Longboards bites the dust on East Blvd.

In another round of the disappearing restaurants at Kenilworth Drive and East Blvd. saga, Longboards Tap and Taco is no more.

I learned of the closure Friday night, when I had arranged to meet some friends there after work. When we showed up - whoops, no Longboards. Even most of the furniture in the darkened building had been removed. No one answered the restaurant's phone on Monday.

The restaurant lasted for about six months, in a troubled spot that has now been Picasso's, Sutton House and Longboards in the mere three years I've lived in the neighborhood. So what's wrong with the location? Here's Charlotte Restaurant Traffic's take: 

"What went wrong? I don’t think you can open a restaurant in Charlotte without one parking space? Maybe you don’t need parking in New York City to run a successful restaurant but here you are dooming yourself to failure. Throw in Longboards mediocre food and you have a recipe for disaster. I drove by Longboards on Saturday and it looked like buzzards had picked the place clean, even the booths are gone. We give credit to groups that take it upon themselves to try to open restaurants and feel bad when they don’t make it. Longboards tried and failed."

While I agree with Charlotte Restaurant Traffic that the food was "meh," I'll miss Longboards' good, fairly-priced local beer selection. The atmosphere, while at times a bit loud and confusing, was also a step up over Longboards' predecessors.

So long, Longboards. We hardly knew ye.

What do you think could make it in that spot? Anything?

Bonus question: Do you think the huge mural on the side of the Longboards building should stay or go?

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