The MCL Restaurant and Bakery on Wabash Avenue has closed.
A sign on the door of the restaurant, located at 2151 Wabash Ave., stated that the restaurant would be permanently closed as of Feb. 13. “Thank you all for the support over the years,” the sign reads.
A recording on the restaurants call-in menu line confirmed the sudden closing. “It is with a heavy heart that unfortunately I have to tell you that MCL will be permanently closed starting today, Feb. 13,” the voice message said. “I’ve come to know and love and respect a lot of you, and I want to tell you thank you for all that you are.”
The restaurant and bakery was part of the Indianapolis-based MCL Restaurant and Bakery chain. The Springfield location is no longer listed on the MCL website.
Patti Logsdon, a server and team lead who had worked at the Springfield MCL for almost 16 years, said the restaurant’s closing on Friday came as a surprise to the staff.
“I worked on Thursday, we all went home, then on Friday they called our general manager and told him, ‘As of now, you guys are permanently closed,’” Logsdon said. “It was definitely a shocker.”
The remaining MCL locations are in Indiana and Ohio. MCL was founded by Charles McGaughey in 1950 and is still owned and operated by the McGaughey family. Requests for comment to the corporate office were not returned by press time.