Whistle Stop closes abruptly, leaving mall without a restaurant

The Whistle Stop restaurant has gone out of business, becoming the second Lincoln restaurant since May to close its doors.

Customers who stopped by on Monday morning were greeted with signs scrawled on small white paper bags taped to the doors saying “Closed — Thanks for the Memories” and “Closed — 08/04/04–7/16/16  — Thank You Lincoln.”

As she was leaving church on Sunday, July 17 (a day when the Whistle Stop would normally be closed), resident Sara Mattes noticed owner Brian Mehigan inside the restaurant. He told her that he was indeed closing and that it had been “a labor of love for a number of years and a lot of fun” but that he was “tired.”

Mehigan, a Stow resident, could not be reached for comment on Monday.

The Whistle Stop property, like the rest of the Mall at Lincoln Station, is owned by the Rural Land Foundation (RLF). Mehigan was “not current on his rent,” RLF Executive Director Geoff McGean said on Monday, adding that he did not know anything about his tenant’s financial situation. “We were not aware of Brian’s intention to leave until Saturday,” he said.

Several weeks ago, Mehigan was served with a notice to correct sanitation code violations or be forced to close after an inspection by Assistant Public Health Director Stanley Sosnicki. Mehigan corrected the problems shortly thereafter and appeared before the Lincoln Board of Health on June 15, where board members told him he was required to take a food safety course and submit to more frequent inspections. It is not known whether this incident played any role in the Whistle Stop’s closing, however.

Mehigan bought the business in 2004 from Steve Flood, who had operated it for 12 years prior to that, McGean said. It became a social magnet for those seeking a cup of coffee, sandwich and a chat, and many of Mehigan’s regular customers helped him celebrate the fifth anniversary of his ownership in 2009. Middle-school students from the Lincoln School often walked there on Wednesdays (a half-day at school) to grab lunch, socialize and be greeted by Donk, Mehigan’s dog who hung around the outdoor tables around the restaurant.

In 2004, some Whistle Stop regulars pitched in to help a homeless family acquire and move furniture, and Mehigan contributed lunch for the gang, according to a Lincoln Journal article.

Lincoln resident Richard Card is hoping to open Blazes, a combination restaurant, cocktail bar and bookstore, in the former Aka Bistro space, but a lease agreement with RLF has not yet been finalized, Card said on Monday.

As word spread on Monday morning of the Whistle Stop’s demise, residents on the LincolnTalk email list mourned the loss and mused about the reason. Some expressed the hope that the restaurant would be replaced by a business that served high-quality coffee, even as others speculated that the South Lincoln shopping area does not attract enough customers to sustain many businesses. Over the years, the mall’s tenants have included a hardware store and a flower shop, while the red building adjacent to the railroad station once housed a pharmacy.