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Cerar talks about closure of Packinghouse, expansion of Barnstormer

Things haven’t been easy the past few months for a local restaurant owner, who said he was ready to start talking about those changes, and did so with us.

Kevin Cerar says it was solely financial reasons that led to the closures of both “The Packinghouse” in Galesburg and “Petey’s” in Monmouth, and he regrets having to lay off so many good employees.

But, Cerar tells WGIL, at least in terms of the closure of “The Packinghouse”, it wasn’t all bad — because it resulted in a good working relationship with building owner Jay Matson.

“Although things didn’t work out, him and I are still on good terms,” says Cerar. “He’s just a wonderful man, and a very smart man. I learned a lot just the short time I was at The Packinghouse. Him and I conversed a lot. I feel bad for letting him down. So, I just want to say, thank you, Jay.”

Cerar says if he had to guess, he hopes someone brings “The Packinghouse” back at some point soon. He calls the building the eatery was in, across from the Amtrak station and the Galesburg Railroad Museum, a “landmark building.”

Meantime, Cerar says while those decisions were difficult, he’s trying some expansion of sorts with “The Barnstormer.” Cerar tells WGIL he’s starting with some additional hours.

“I do plan on opening more lunches,” says Cerar. “We are only open for lunch on Tuesday. I plan on opening up Tuesday through Friday, and plan on putting up a huge, wonderful buffet for Sunday lunch.”

Cerar tells WGIL he was already open for lunch on Tuesdays, so why not do more. “My thought is expand that, put a nice lunch buffet out there, some healthy items, a little bit of healthy and a little bit of meat and potatoes, and try to get where people can enjoy it.”

The expanded hours will begin in November.

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