New Bedford's Buttonwood Park Zoo Announces Café Closing

NEW BEDFORD (WBSM) — The Bear’s Den Café at the Buttonwood Park Zoo in New Bedford will be closing after this weekend until further notice, the zoo announced today, just a month after it opened for the season under new operators.

The Bear’s Den Café is located within the zoo, and offers up food and snacks for sale daily from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Zoo admission is required to visit the café.

At noon today, the Buttonwood Park Zoo posted to its social media that the Bear’s Den Café was closing on May 1 for the foreseeable future.

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“Dear members and valued guests, Bear's Den Café will be closed effective Monday, May 1, 2023, until further notice. We apologize for the inconvenience this will cause,” the zoo posted. “While visiting BPZOO, you can purchase a snack or drink at the North Woods Gift Store. Please watch our social media pages and bpzoo.org for updates on the cafe's reopening. Thank you for your patience and understanding.”

In March, the zoo announced that Two Sisters would handle day-to-day operations of the Bear’s Den Café when it opened for the season on April 1, and that it would also be utilizing the kitchen space for the company’s catering operations.

“The zoo has been offering the café for many years and we were looking for something different and new,” Buttonwood Executive Director Sarah Henry told Fun 107’s Maddie Levine back in March. "Our director of finance had been driving by the Two Sisters sign in Dartmouth and suggested we reach out to them. They came in for February vacation and we were very impressed with their operation. They are amazing.”

At the time, Two Sisters owner and operator Caitlyn Fontes told Levine the plan was to offer new items like cacoila and other Portuguese options while also offering up kid-friendly favorites like pizza and chicken fingers.

WBSM reached out to both Buttonwood Park Zoo and Two Sisters Catering, but had not received a response as of this writing. The last Facebook post from Two Sisters was on April 23, stating the Bear's Den was closed that day due to inclement weather.

We will update this story if more information is provided.

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