K&W Cafeteria closes in Cameron Village, ending an era for the Raleigh restaurant
For decades, Raleigh’s Cameron Village has evolved with the ebbs and flows of tastes and trends, but one restaurant always endured: K&W Cafeteria.
That run has now come to an end.
The Cameron Village K&W Cafeteria has closed, saying goodbye with a farewell note taped to its glass front door. The Raleigh eatery is one of four to close in North Carolina. Other locations in Chapel Hill, Goldsboro and Salisbury also are closing, according to the company’s website.
The notes on the doors at Cameron Village and Chapel Hill have the same message, announcing the closing in bold, capitalized letters.
“To our valued customers, we have greatly appreciated your patronage over the years and apologize for the inconvenience,” the note reads, while directing diners to other locations.
That leaves only one K&W Cafeteria in the Triangle, with the Bastion Lane location in Raleigh still open.
A source of stability and nostalgia
The Winston-Salem-based K&W Cafeteria opened a location in Cameron Village in 1968, where it has remained for more than 50 years as one of Raleigh’s most popular restaurants, despite never being accused of being trendy. The restaurant moved into its current location in 1993, and the Chapel Hill location opened in 2001.
A trip through the line at K&W meant going on a choose-your-own adventure of meat and three, a source of stability and nostalgia that always ended in dessert.
The COVID-19 pandemic has upended the nation’s restaurant industry, with buffets and cafeterias finding themselves particularly at odds with an era of takeout and social distancing.
At the height of the coronavirus restrictions in North Carolina, K&W Cafeteria president Dax Allred said business dropped by 80%. As North Carolina moved into Phase 2 of its reopening plan, Allred said there were some gains, but that significant struggles remained, including the fact that the restaurant’s largest customer base is older diners who are more susceptible to the virus.
“While the coronavirus hasn’t left any segment untouched, we’re particularly impacted, as our clientele is trending towards the elderly,” Allred said. “There’s been a disproportionate impact on that guest demographic.”
The decision between preserving Cameron Village and Bastion Lane came down to sales, Allred said. The Bastion Lane location saw more customers returning to the dining room.
“It’s really a simple matter of guest traffic,” Allred said. “The recovery at Bastion Lane has been greater than Cameron Village. It came down to guest counts, and guests were coming back at a faster rate.”
‘Difficult decisions’
Allred said there are now 18 K&W Cafeterias and that the closings were hard, forced by the coronavirus pandemic.
“These were difficult decisions, but they were the right business decisions,” Allred said. “This enables us to refocus our team and refocus our resources on our 18 locations.”
K&W was approved for Paycheck Protection Program funds between $5 million and $10 million, according to the Small Business Administration database. That range puts K&W Cafeterias among the highest PPP recipients in North Carolina, reportedly preserving 500 jobs at the time of the loan’s approval.
Allred said without the PPP funds, K&W would have seen closings during North Carolina’s Phase 1, at the start of the pandemic.
“It absolutely helped,” Allred said of PPP funds. “The PPP funds allowed K&W to survive Phase 1 of the shutdown and continue operating. Without the funds we would not have survived to Phase 2.”
This story was originally published August 26, 2020 at 12:41 PM with the headline "K&W Cafeteria closes in Cameron Village, ending an era for the Raleigh restaurant."
