Popular downtown Bellingham restaurant Carnal announces closing date
The owners of Carnal, the downtown Bellingham restaurant that was listed for sale last month, recently announced a closing date.
The popular restaurant known for its live-fire cooking, steaks, sourdough pizza nights and pasta, will close permanently in November, according to a Sept. 24 social media post.
“Last service at Carnal: November 1st. We arrived in Bellingham in January 2020, unaware a global pandemic was coming. It was an unconventional choice for our dream restaurant — one we’d spent five years manifesting as a pop-up from our apartment. We left New York with a few suitcases and empty bank accounts, yet optimistic because we felt we’d finally made it. What happened next is hard to summarize in less than a short story, one I’ll write someday,” the post states.
“We don’t give up easily. We never have. And to all the staff who did that with me, I’ll never forget you. We turned that empty pandemic restaurant into a truly special place — a dream come true. It taught us how to survive in ways we never thought possible. For our future endeavors, this knowledge and experience is invaluable.”
Co-owner, Skip Williamson announced the restaurant was listed for sale in August in order to pursue a line of meat stick snacks.
“After five amazing years and more than 130,000 guests, we’ve decided to put the Carnal restaurant space up for sale so we can focus on expanding our premium meat snack line — born in our kitchen — to a nationwide audience,” Carnal co-owner Skip Williamson told The Herald last month. “We’ll be taking Carnal’s food program on the road with pop-ups and residencies in Austin, New York and Los Angeles, while making sure the space here gets passed to the right next owner.
Although no announcements have been made about the sale, Carnal plans to say goodbye Nov. 1.
“Let’s fill the reservations this last month and go out with a bang. Thank you to everyone — staff, guests, friends, family — who believed in us, sat at our tables, worked alongside us, and helped us persevere,” the Sept. 24 Facebook post states.
The owners’ other Bellingham restaurant, Accomplice, will remain open “into the new year and beyond,” the social media post states.
Carnal is open regularly from 5 to 8 p.m. Monday and Tuesday, and 5 to 9 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday at 1234 N State St. in downtown Bellingham.
