Dumpling Darling, a restaurant in Iowa City that got its start in a stand at the farmers market in 2014, will officially close its doors in less than a week, December 19.

The news broke today via a post on the restaurant's Facebook page, stating that the impact of the last two years has been too much for it to keep up:

As many of you know, it has been a rough couple of years for the restaurant industry. Between the product shortages, labor shortages, the overall rising costs of doing business in the era of Covid, and general uncertainty of the economy, we have faced a great deal of challenges. Our workers have faced a great number of obstacles as well. Given these costs and challenges, we are afraid we cannot afford to serve you the same quality of food and service that we used to.

 

This decision wasn't an easy one but we know deep down it is the right thing. Operating under these current circumstances isn't serving our staff, our customers, or ourselves.

The restaurant is owned by Lesley Triplett, who first discovered dumplings when she was teaching English in South Korea. She came back to the states and began making them for friends and family and decided to open her own business.

The post added several thank yous to the community, previous employees, a best-of-luck message to other local business owners, and finished with this:

Please come see us for a final dumpling fix in the coming days and redeem those gift cards. We would love to see you.
It's not goodbye forever, but it’s goodbye for now. Maybe we will be seeing you again one day in a different format.
The best way to get in touch with us with us is via email at icdumplingdarling@gmail.com.
Thanks for the memories, Iowa City.

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