As I reported last week, Dandelion Community Cafe had closed “until further notice” after a dispute with the owner caused staff members to attempt to form a union. Now, the owner, Chris Blanc, has announced that the closing is permanent.

“Due to a variety of factors outside of our control, including the heavy impact of COVID-19, Dandelion Community Cafe is permanently closed,” Blanc posted on the restaurant’s web page.

Dandelion – originally Dandelion Communitea Cafe – opened in March of 2006 by Blanc and then-partner Julie Norris. It was an early adopter of plant-based and vegan cuisine and was a local proponent of the slow food movement popular at the time.

The two business partners had a rather messy falling out in 2014 that ended, following mediation, with Blanc taking ownership.

The restaurant, on Thornton Avenue south of Colonial Drive, occupied a small bungalow that was built in 1925. The building was painted a bright green, perhaps as a nod to being named, in 2007, a “certified green business” by Co-op America (now Green America), a Washington, D.C., based nonprofit group that recognized businesses that “operate in ways that solve, rather than cause, both environmental and social problems.”