Lombardi’s to close next month

Geeky Swedes Ballard

On October 9th, the 23-year-old Lombardi’s restaurant on Market Street will close its doors for good.

The news was announced today on the restaurant’s blog. Owner Diane Symms says that her daughter will take over the restaurant business, keeping the two other Lombardi’s locations, in Issaquah and Everett, open, but the Ballard location will close.

From the blog:

Symms made the decision to close the Ballard Lombardi’s after being approached by another local entrepreneur. She can’t reveal much about the transaction but said the new owner has deep roots in the Seattle restaurant community. The new restaurant will be a “gastro pub” and expects to be open in early December. Details on the new restaurant will be announced by its owner in the coming weeks.

Before closing in Ballard, restaurant-goers can enjoy the “infamous” Lombardi’s Garlic Festival with garlic creations from appetizers to ice cream. On September 25th, there will be a special musical performance by the Voices of Seattle, a local Jazz/R&B group.

Stay tuned for more information on the “gastro pub” that will replace Lombardi’s. (Thanks @toddbishop and @Carlman03 for the tip via Twitter.)

Geeky Swedes

The founders of My Ballard

77 thoughts to “Lombardi’s to close next month”

  2. NNNOOOOOO!!!!!!!

    Sigghh……oh well. Man, I’ve enjoyed that place since my twenties. Never have been disppointed. I’ll miss them!

    Meanwhile, hopefully “gastropub” (wikipedia, here I come) will not be a pretentious and awful as I fear, and it will be nice to have Tom Douglas finally in Ballard. Thats my guess, anyway.

    Crud

  5. Darn — It’s been a comfortable, quiet standby for years. What the heck is a gastropub? Beer and over-expensive noshes, I’m guessing.

  7. from Wiki: A gastropub is a pub/bar that serves a higher standard of food than your typical pub grub or bar food. This concept got its start in the UK but has been speading ever since and is gaining traction in major US cities such as New York. The gastropub was also used in a recent episode of Kitchen Nightmares in which Gordon Ramsey converted a US restaurant into a gastropub.

  9. I hate to be one of the negative ones, but I don’t care for beer, and I’ll bet “gastropub” means “expensive” pub. Dang it, I wanted to love the idea of TD coming here!

  10. I wish the new place well (and the Lombardi’s folks, too), but the description “gastro pub” has got to go. As far as I’m concerned, “gastro” is short for gastroenteritis.

  14. It definitely is Tom Douglas – I have heard him say in public on several occasions that he was planning on opening a gastropub (those exact words) in Ballard.

  17. Gotta laugh, you could serve sliced cardboard with ketchup on it and some of those old Scandos in there would never have known the difference.

    Vote yes on Tom Douglas.

  20. The Harvey’s rumor is totally legit. I bumped into Audrey and John at the 4 B’s a few weeks back and they could hardly contain their excitement at having found a new home after such a long hiatus from stuffed bunny rabbits and golfball-sized sausages on huge, thick pies. The only thing that could possibly muck it up is if those fucking Burke-Gilman bike advocates try to get a trail to run through the center of the building. That’s no worse than what they want now down past Fred Meyer. Good thing my truck has a sturdy grill. I’m a CEO!

  23. oh give it a rest. you act as if the bike trail wants to use anything but public property that some d-bags want to use as parking for their business.

    is that truck comment a threat? you’re a disgusting person if it is.

  25. Meh. I’ve had mixed experiences at Lombardi’s over the years, but I’m sorry to see yet another longtime Ballard institution go, and yet one more neo-Belltown enclave stuck in its place.

    All we get now are bars. Oh yeah, that’s exactly what Ballard needs, another bar. Yeah, Lombardi’s serves drinks, along with their food. Sounds like the new place will flip that relationship – you go there to drink, and maybe grab a bite on the side. Just what we need.

    A sincere question (OK, I’m a fool to ask here…): how many bars does Ballard really need? Or how many bars are good, and how many are too many? Even if you love having one bar after another, could there ever be a point at which there were too many bars? What if EVERY business in Ballard was a bar? Would that be too many?

    RIP Lombardis.

  26. With your golfball-sized sausages diet you should consider more bike rides. It will do y0u a world of good. Try the Burke-Gilman trail – it’s great.

  28. Maria, Why do you hate life so much? And why do you hate bars Briarrose? are you so far past your prime that when u walk in the dudes mistake you for the cleaning lady?

