By TORY DENIS
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BELLOWS FALLS — After nearly five years, the Shona Grill, a restaurant in downtown Bellows Falls with a practice of creating fresh and locally sourced dishes, has permanently closed its doors.
The Shona Grill closed on March 3 due to owner Kim Bovill opting for a career change that will allow her to spend more time with her husband and their two boys.
Bovill left a heartfelt message on the restaurant’s voicemail expressing thanks to her clientele and adding a detailed explanation, should any customers call after the closing.
“It’s been great serving you and our community, and we look forward to our new adventures. It’s not a bad thing, it’s a good thing,” she said. “Sometimes when change happens, as bad as it feels, it’s actually something that’s pretty good, and you’ve just got to go with the flow.”
Bovill opened the independently owned restaurant in April 2013, after 26 years of working in the field of hospitality, including as a hospitality instructor at River Valley Technical Center. Many of her past students have worked at the Shona since its opening.
The restaurant served specialties and locally sourced grass-fed beef burgers, local organic sausages and eggs, and fresh produce and other local foods from Harlow’s Farms, Pete’s Farm Stand, Walpole Creamery, Black River Produce in Springfield, and several other local vendors and farmers. Diners also had the option for a “build your own menu” experience.
The restaurant also holds the Guinness World Record for Longest Running Team Barbeque event in Vermont, earning that designation during the Rockingham Old Home Days in 2015, with 34 hours at the grill, and in 2016 with 37 hours at the grill.
Bovill has gone back to teaching, and is now working with students part time at RVTC in Culinary Arts doing dining room management, is a Student Success Coach for Vermont Virtual, and will eventually be teaching Intro to Entrepreneurship to high school students.
Bovill recently updated the “About Us” page on Shona Grill’s website to share with former clientele a bit of information on where the staffers have since gone to.
Longtime staffer Nick Moll, who joined the staff a year after it opened in April 2014, was a two-time competitor for the Shone Grill’s forays into the world record for Longest Running Barbecue.
He helped the team earn that designation in both 2015 and 2016. Moll is currently finishing the construction of his home and interviewing.
Other staffers have moved on to new jobs, one as the executive housekeeper at an historic local inn, one to a law office, one to Florida, and several who are still seeking employment, Bovill shared on her website.
On the restaurant’s last day, March 3, staffers kept it open until 9 p.m. and sent out photos and open invitations via social media, offering all the chance to come down and dine on any of their favorites one last time.
Bovill said the restaurant space at 92 Rockingham St. is for sale and may be open to a new restaurant or to someone taking over the operations of the Shona.
“Bellows Falls is a great town with so many possibilities,” she said.
Anyone who would be interested in operating Shona Grill, or in opening their own restaurant at the location, can contact Bovill via email at [email protected].
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