Downtown Sacramento's Blackbird Kitchen And Bar Closes In The Dead Of Night
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — Blackbird Kitchen And Bar is the latest Sacramento restaurant to close its doors.
Out of nowhere, employees were sent an email informing them that the owner had unexpectedly turned off the burners for good in the restaurant that would typically be bustling with young professionals and couples.
There may be no closed sign on the door, and the website may allow you to make reservations, but Blackbird has shut down.
No one seems to know why Carina Lampkin, the owner of the 9th Street hot spot, told her employees she would close for good.
This comes just days after the restaurant participated in last weekend's Farm to Fork Dinner on the Tower Bridge.
CBS13 reached the property owner by phone. Even she didn't know why Blackbird closed its doors, but she said she didn't increase the rent on the restaurant.
Fellow business owners in downtown Sacramento like Warren Anapolsky know just how hard it is to survive.
"Cost of doing business today is expensive," the owner of California Loan and Jewelry said. "Labor was probably hard and high at times. It probably just got to be too much. It is very sad, because she did a great job."
With the help of friends, and pouring her own money into the labor of love, the granddaughter of the founder of USA Today is considered a visionary.
"She didn't give life to just the building, but the whole block," said Valerie Mamone-Werder, the business development director in downtown. "People wanted to be around her. Businesses wanted to be across the street from Blackbird, down the street from Blackbird."
Lampkin was also in a serious car crash in 2006, so it's not known if the long hours were too physically taxing.
