St-Henri taco garage Grumman 78 'closing its doors and hanging up its tires'

Montreal iconic taco shop Grumman 78 closes doors Another favourite Montreal restaurant is shutting its doors as Grumman 78 announced it will close due to the pandemic.

MONTREAL — Grumman 78, the Mexican-inspired garage-turned-restaurant in St-Henri, is closing its doors.

"With love and gratitude in our hearts we are here to announce that Grumman 78 is closing its doors and hanging up its tires," the owners wrote on the restaurant's Facebook page on Friday.

This year, they wrote, "with all its challenges, enabled us to evolve and transform, but it has also crippled our beloved business. Our taco garage and our inimitable 1978 GMC Grumman have ceased operations effective immediately."

The doors were still physically open on Friday, with people shuffling around in back and others chatting on the terrasse.

The restaurant served up Mexican-inspired dishes over a decade both at its St-Henri location as well as its mobile food truck -- and hosted "weddings, birthday parties, family dinners, and funerals," the post reads.

"We are going to take a well-deserved break and see where the wind takes us – possibly on another adventure?"

Before shutting its doors for good, the restaurant will be hosting a garage sale on Saturday and Sunday, the owners said.

"We have a few items that need new homes, and we’d love to see you before we move on. Come say hi – (while respecting social distancing and impeccable hygiene, to be sure!) we open at 10am," the post continues.

Grumman 78 isn't the only well-known Montreal restaurant that was forced to make difficult decisions amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Back in August, the owner of Moishes, a steakhouse on the Main, announced it would be closing as well.

In a survey this summer, 61 per cent of the members of the Quebec Restaurant Association said they'd go out of business if distancing measures remained in places beyond Christmas -- and that was before the red-zone rules paused indoor dining again.