Spanish-influenced landmark restaurant Local 188 and Salvage BBQ, two Congress Street venues owned by local restaurateur and chef Jay Villani, have closed, the latest in a cluster of Portland-area shutdowns in the past several weeks.

A sign on the door at Salvage BBQ indicates that it has closed. Photo by Peggy Grodinsky

Villani did not respond to multiple requests for confirmation or comment on the closures – which have been the subject of conversation and fond farewell messages in online forums for a week – and has not announced the shutterings on either venue’s website or social media accounts. But a sign posted in the Salvage window states succinctly that it has indeed closed for good, thanking patrons for more than a decade of business.

There was no such sign at Local 188 Monday, but the closure has been reported by local news outlets, including Portland Food Map and News Center Maine, which cite information from Villani and his staff.

Known for its creative tapas and other Spanish- and Mediterranean-influenced dishes, as well as its shabby chic, mix-and-match decor, Local 188 opened in 1999 at 188 State St. – the address accounting for the restaurant’s name – before moving to Congress Street in 2007.

Local 188 was originally conceived as an art gallery, serving tapas and wine to make it more of a gathering place. It soon came into its own as a restaurant, though the space still continued to feature a rotating display of artwork up until it closed.

Media reports and online farewell posts from patrons say that Local 188 has closed, though there were no notices on the Congress Street building or the restaurant’s website or social media accounts as of Monday afternoon. Photo by Peggy Grodinksy

Local 188 was among the highly-regarded city restaurants that helped Portland develop its world-class dining reputation starting around the turn of the millennium. In a four-star 2013 review, a Press Herald dining critic called her meal there “among the most interesting and satisfying in town.”

Earlier this year, Villani told the Press Herald that, since COVID, he had difficulty adequately staffing Local 188. Last fall, he hired his son Jackson “Sonny” Villani as chef de cuisine there. “I don’t want to tell him he saved his father’s business, but that’s the reality of it,” Jay Villani said in June.

Salvage BBQ opened in August 2013 at 919 Congress St., inspired by Villani’s 2012 food research trip sampling BBQ from North Carolina and Texas.

Citing financial challenges, Salvage went on hiatus for the first several months of 2024. “While the first three full winter months of every year have always been relatively slow in the local restaurant industry, over the last couple of years, the impact of inflation to the cost of goods, the labor shortage and subsequent wage increases, and the ongoing construction at Maine Medical Center have made the post-holiday season particularly challenging at Salvage BBQ,” the restaurant stated in a social media post at the time.

Salvage BBQ reopened in June with a renovated dining room and a new, expanded menu. Villani also co-owns Black Cow Burgers & Fries at 83 Exchange St., which opened in 2018.

Local 188 and Salvage BBQ join a growing list of more than eight Portland area restaurants that have announced closures this fall, including Yarmouth’s 48-year-old Muddy Rudder, the West End’s Ohno Cafe, Thistle & Grouse and The North Point in the Old Port, and downtown Chinese restaurant Golden Lotus.