Magnolia Bistro announced Thursday morning on its Facebook page that it is “closing its doors in Burlington.” The restaurant at 1 Lawson Lane, which served breakfast and lunch, added that it is “actively seeking investors to lift us to a new city somewhere between South Burlington and Key West.”

The restaurant’s closing comes months after Magnolia owner Shannon Reilly posted profanity-laced comments on Facebook  about people with addiction issues and the city’s efforts to address the health issue.

"The junkies should detox or die," he wrote. "Sorry. So fuckin pathetic employing people spaced out on bupe. Fuckin useless. Let them die."

The comments elicited calls on social media to boycott the restaurant. Reilly later deleted the posts and he told Seven Days he regretted what he'd written.
Reilly, who opened the bistro in 2006, also had a long-running feud with the Burlington Farmers Market, which operates across the street from his restaurant in City Hall Park on summer and fall Saturdays.

The Burlington Free Press first reported the restaurant's closure.

A call to Magnolia Thursday morning returned a recorded message saying the number is "temporarily unavailable," and the café's door was locked. An attempted delivery notice dated September 4 was stuck in the door handle. The item, addressed to Reilly, was from Burlington law firm Gravel & Shea.