The chef’s whimsey from Stone Table could be ordered as including meat or vegetarian. Pictured is fried chicken over succotash and pesto goat cheese grits. Kristen Wile/UP

Stone Table, a locally sourced, chef-driven restaurant in downtown Monroe, has closed permanently. Owner Matthew Sganga says he and his wife, Mallory, had been considering life beyond the restaurant industry long before they were forced to close down their dining room due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Though he didn’t — and still doesn’t — know what his life might look like outside of the restaurant industry, the desire to focus on family kept him wondering what else might be out there. A spiritual person, Sganga felt the recent circumstances made this the right time to act on that feeling.

“As the pandemic hit and as the business began to change, and as the literal business began to dry up to a drip, it just became clear to us that this was the time to walk away,” he says. “Could we continue? Of course, somehow, some way, although our business basically disappeared. We were doing some curbside service, of course. But week by week, as the lockdown went on, the business dropped from 50 percent to 40 percent to 30 percent to 20 percent — it almost felt like watching an animal suffer. And it was time to put it out of its misery.”

Stone Table’s bare bones dining room was a contrast to the stellar, complex flavors of the food served there. Ingredients were fresh, and the food was as consistent as the smiles from friendly staff behind the counter. When I was at Charlotte magazine, I felt Stone Table deserved a spot on the magazine’s ranking of 50 Best Restaurants. At an event celebrating the honorees, there was a competition for best dish. Stone Table took the judges’ choice, with an inventive dish of pork belly on a donut. The flavors were remarkable, and Sganga’s creation beat out those from some of the city’s best chefs.

Now, Sganga says he’s figuring out the next steps for the space, but selling the restaurant to employees is on the table.

“In my heart, I would love for my employees to have it and for them to take it over and to do whatever they want to do with it, because it’s set up, it’s available,” he says. “It’s functioning on some level, and it could function on a better level once this is all over. So I guess that would be my greatest desire is just a kind of bless them with it.” —Kristen Wile