Winnie’s, a landmark Manayunk restaurant, has closed again

Winnie’s Manayunk, one of the oldest restaurants on the Main Street strip, has apparently closed permanently amid legal problems, nearly a year after it briefly shut down during a dispute with staff over pay.

Owner Winnie Clowry, who had been affiliated with the diner-style restaurant for 31 years, removed the hanging sign early last week and posted a notice on the front door addressed to neighbors, reading, “Winnie’s Manayunk will be closed today. We apologize for any inconvenience.” She notified suppliers of the shutdown, and the restaurant remained closed Monday.

Clowry did not reply to messages seeking comment. One longtime friend said she did not wish to make an announcement but wanted Winnie’s to be remembered for the restaurant’s better years, when she was an advocate for Manayunk and the restaurant community at-large.

“My heart goes out to her as she is someone who the whole community knows and she did great things to help us,” said another friend, Brendan McGrew, who owns the Goat’s Beard, a nearby pub.

Clowry arrived at 4266 Main St. in 1994 to manage the restaurant, then called Le Bus, after serving as executive director of Le Bus’ commercial bakery in King of Prussia. She bought it from founder David Braverman in 2003, flagging it first Winnie’s Le Bus but keeping the theme. (In 2018, Braverman opened LeBus, a bistro, in East Falls, and the Manayunk restaurant became known simply as Winnie’s.)

In 2014, Clowry and her husband, Bob, opened a barbecue restaurant next door called Smokin’ John’s that had a four-year run. In early 2024, Clowry opened Main Street Market by Winnie’s two doors away, which also has closed.

Court cases filed this spring by her landlord seeking overdue rent and a media-relations agency alleging nonpayment, as well as state liens for overdue taxes, were just the latest woes for Clowry and the restaurants. Clowry’s business partner resigned in July 2024, her mother died that October, and on Christmas Day, her director of operations, Sean McGranaghan, died unexpectedly.

The restaurant’s bookkeeping apparently suffered, and in January, payroll checks bounced. One staffer posted about the issue on Facebook, prompting public scorn. On Jan. 24, as employees picketed the restaurant, Clowry announced the restaurant’s closure, but two weeks later she reopened and acknowledged that she had let the situation get out of hand. The former staffers said they had been made whole.