Popular Charlotte Restaurant Closing Its Doors

Another popular restaurant in Charlotte is closing its doors for good.

The Stanley, in the Elizabeth neighborhood of the Queen City, is shutting its doors at the end of the week, WCNC reports. The sudden closure was announced in a lengthy post on the restaurant's Facebook page on Sunday (May 8), with owner and chef Paul Verica confirming the news while adding that he's also taking a step back the culinary industry.

"For me, it has been a good ride — great and even magical at times — but for me it's time for this ride to come to an end," he wrote. "I have decided to sell The Stanley and to take a step back from cooking and the #cheflife that has consumed me for the last 3 decades."

The Stanley will be open throughout the week before finally closings doors on Friday (May 13).

Explaining his decision to step back, Verica said he "always told myself that when cooking and creating stopped being fun and became work, I would take a step back and reassess," adding, "that time is upon me."

After selling The Stanley, Verica plans to "re-energize" himself and seems optimistic about what his future holds.

"The world is wide open for me, and I plan on exploring it and weighing all my options to see what my next endeavor will be," he said. "There are so many concepts and ideas that I have wanted to explore and have not had the opportunity to do so until now. I am excited – for the next step, for my continued evolution as a chef and entrepreneur, for Paul 3.0."

Verica thanked his family, team members, and the community he served throughout the years before ending the post with a quote from North Carolina's own The Avett Brothers, which he said gave him his "theme song" nearly a decade ago: "There was a dream/ and one day I could see it./ Like a bird in a cage I broke in/ and demanded that somebody free it.../ Decide what to be and go be it."

Read Verica's full post below.