Royal Treat, Nutter's are among the Delaware restaurants and shops that closed in 2023

Patricia Talorico, Delaware News Journal

Updated December 29, 2023 at 2:10 AM·10 min read

It's so hard to say goodbye. Some popular and well-known Delaware restaurants and food places closed in 2023.

Here's a look back:

Ubon Thai Kitchen & Bar

In this Aug. 13, 2011 photo, Norrawit Milburn, owner and executive chef of the soon-to-open Ubon Thai cuisine restaurant in the Shipyard Shops at the Wilmington Riverfront stands in the passthrough that will let customers see into the kitchen. The restaurant is named for Milburn's family hometown in Thailand.

The Milburn family who run the Thai restaurant at 936 Justison St. on the Wilmington Riverfront announced in late December that its final day would be Dec. 23.

A note posted on their social media sites read:

"Thank you for the last 12 years of enjoying our restaurant, but now it’s time for a new concept. Our last day as UBON will be Saturday, December 23. Please come celebrate a great era we had for our last day party.

"For those who love this style of food, please come see us at @kapowkitchen where we have been thriving for eight years at @boothscorner or book our food truck & catering @kapowtruck for your next event!"

George & Sons Seafood

The Hockessin family-run seafood market and restaurant, known for its fresh oysters and lobster rolls, announced on Aug. 15 on its Facebook page that it would be closing.

Its last day in business at the 1216 Old Lancaster Pike location was Sept. 3.

"The support our customers have shown us and all the hard work our associates put in over the past 13 years is beyond gratitude. You have been with us through many changes," owner George Esterling wrote on Facebook.

"We will be on a brief pause while new plans are being made," he wrote. A Facebook comment from the Esterling family hinted that someone new could be happening by Easter.

In the meantime, George & Sons can be booked for holiday parties, to create raw bars at weddings, or can cater crab feasts and seafood boils. Visit georgeandsonsseafood.com.

Pescatore's Italian Restaurant

The Italian seafood restaurant off Wilmington Pike near Glen Mills, Pennsylvania, closed its doors on Dec. 17 after nearly 20 years in business.

A Facebook message read:

"After nearly 2 decades it is with great sadness and great joy that we'd like to announce the closing of our Restaurant.

"We would like to offer my sincerest thanks and deepest gratitude for all of your support over the years to our patrons, purveyors, and Pescatore's staff, past and present."

Friendly's

A mainstay for decades in Dover where you could gather for a family breakfast or ice cream after a Little League game called it quits in February.

Friendly's restaurant on Route 13 followed the closures of other Friendly’s restaurants near Newark and Seaford in the past several years.

A note was posted on the front door of the building at 318 N. Dupont Highway read: “Thank you for the years of your patronage. This restaurant is permanently closed.”

“The King himself, Richard Petty, would always stop by when in town, for a Jim Dandy,” a former manager told Delaware Online/The News Journal.

A Friendly's restaurant at the Brandywine Town Center off Naamans Road also closed in June.

Fuku

The spicy fried chicken at the Chancery Food Hall at 1313 N. Market St. in downtown Wilmington was replaced in July by Agave Mexican Grill, which serves tacos, burritos and Mexican food dishes.

Fuku was licensed and managed by HospitalityHQ, a Brooklyn-based culinary consulting and food hall management firm led by chef, restaurateur, cookbook author and co-founder Akhtar Nawab, who is overseeing the management of the Wilmington food hall. It was founded by chef, author, and TV star David Chang.

Despite the name, Agave is not an offshoot of the popular Agave Mexican restaurants in Lewes and Rehoboth Beach and a similarly named but separate Agave Mexican Cuisine restaurant in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania.

Why did Fuku leave?

"The goal has always been to help local vendors, so when Agave came to [Chancery Market officials] with interest, it made sense to replace Fuku (which is a concept they felt had run its course) with a vendor that had local ties and was looking to expand," a spokeswoman told Delaware Online/The News Journal.

At the same time, the market also got another vendor, Pokelicious, the first Delaware food business from Venezuelan-born proprietor and chef Jhonathan Gomez.

Its menu includes fresh tuna, salmon, shrimp, and chicken teriyaki, along with mix-ins and sauces, as well as seasonal fruit-infused water and homemade desserts.

The Juice Joint 2.0 also left Chancery Market in November and moved to a new location at 102 S. Union St. in Wilmington. It was replaced by Chick-N-Salad The menu includes chicken wings or tenders that come with a choice of sauces such as barbecue, honey, Sriracha, Buffalo, "Boom Boom," Peri-Peri and garlic Parmesan.

Hammerheads Dockside

The restaurant located on the Indian River Marina within Delaware Seashore State Park closed in February after the location was put up for grabs by the state of Delaware.

Hammerheads Dockside announced its “involuntary” closure in a Facebook post February, stating that after a “record-breaking 2022 season,” the state of Delaware ultimately decided to award the site’s contract to Big Fish Restaurant Group after several months of negotiations

It had been leased to the owners of Hammerheads Dockside, George Bendler and Cohen Sade, since 2013. The land is managed by Delaware’s Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control through the Division of Parks and Recreation.

Royal Treat

The restaurant at 4 Wilmington Ave. in Rehoboth Beach announced in May that it was not opening for the 2023 season after 42 years in business.

The Fornwalt family, who ran the favorite breakfast and ice cream spot for more than four decades, closed for good at the end of the 2022 summer season. They had leased the building from the Fasnacht family, who also own the nearby Funland amusement center.

The site is set to be demolished. The building dates back to the 1900s, but the Fasnacht family said the physical structure, once home to Reverend Morgan’s Boarding House, Thawley’s Hotel and the Royalton Hotel, was "beyond saving."

