The Pine Tavern Restaurant, a fixture of dining for many, many years, closes its doors as a public restaurant, effective Friday, August 20, but plans to continue as a special event operation as current owners Reed and Jane Embrey continue to search for buyers.

“This is not really a goodbye, because we will be able to see many of our guests when they are celebrating special occasions,” Embrey told The Floyd Press.

Embrey says the Pine has 11 special events — weddings, reunions and other such gatherings — on is calendar, but will not be open as a public service restaurant. Embrey, on Facebook, said he also hopes to book musical events at the Pavilion, which is adjacent to the restaurant.

The restaurant, on U.S. 222 north of Floyd, has had a number of owners over the years after opening in 1927.

They bought the Pine in 2004, shortly after previous owners shut it down, and ran it primarily as a weekend restaurant, open Thursday through Sundays for dinner and hosted shows featuring bands from time to time on its adjacent outdoor stage and pavilion. The hours were shortened to Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

They put the restaurant up for sale in May 2019 but the pandemic that struck seven months later struck its restaurant business hard and Emby says getting help for service has been a problem.

The “homestyle” menu at the Pine was like the Homeplace operation in Catawba, which announced earlier this year that it would not reopen after its closure during the pandemic.

The changes at the restaurant does not affect the operation of the Pine Tavern motel, which has separate owners.