Kona Bistro Closes Down After 20 Years Of Business In Oxford, Ohio

BY MOLLY NICHOLAS
Miami University journalism student

After 20 years of business, the owners of Kona Bistro have closed their Oxford location at 31 W. High St.

Kona Bistro described their restaurant on Google as a “casual bistro serving eclectic American fare with many vegan options plus beer, wine and cocktails.”

A sign on the door announced the closing this week and thanked customers for their patronage. Brothers Tyler and Blake Jennings bought the business two years ago. Before that, Tom and Amy Elliot owned the business for 18 years.

The Jennings could not be reached for comment.

Alan Kyger, Oxford’s economic development director, has not spoken with them either, but offered his availability and assistance if they need help in the process.

“It’s been a great restaurant, a great asset to Oxford,” Kyger said Thursday. “We are definitely going to be sorry to see them go.”

Prime location sparks interest

High Street and the rest of the Uptown area are popular locations for businesses in Oxford, according to Jessica Greene, executive director of the Oxford Visitors Bureau. She thinks the vacant spot will not stay vacant for long.

“The uptown area is very popular and a lot of people want to be there, so I imagine that it will turn over quickly,” Greene said.

Kyger said he's already fielding inquiries. “Within hours of their closing, I had two different restaurant operators reach out to me about getting contact information for that location,” he said. "We will have another business in that location soon."

What will go there next?

Greene and Kyger both said it would be nice to have another sit-down restaurant like Kona Bistro open for business in the Uptown area.

But the city does not choose which businesses are going to open in town, according to Kyger. "If you have a business that’s permitted in a business district, you’re allowed to open it,” he said.

Because the High Street location housed a restaurant business for two decades, it has many of the amenities another restaurant owner would value, according to Kyger. It has a full restaurant kitchen -- including a hood, an expensive and necessary piece of kitchen equipment to ventilate the space while cooking.

"It would have been good to have Kona stay,” Kyger said, adding that "there are a multitude of decisions that go into closing a business. It is a very hard and difficult choice to make. Sometimes, things don’t work out, even with good people involved.”

Top photo: Kona Bistro provided a sit-down restaurant with American fare for 20 years to the Oxford area. -- Photo by Molly Nicholas