A Lehigh Valley restaurant has closed after over 90 years of family operation following its owner\u2019s death.<\/p>\n
Ashley\u2019s Signature Restaurant announced Monday it will be closed until further notice<\/a> at 229 N. 11th St. in Easton, just over a week after it announced the death of owner Melinda Watson<\/a>.<\/p>\n Monday would have been Watson\u2019s 70th birthday, according to the announcement.<\/p>\n \u201cWe truly thank you, our customers, staff, and family, for the support over the decades and for your understanding as we process and heal from this deep loss to our community,\u201d Watson\u2019s daughter Ashley said in the announcement.<\/p>\n When the restaurant announced Watson\u2019s death earlier this month, it described her as the \u201cheart\u201d of the restaurant.<\/p>\n \u201cShe made this place feel like a home, because to her, you were all family,\u201d that announcement said. \u201cMelinda poured her love into every detail of this restaurant, but more importantly into every person who walked through our doors. Her warmth, her laughter and her generous spirit touched \u2026 countless lives and a legacy she leaves behind is immeasurable. We are grieving deeply, but we are also grateful. We are grateful for the years we had with her, for the community she built, and for each of you who made this dream of hers come alive.\u201d<\/p>\n Ashley\u2019s, which couldn\u2019t immediately be reached for comment Tuesday, has been family-owned and operated since 1935, its website said<\/a>. Watson took over from her mother in 1976<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Lehigh Valley restaurant has closed after over 90 years of family operation following its owner\u2019s death. Ashley\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":122133,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,60,182,435,436,289,432],"class_list":["post-122132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-business","tag-local-news","tag-restaurants-food-and-drink","tag-retail","tag-things-to-do","tag-top-stories-tmc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}