Owner Says the Red Barn in Augusta Closing Through the Holidays

Laura Benedict and her crew at The Red Barn in Augusta, Maine, are well-known for their great meals as well as generosity to their customers and the community.

They have a long wonderful history of hosting countless charity events over the years bringing the tally of donations for neighbors in need to over $1 million and counting.

The popular restaurant received national attention when "The NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt" brought the story of her miraculous work to with a moving segment back in 2016.

The NBC News crew visited the Red Barn during a fundraiser for Honor Flight Maine. That great organization allows veterans to visit national monuments in Washington, DC for free.

We all know that this year has been super challenging for restaurants with places cutting back on hours of operation or closing temporarily and too many shutting the doors for good.

Laura has unsurprisingly gone above and beyond since reopening last May. She started back with take-out only. As the weather got warmer, outside dining became an option.

Last month, The Red Barn announced a new outside seating option to help protect her customers, in particular her senior patrons from the cold.

Now that Covid 19 numbers are increasing more and more each day, Laura has the very difficult choice to close The Red Barn through the holidays.

She wants to ensure the safety of her customers and explains her hard decision from the heart in this video post over the weekend on Facebook. Laura Benedict speaks directly to us with news that The Red Barn will close on November 22. She hopes to reopen in the new year.

I'm proud to say that I attended Cony High School with Laura in the 1980's. I remember her super-friendly smiling face in the halls. She continues to light the world today.

I wish her and her team nothing but the best and I am confident that her radiant positivity will prevail through anything that might befall us.