Massachusetts is losing a true old-school restaurant this month.
Carbone’s Restaurant in Hopkinton is set to close June 27, 2026, after 93 years in business, ending one of the state’s longest family-run dining stories. The closure comes as Massachusetts restaurants continue to face a wave of difficult goodbyes.
The restaurant at 280 Cedar Street (Route 85) — on the border of Southborough and Ashland — opened in 1933 as “The Good Fellows Club,” founded by Italian immigrants Ana and Cesare Carboni. The family name was later anglicized to “Carbone,” and the restaurant has stayed in the family for three generations. For longtime customers across MetroWest, it was the kind of restaurant that felt permanent.
The menu was built around classic Italian-American comfort food, including pasta, chicken, seafood and family recipes. But restaurants that last nearly a century are rarely beloved because of food alone. They become part of a town’s memory.
Customers remember family dinners, anniversary meals, birthdays, after-work stops and the comfort of knowing the same familiar place would still be there.
That is why the closing feels so significant.
Carbone’s is not simply shutting down because of one bad month. Co-owners and siblings Mary Ann Lorentzen and Peter Carbone are preparing to retire. This June 2026 closure also comes six years after the family first announced plans to close in 2020 — that earlier announcement was ultimately reversed as the restaurant kept going through the pandemic and beyond.
The town has also been deeply involved in what happens next. At its May 2 Annual Town Meeting, Hopkinton approved $1.8 million to purchase the 10.88-acre parcel where the restaurant sits. The town plans to demolish the restaurant building to build a drinking water pump station for a proposed Massachusetts Water Resources Authority connection through Southborough, along with a generator and parking area. Assistant Town Manager Lance DelPriore told the Hopkinton Independent that the town also intends to explore other beneficial uses for the remaining land.
That makes the goodbye feel like a transition, but also a clear ending — one that includes the building’s physical demolition.
Once a restaurant has been around since the 1930s, it becomes more than a business. It becomes a landmark. People pass it for decades. Families build traditions around it. Generations of employees and customers become part of the same story. Eleven years ago, a three-alarm fire ripped through a portion of Carbone’s, gutting its restrooms and lounge area, and the restaurant rebuilt and kept going. This time, there is no rebuilding.
Hopkinton is changing, and Carbone’s closing is part of that change.
For longtime diners, the loss is not just about one restaurant disappearing. It is about losing a place that carried history from one generation to the next.
Massachusetts has plenty of Italian restaurants. It has new restaurants opening all the time. But very few places can claim a 93-year run under one family’s name.
After June 27, Carbone’s will no longer be part of the state’s dining map.
For many customers, though, it will remain part of their family history.
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