Nashville’s popular Vittles Restaurant is the latest casualty of the coronavirus pandemic. Owner John Craighead, who along with his wife, Jan, started both the Brentwood and Donelson location, first closed the Brentwood restaurant in May, hoping that by pouring all of their efforts into one location, they could find a way to salvage at least one restaurant. Unfortunately, with Nashville back to a modified Phase 2, after five months of dealing with the impact of COVID-19, John has made the painful decision to close both locations.

“They’re gone. Gone for good,” John told WSMV. “One day you had customers, and the next day you’re shut down pretty much. What do you do? If you don’t have customers, you don’t have a business … This is a hard business.”

Closing the Brentwood location was painful enough for the Craigheads, who spent two decades running one of the town’s most popular restaurants.

“I never thought it would end this way. It’s hard to believe it’s been twenty years. We hate to leave,” John told WKRN at the time. “It’s been a terrible time for us and the restaurant business that’s like us. We did a lot of sit down business and now it’s all gone, it’s gone … When nobody’s working there’s no business coming in and you can only survive for so long.”

John Rich, who owns Redneck Riviera in downtown Nashville, has been openly critical of the return to Phase 2, which prohibits bars that make most of their income from food from being open, and forced restaurants to return from 75 percent capacity back to 50 percent.

“Just so I’m clear,” John posted on social media. “1. The virus IS dangerous in a bar that serves food. 2. The virus is NOT dangerous in a restaurant that serves liquor. 3. The virus IS dangerous at a baseball game or in a church building. 4. The virus is NOT dangerous on a packed airplane. Got it.”