Julie and Kevin Casey, owners of Outpost Neighborhood Kitchen (Facebook | Website), announced on social media that they would be closing the College Park restaurant.
The Caseys opened the restaurant at 2603 Edgewater Drive [GMap] in March 2015, and we covered it HERE. They announced HERE in May 2019 that they would be moving their restaurant to a new home in the Maitland City Centre, with plans to stay in College Park right up until the moving date. Those plans were changed due to the pandemic but the Caseys still plan on opening their new location at a future date.
The College Park location will remain in operation through the week and close for business on Sunday, June 28.
Read their farewell post below.
“I’m not sure where to begin. Part of me is sad and frustrated because I never wanted it to end this way. This is not how I imagined it. But given the cards we’ve been dealt over the past 5 years, I AM proud. We accomplished things that people said weren’t possible. We survived with little, then no working a/c. We employed all sorts of people with all sorts of backgrounds including addicts and recovering addicts, giving each one of them multiple chances. We donated man hours and resources to over 30 groups, schools, athletics, and families in need. We screwed up, we learned, screwed up again, and learned more.
While these past several months caught this type-A, control freak totally off-guard and tested me more than I ever thought imaginable, I have to believe there will be good that comes out of it. We have an amazing support system in the many friends we have gained through former employees, restaurant colleagues, and guests that became more than just regulars; they became friends and members of our family. They have let us screw up and given us the chances to learn and become better. Without that as my foundation, I know that I would have a much harder time at success on this next adventure in Maitland.
Today I am asking one last favor: please come by this week between Tuesday, the 23rd and Sunday, the 28th. We’ll be open 3-9 Tuesday thru Friday and 10-3 on Saturday and Sunday. Come by and support my staff whom I now have to lay-off a second time. Come by and purchase our food so we can pay our small business suppliers. Come by and just say, “until next time.” We’d love to see as many friendly, mask-covered smiling faces as possible. I promise you that we are masked and taking every precaution possible including providing hand sanitizer and hyper cleaning surfaces all day long.
Lastly, I hope you will support my colleagues; owners and chefs of small restaurants as they continue to struggle to remain open. If you can’t financially support them, you can share their info on social media, call in words of encouragement, and urge others to dine at their establishments.
Until we meet again In Maitland sometime in August stay safe, stay in touch. Love you all so much for what you’ve done for me and my team. Thank you!
Edited post – just to be clear, we ARE still moving to Maitland. The City has been very supportive and we are under construction. I didn’t mean to be so vague in my “next adventure” statement. Hope to see y’all this week and soon in Maitland. Stay tuned and join us on the Outpost Maitland page on Facebook for updates.“
You should really delve into how poorly these owners have treated past employees. It’s astounding what you will find. There are so many people who have worked for them who were never paid their last paychecks. They have called the cops on past employees who have tried to come to the restaurant to get their last checks. They have burned so many people in the hospitality industry. They put on a good front and have fooled many people, but they are, unfortunately, very unprofessional and verbally abusive.