victoria Street North will serve its last lunch this Friday, with its last dinner taking place Sept. 27.

Three days later, Chin Christian Church – a branch of the Mennonite faith which has been meeting elsewhere in the city – will take over the property.

“We’ve had some amazing customers come through our doors that have supported us for 11 years … and we appreciate it very much,” co-owner Debbie McFadden told CTV News.

“We were hoping that another restaurant would buy it … but the people that bought it happened to want it as a church.”

Before it opened as a restaurant, the Verses property was used by the New Apostolic Church.

The deal was finalized last week.

For 2013, CAA listed Verses as a four-diamond restaurant on its five-point scale – the only one in Waterloo Region at that level, behind only Cambridge’s Langdon Hall at five diamonds.