Downtown Andover lost another high-end restaurant, with the permanent closing of Smythe & Dove/Dakota Bar at 89 Main Street.
A sign dated Jan. 1 that had said the restaurant would be closed for two weeks has been removed and signage has been removed from the property. The restaurant’s Website and Facebook page have also been removed.
The owner’s of LaFina, another high-end downtown restaurant, have reportedly taken over the space and plan to convert it into a sports bar that would open sometime in mid-2023.
Andover News has asked Smythe & Dove owner Marcus Palmer for comment.
Palmer’s company, Farmers Row Hospitality Inc., which is listed in state business filings as the general partner for Smythe & Dove LP, received a $225,000 loan in April 2020 from the federal Paycheck Protection Program that Congress passed during the coronavirus pandemic. The loan and $1,708 in interest were forgiven in February 2021.
The 140-seat restaurant opened in the spring of 2019 — on the heels of the 2018 Merrimack Valley gas explosions and a year before the coronavirus pandemic brought the restaurant industry to a halt. The restaurant demolished the site of the former Andover Bookstore, which moved to 74 Main Street in August 2017, to build the current space.
Photo: Smythe & Dove