Should Kingfish Cafe go out of business forever?
  • Kelly O
  • Should Kingfish Cafe go out of business forever?

After ordering a glass of vinho verde (one of the best refreshments in the world) and "Fries with Eyes" (fried smelt served like french fries) at the bar of the Coastal Kitchen, I was recognized by an old friend. She had been out of town for much of the previous decade, she now had a family, and she and her friend, who sat next to her at the bar, were kind of bummed because a plan to eat at Kingfish Cafe, which was three days from closing its doors, was undone by a very long waiting list. They had arrived at the place pretty early, around 6 p.m.; nevertheless, there was no opening until 9 p.m. (It was now 8 p.m.) "We decided to give up. It's just too late for us at this point. But if you or any of your friends would like our reservation at Kingfish, it's under Gina. Party of two," she said. I informed her that my plans for the evening were very simple: eating the fish fries (I particularly love the acridity of their heads—tiny eyes, brains, mouths) and drinking the wine from Portugal. A little latter, she posted the offer on Facebook.

There are some of you out there who surely can recall, and not without a mental chuckle, a small African shop that used to be on Broadway. This business was unique in only one way: It constantly claimed it was going out of business, that it was about to close its doors, that it only had one week of life left in it. But it never actually did die. I think this went on for at least two years—and possibly even longer. And it seemed to work just fine as a business model. One could imagine the frightening drop in sales that might have occurred when no announcement of the store's eminent closing was made. Now, considering the great number of people who, like my friend, rushed to enjoy a last meal at Kingfish Cafe last weekend (it closed this Sunday), its owners might consider taking that one page from the African shop's book. If it's good for business to go out of business, it's not a bad idea to keep going out of business, week after week. The end could go on without end.