This is a continuation of a trend that's been going on the last several years...Running a single location restaurant, never mind multiple locations is a lot of hard work under the best of circumstances, not to mention during a time in the immediate aftermath of a worldwide pandemic with the associated economic upheavals that have ensued. Restaurant sales have been very uneven across the board and its little wonder that we're seeing retrenchments by many restauranteurs to a place where they can exert greater control over their business lives. I believe the closings of Hops Burger Bar and Crafted can be somewhat attributed to this state of affairs. The difficulty of operating multiple restaurants scattered over a few miles, let alone 30 miles away, is in many instances not worth it from a quality of life perspective on the part of an owner's personal life regardless if the restaurant is profitable. Freddy Lee being the exception locally...
The additional stress on downtown Winston's restaurants also included the shut down of what is now Salem Parkway (old Business 40) for many months only to have the opening of the freeway shanghaied by the Pandemic which commenced less than a year after reopening. Luckily, there are always people waiting in the wings to pick up the baton, as it were, to provide updated options for the downtown crowd. Probably little chance that they will have the restaurant remain focused on seafood, but that's what I would like to see.
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I do think the park and museum will make that area more attractive. We may have to wait a while for major change at these sites/buildings, though. 