The lot will likely be used for Funland employee parking in the immediate future, but long-term plans are still being decided.

The Jackson Inn

The modern-day Jackson Inn was built in 1958 after the old inn was razed due to the widening of Lancaster Avenue.

Owner Fred Bourdon told Delaware Online/The News Journal in March the legendary bar, just over the city of Wilmington limits, across from Cab Callaway School of the Arts, would be closing for good because he faced serious health issues and ended up needing a few extended hospitalizations and rehabilitation stays.

"We've been here for 94 years and I guess I've decided I had enough," Bourdon said. "My health wasn't getting any better, and every time I turned around I was having another hospital stay for one or two months."

Bourdon and his family owned the Jackson Inn for generations, dating back to 1929 when his grandfather H. Fred Bourdon purchased the inn and property, selling "near beer" until the end of Prohibition before switching over to the harder stuff.

Jackson Inn co-owner Fred Bourdon has decided to sell the property where the legendary bar has stood for decades.

A "dive bar" in the best sense, the Jackson Inn at Lancaster Avenue and North Dupont Road was untouched by time with walls covered with magazine covers, knick-knacks and old photos of customers. Original Miller Lite pool table lights hung from the drop ceiling, which also were covered with various flags.

In March, Bourdon said several parties were interested in the 3-acre site.

The Pond Bar & Grill

In this undated file photo, Steve Cannon tends bar at the Frogg Pond when it was located in downtown Rehoboth Beach. The restaurant/bar moved to Delaware Route 1 in 2021 and closed for good in September 2023.

Rehoboth Beach restaurant ended its run after more than 40 years on Sept. 9. Two days earlier on Facebook, a posted message read: "It is with great sadness that we are announcing that The Pond will be closing."

Originally called The Frogg Pond Tavern, the late-night watering hole known for trivia and live music left its downtown location in 2021 after nearly four decades. It reopened at the former TGI Fridays property on Route 1.

Owners called the move a "difficult" decision but said they couldn't pass up the "fantastic opportunity" to occupy the corner space at Sea Coast Plaza.

"The reason for our move to Route 1 is a simple one: location," read a Nov. 16, 2020 post on The Pond's Facebook page. It lasted about two years.

Nutter's Sandwich Shoppe

Nutter's in Newark closed Wednesday after more than seven decades in business. The shop, a couple hundred feet from the Maryland border, was famous for its crab bisque.

The popular Newark sandwich shop at 1219 Nottingham Road, well-known for its crab bisque, closed in January after 70 years.

"No fanfare or farewell," one poster wrote on Facebook.

The family-owned shop had close to the same look for nearly seven decades, an easy-to-pass two-story white stucco building with about a half-dozen parking spaces.

Melvin and Viola Nutter built Nutter's in 1952, it was in the middle of fields of farm buildings. Before morphing into a sandwich shop, Nutter's in its early days specialized in groceries — fruits, vegetables, meats, cereal and canned goods.

A photo of Nutter's in Newark taken about 1970.

John Frazer, an industrial engineer at the former Newark Chrysler plant and Melvin and Viola's nephew, grew up in the store and helped run it after Melvin died in 1968. He eventually took ownership with his wife, Joy Frazer. Viola died in 1989.

The News Journal interviewed the Frazers in 1993 as they were deciding how to proceed with the business. At the time, Nutter's was already a 40-year-old establishment with regulars that didn't want to see anything change, including the loose knob on the front door.

"Everyone says they used to come in here as a child and they say it's exactly the same," Joy Frazer said then. "They ask if Mrs. Nutter is still here. And they remember when she would call their parents when they came in and tried to buy cigarettes."

In 1998, the Frazers sold Nutter's to their daughter Jill and her husband, Chris Grant.

The Little French Cafe of Newark

Cafe owner Martha Barrier, a former high school French teacher, said on her website the last day for the 2-year-old business at 64 E. Main St. in Newark was April 22. The cafe specialized in casual French cuisine.

The Little French Café of Newark opened in the summer of 2021. It had taken over the former site of Brewed Awakenings. The cafe was known for its crêpes, croissants, and ham and Gruyère sandwiches.

On April 2, Barrier, in a social media post, said she had decided to step away from running The Little French Cafe.

"As you can imagine, it has been a struggle to do well after the passing of my husband in October," she wrote. "The memories that have been created here will forever be a treasure to me."

The owners of Bing's Bakery took over the spot to open a second branch of Bing's Bake & Brew. This is the third business for Bing's in Newark.

Since December 2019, the Guzzi family has operated the flagship Bing's Bake & Brew at South Main Street and Amstel Avenue. They also operate the flagship Bing's Bake & Brew at 57 S. Main St.

Bertucci's

The Italian chain restaurant at 3610 Concord Pike near Talleyville permanently closed its doors.

In December 2022, Bertucci’s Restaurants LLC, the owner and operator of the Italian fast-casual restaurant chain, filed for bankruptcy, citing operating losses stemming from inflation and the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Bloomberg Law.

Boston Market

In August, Boston Market, which provided homestyle meals featuring their signature rotisserie chicken, closed at 1151 N. Dupont Highway in Dover.

The plaque near the front door listed the restaurant’s opening date as May 14, 1996.

Several other Boston Markets have closed in Delaware including at 1050 S. College Ave., Newark; 3603 Philadelphia Pike, Claymont; and 3900 Concord Pike, Talleyville.

Ryan Cormier, Shannon Marvel McNaught, Ben Mace, Krys'tal Griffin, Brandon Holveck and Matthew Korfhage contributed to this article. Contact Patricia Talorico at [email protected] or 302-324-2861 and follow her on X (Twitter) @pattytalorico Sign up for her Delaware Eats newsletter.