{"id":48088,"date":"2021-03-08T18:32:53","date_gmt":"2021-03-09T01:32:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bayfield-restaurant-and-coffee-shop-calls-it-quits\/"},"modified":"2021-03-09T01:32:53","modified_gmt":"2021-03-09T01:32:53","slug":"bayfield-restaurant-and-coffee-shop-calls-it-quits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bayfield-restaurant-and-coffee-shop-calls-it-quits\/","title":{"rendered":"Bayfield restaurant and coffee shop calls it quits"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Tim
Tim and Kellie Lillyquist have permanently closed the Tuning Fork restaurant in downtown Bayfield.<\/span>Shannon Mullane\/Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The Tuning Fork Cafe, Bayfield\u2019s only downtown coffee shop, has closed for good.<\/p>\n

The owners, Tim and Kellie Lillyquist, put the restaurant and coffee shop up for sale in August 2019, hoping to find a buyer who would maintain its atmosphere by January 2020. They continued running the Tuning Fork, located on Mill Street, through the first year of the coronavirus pandemic before finally deciding to hang up their spatulas.<\/p>\n

Efforts to reach the Lillyquists for comment were unsuccessful.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve talked with Tim and Kellie a lot about their reasons for moving on,\u201d said Ashleigh Tarkington, town mayor and owner of the Billy Goat Saloon. \u201cIt\u2019s the end of an era for them. \u2026 They\u2019re just ready for a change. It was time.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2019, the couple said they were interested in selling to reset their work-life balance, connect with their family and invest time in their interests, such as music and art.<\/p>\n

Tarkington said the closure was not related to the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact public health restrictions meant to slow the spread have had on businesses.<\/p>\n

The Tuning Fork opened in 2012 and became a hub for meetings, a shared workspace, a stopping point for tourists and a gathering place for the community.<\/p>\n

The cafe served breakfast and lunch in addition to a wide selection of cafe items. It accrued a large base of regulars, including the \u201cBreakfast Club,\u201d a group of guys ages 50 and older. Staff members knew regular customers\u2019 orders by heart, and the regulars knew every ingredient in their favorite dishes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was a total regular,\u201d Tarkington said. \u201cIt was one of my favorite places in Bayfield.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jackie Morlan, who operates an Airbnb across the street from the Tuning Fork, said it was often a favorite of her guests.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been the go-to place for me,\u201d Morlan said. \u201cIt was a place that attracted people of all sorts of backgrounds. \u2026 It gave people a reason to come to Mill Street.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tarkington said it is not yet clear what will replace Tuning Fork on Bayfield\u2019s downtown strip, Mill Street.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so protective of our little Mill Street, and I want it to be a vibrant part of our town,\u201d Tarkington said. \u201cI do know somebody else is going to be in there, so I have faith that it will create \u2026 a bustle of activity.\u201d<\/p>\n

smullane@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cafe opened in 2012 and became a hub for meetings, community gatherings<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48089,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[731,431,29,1231,450],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-48088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-bayfield","tag-business-general","tag-newsletter","tag-pine-river-times","tag-restaurant-and-catering"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48088\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48088"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=48088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}