Malabar Farm Restaurant closes

LUCAS ― The Malabar Farm Restaurant has closed.

Andy Chow, media and outreach specialist at the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, said that on Aug. 1 the concessionaire for the Malabar Farm Restaurant notified ODNR via email he was forfeiting the lease and closing the restaurant.

"ODNR appreciates all the support from visitors over the years and is looking into options for the future. When a path forward is solidified, we will share it with public," Chow said Tuesday.

An email the News Journal obtained in a public records request was sent by concessionaire Daniel Bailey to Nicholas Hall of ODNR, who oversees concessionaires at the state parks for Ohio, on Aug. 1 saying, "To whom it may concern: I relinquish my lease with D.N.R. for The Malabar Farm Restaurant as I am unable to continue in business, sincerely Dan Bailey, concessionaire August 1st, 2023."

Daniel Bailey listed as sole concessionaire

The restaurant since 2021 was operated by Bailey and Jessica Hill, according to News Journal archives.

Chow said Bailey was listed as the sole concessionaire for the restaurant.

Bailey ran the restaurant at 3645 Pleasant Valley Road from 2006 to 2012. Torence Anderson was head chef. The house manager was Hill, president of the Mansfield United Lions Club and formerly a public relations representative at the 179th Airlift Wing of the Ohio Air National Guard.

Neither Bailey nor Hill could be reached for comment.

The Malabar Farm Restaurant was recently renovated.

Louis Bromfield envisioned Malabar Inn

According to ODNR, the late Pulitzer-prize winning author and conservationist Louis Bromfield, who lived nearby at what is now Malabar Farm State Park, hoped one day to open the then called Malabar Inn as a restaurant. The location was perfect: nestled in a wooded area, beside a running spring and the produce stand where Bromfield — and his movie star guests — would sell freshly grown fruits and vegetables.  He would not live to see that happen.

However, in the 1960s and 1970s, the Malabar Inn actually did operate as a restaurant. Run by Agnes Schwartz and Polly Kunkle Wurtz, the location became known for good local food. While the restaurant has been run by a number of different people over the years, that remains the same.

The big farmhouse, that Bromfield and many others saw as an ideal location for a restaurant, was built in the 1820s. It's rumored that the Malabar Inn operated as a stagecoach stop until the 1840s.  It should be noted that no comprehensive history of the stagecoach period in Ohio has been written. Still, there is evidence linking stage coach movements to the Mansfield/Richland County area. The mill traffic and the fresh water from a nearby spring would make the location a useful stop to rest horses on the way through the state, according to online information at ODNR.

lwhitmir@gannett.com

419-521-7223

Twitter: @LWhitmir

This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Operator of restaurant near Malabar Farm State Park says closing biz