Oh, No! Finley’s Grill Has Closed, Casualty of Covid, Pandemic

Finley's Grill and Smokehouse is closing its West Main Street restaurant location immediately, a victim of falling sales due to the Covid pandemic.

From its Facebook post this morning,

To our valued guests,
We are sad to announce that due to the Covid-19 pandemic and declined sales we are permanently closing our Kalamazoo Finley's immediately. We appreciate all of your support for all of these years and sorry that we have to end this way. We are doing our best to offer positions to any employees who wish to continue with us at our Battle Creek location which will remain open and also continues to be our home base for all catering services. We will continue to service the Kalamazoo and southwest MI area with our catering services.

The restaurant, part of a chain headquartered in Grand Rapids, is it's second to close this year, due directly to the pandemic. Finley's closed it's Lansing location in May. The Facebook post says the Battle Creek location on Columbia Avenue will remain open, and that catering services for Kalamazoo and Battle Creek will continue to operate and be consolidated in Battle Creek. The post says Finley's is trying to offer positions to displaced workers in Battle Creek.

Finley started out as Mr. Steak, based in Colorado, in 1962. After a series of financial setbacks, the company was purchased from bankruptcy. The Michigan locations became Finley's American Grill in the early 1990's, then re-branded as Finley's Grill and Smokehouse some years later.