GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- A little over a week after a car plunged through a window, a restaurant on Grand Rapids' burgeoning West Side has shuttered.

Black Heron Kitchen & Bar, at 428 Bridge St. NW, announced the closure in a note left on its door: Due to unforeseen circumstances, Black Heron will be CLOSED until further notice. Thank you for your loyal patronage!"

Seth and Laura Porter, who opened the restaurant in 2015, haven't yet acknowledged Black Heron's recent closure on the restaurant's Facebook page.

They didn't immediately respond to a call or Facebook message from MLive and The Grand Rapids Press.

But Porter dashed any hopes the restaurant might reopen in a comment left on a Facebook post in the DrinkGR group.

"Black Heron, unfortunately, has closed its doors forever," he wrote.

Porter was responding to a thread about what happened to the restaurant that appeared to have closed its doors sometime around June 13.

Some questioned if June 3 crash brought about the closure, or if the demise was the result of increased West Side competition. Plywood still covers the broken window.

The restaurant was "pretty busy" before three new restaurants - New Holland Brewing's Knickerbocker, Sovengard and Butcher's Union - opened in the last year.

"Was the accident a death knell? They seemed pretty empty compared to all the new places along Bridge Street the last few months," wrote one person on the thread.

Black Heron's menu was praised by some on the thread:

"Omg!! Where will I EVER get chicken and waffles like that again! I'll never find that again...I'm dying on the inside!," wrote one restaurant fan.

The Porters wanted to bring an "upscale" option to the West Side when they opened the restaurant two years ago. The restaurant's seasonal New American cuisine menu, developed by chef Dave vanderLaan, featured a variety of Michigan-sourced ingredients alongside a wide selection of Michigan microbrews, ciders and spirits.

Items such as perogi, handmade biala kielbasa and chorizo sausage were inspired by the West Side's Polish and Mexican communities, the owners said.

"We wanted to showcase the great things Michigan was doing, but we wanted to do it in our neighborhood," Seth Porter told MLive and The Grand Rapids Press in 2015.



The Porters spent a year remodeling the building, owned by businessman and former City Commissioner Walt Gutowski. The restaurant originally was constructed as a car dealership in 1930 and the building has housed automobile repair and several coffee shops over the years.

Gutowski didn't immediately respond to a call from MLive about the restaurant's closure.

The Porters designed the restaurant interior with neutral tones and minimal decor. The tables were constructed out of wood found above the drop ceiling during renovations. Floor-to-ceiling windows wrap around a 2,500-square-foot dining room and L-shaped bar with seating for 99 people.



It was the first business venture for the couple, who took jobs in the restaurant industry to learn the business prior to launch.



He worked in banking and she was employed in health care before opening the Black Heron, but food and drink long have been a shared passion. The two have traveled the state and co-written the Michigan Beer Blog since 2010.



They picked the moniker, Black Heron, because it pulled together thematic elements of the restaurant. The heron is a native bird and porter is a dark beer style popular in Michigan.



"I felt like this is really something would fit in well with where the neighborhood is going," Laura Porter told MLive. "It's something the neighborhood is missing."

Garret Ellison contributed to this report.