  29. While I too am sad to see another Ballard Institution leave, I won’t mourn the loss of Lombardi’s. Had a friend crack a tooth during a meal there, and another time a vegetarian friend found bacon in the minestrone. Bacon in minestrone? Really?

  31. What the heck is your problem? If I am riding on the missing link and you and your truck try to do anything with your grill, you will be toast!
    And that is just restaurant talk to you.
    It is time to get over this BG issue and complete the trail making Ballard a safer place to live. And lets have more bars and restaurants.
    And evict all the bigots, opinionated idiots and people with their heads in the sand.

  32. I put bacon in my lentil soup. It’s delicious. I’ve had good minestrone made with beef and/or beef broth. (And a lot of really bad minestrone made both with and without meat products.)
    Was your friend told that the minestrone was vegetarian, or did she just assume? Never hurts to ask.

  38. We thrice tried Lombardi’s and it thrice sucked! The last time, my wife even ordered by simply asking for their best dish! I hope it’s a Tom Douglas gastropub!!!! Fancy comfort food? Love it.

  43. In fact, I can physically feel the garlic wind shooting out of the vent, and I’m not especially tall.

    I’ve always wondered if there’s a law requiring that flu exhausts aim upward so as not to hit people at street level. (Seattle’s other worst offender: the South Lake Union Whole Foods, whose kitchen exhaust shoots directly and powerfully at the bus stop outside on Denny Way.)

  44. Yah, you’re right TheOtherT, never hurts to ask! I think he was in shock ’cause it wasn’t like how they made it “back home”. I know my nonna made hers w/o bacon, probably did have beef stock, but sadly she’s gone and so is her recipe, so we’ll never know. Sure was delicious though.

  46. Say what you will about Lomardi’s. They have a darn good happy hour, with a decent happy hour menu, and bartenders who knew how to make a perfect Gibson.

  47. What’s the big deal with Douglas!? I can’t believe Seattleites have gulped the kool aide on this guy! Soooo overrated… especially Serious Pie…. Serious Pretentious!!!

  50. Can’t say I’m sorry to see Lombardi’s close. They’ve been coasting for years. Stopped in a few months back to give ’em another chance and they showed their colors again. Happy Hour sign said discount on all drinks; not true; they wouldn’t discount their premimum draft beer AND my wife’s drink was so watered it was laughable. Guess if you are in your 50s and don’t look like the type to complain the young bartenders don’t mind a dishonest pour. The food wasn’t bad though but not enough to overome the negatives. In all fairness, the food was much better 20 years ago, and they served fresh pasta then.

    Pasta Bella is 10x the Italian restaurant that Lombardi’s claims to be and they serve garlic too.

  55. My thoughts exactly. He had looked at the old Market Street Grill location, I heard, but…this spot is better! Keep the fingers crossed!

  57. Gotta laugh, you could serve cardboard with anything on it and these whimpsters/ wannabe gourmets would buy it if the place is trendy and look like every other place in Seattle these days.

  58. They can’t even keep their seafood / meats properly stored at the right temperature. I am surprised they have stayed open this long.

  59. you could server cardboard with anything on it and BR would jump on it if you sold it at a discount! then she’d eat it in the warm glow of her computer screen while she mumbled about people being trendy and not making their own decisions.

  63. We have lived in Ballard since 1983. I used to really like Lombardi’s, we would go there for Sunday brunch and it was good even though the waiters were kinda snotty. We also enjoyed going for lunch and having minestrone soup & dinner salad.
    Obviously since we have moved here, dining options have increased in the area. Lombardis unfortunately did not take the challenge to improve service/food, but increased prices for mediocre options with the same snotty service.

    I don’t know if we need yet another ” gastro pub”, I would like more full restaurant options for families- kids do eat other things besides hamburgers.

  64. Can’t we be civilized here? What is with all this hate? Somebody hates bicyclists and wants to run them down, another person hates bars because there are too many and he doesn’t like beer, somebody else puts down Tom Douglas, who is a local hero as far as I am concerned. (Remember the fireworks and the other local things he does). Get a life, people.

  69. How can you possibly think a gastro pub can replace you? Shame on you for giving up the ship in Ballard!! — Remember when it really used to be a cool little community to hang out in? Not so much anymore…..

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