Barrio, a restaurant and tequila bar that brought some badly needed life back to St. Paul’s Mears Park in 2009, called it quits on Friday in Lowertown.

A printed sign posted within the door says: “Barrio Lowertown has closed. Our last day was September sixth. … Come visit us in Minneapolis or Edina. … Thanks for 15 great years in St. Paul!”

The St. Paul location isn’t any longer advertised on Barrio’s website, which lists three Barrio venues: Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis, fiftieth Street and France Avenue in Edina and Terminal 2 at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

The restaurant, which offered sidewalk seating facing Mears Park, maintained a large bar contained in the historic Railroader Printer constructing at 229 E. Sixth St., which can be home to the Bulldog-Lowertown restaurant and bar.

Several restaurants situated across the park closed or relocated in the course of the pandemic, including the short-lived Big Biscuit Bar, Public Kitchen & Bar, Noyes & Cutler, the Octo Fishbar and the Handsome Hog, which moved to the corner of Selby and Western avenues in 2020.

World of Beer on Sibley Street closed in 2019. Saint Dinette, positioned a few block off of Mears Park on Fifth Street, has announced it can likely close in March 2025.