Oysterhead Tavern, formerly Moot Point Tavern and the Black Duck Cafe, has closed for the time being.

Co-owner Al Barbour says he and his partner Sarah Evans are continuing to operate The Black Duck Bakery next door, which offers grocery items, baked goods, coffee and takeout meals. But Barbour says the couple doesn’t have any plans for the cafe space next door.

“Plans are kind of useless at this point,” says Barbour. “We’ve been operating for 10 years, various café, bistro, bar type operations. But we’ve come to the point now where we just can’t hire anyone.”

Barbour says he and Evans have shifted their business to a state where they can mostly run the Black Duck Bakery as more of a “mom and pop” shop, as opposed to the bustling café they once ran. The café space does not fit into that scale of operation, however.

“It’ll be mothballed,” says Barbour. “We might do something with it for fun in the future but as for the time being, it’s just going to sit here, unfortunately.”

In addition to issues finding people to work in the café and tavern businesses, Barbour says there have been other problems “snowballing” and compounding each other. He cites the ongoing pandemic, high rates of inflation, and supply chain issues.

Barbour says the whole industry is hurting, and he put in a plug for ramping up support for local businesses, as soon as possible.

“If you’re a Sackville citizen and you have a restaurant or a small business that you like, now’s the time to support it,” says Barbour. “You just have to support it now.”

“Most people are just scraping by,” says Barbour, so, “putting something off for a week or two weeks, you may not see that restaurant again. You should support it, or small businesses, as much as you can, every day.”

Hear this story as reported on CHMA's Tantramar Report: