Gusanoz may continue to deliver to Dartmouth students from the Lebanon location, but there are several logistical challenges to consider, Yager said.
"We're delivering food with a certain shelf life when hot, and we don't want to deliver a poor product," he said. "The only way we will do delivery is if we can deliver a high quality product."
While the Hanover Gusanoz was able to relocate the majority of its employees, the restaurant may have lost its deliveryman, Jim Dubois. Dubois had become well-known among Dartmouth students, becoming "one of the faces of Gusanoz," Yager said.
"[Dubois] was offered the opportunity to come to Lebanon and continue to run delivery, but so far he has declined to deliver to Hanover out of a location that's more than 10 miles away," he said.
David Garczynski '12 said that while he will miss the food offered by Gusanoz, he will mostly "just miss Jim."
"It's weird to say that a deliveryman is such a part of someone's Dartmouth experience, but I think others would agree in saying he is a campus legend and deservingly so," Garczynski said.
Sujay Busam '14 praised the restaurant's "authentic" burritos and said he had been looking forward to eating at Gusanoz during the academic year.
Yager and his wife and co-owner, Maria Limon, opened Gusanoz in Lebanon in 2005 before opening the Hanover branch on Lebanon Street in 2008, Yager said.
"We initially opened up just as a taqueria that was all dine-in," he said.
The restaurant expanded to include delivery service which eventually became the main source of sales for the Hanover location in January 2009, according to Yager. Dartmouth students comprised the majority of delivery customers, he said.
Even after the restaurant implemented its delivery option, however, the Hanover location struggled to turn a profit, and the couple was forced to go into debt to keep the restaurant open in October 2008, he said.
"Throughout the years, we tried to figure out a way to boost sales when students were gone," Yager said. "Our latest effort was trying to fill the dine-in service by offering liquor and beer our intent was to have a complete bar in the restaurant."
The restaurant began selling alcohol at its indoor bar in May, when it also began offering new menu items and outdoor patio dining. Although the changes improved sales, the Hanover branch still failed to "break even," Yager said.
The restaurant's struggles are attributable to several factors, including the lack of student business during interim periods and a stagnant economic climate, according to Yager.
"The soft economy has been a factor for us and other businesses, but you cannot blame it all on that," he said.Yager cited Borders Group, Inc.'s declaration of bankruptcy in February 2011 as a "wake-up call" regarding the impact of operating a business in areas where consumption is limited and notoriously small in scale.
"Struggling locations bring down a company overall," he said. "Borders attempted to reorganize and eliminate struggling places, and in doing so realized they had to shut down the entire corporation."
The restaurant's Hanover location "bled the company" for the last three years, Yager said. The Hanover eatery generated only one-third of the business that the Lebanon site created, but required 50 to 60 percent of the owners' energy, according to Yager.
Merchants in Hanover have mixed feelings regarding the impact that Gusanoz' closure will have on other local businesses.
Everything But Anchovies President Maureen Bogosian said she does not anticipate a surge in sales at her restaurant.
"[Yager's] loyal clientele will just go to the other location because he has good food," Bogosian said. "People tend to go where they feel comfortable."
Bogosian said EBAs has also struggled with some of the economic challenges that the Gusanoz branch faced.
"We don't do the figures we did 10 years ago because of the economy," she said. "Everyone just has to work harder for less that's the way that all businesses work now."
Ben Williams, general manager of Molly's Restaurant, said he expects to see a small increase in profits.
"I would expect lunch business to increase a little bit," Williams said. "Business overall will probably increase a little bit, but not substantially."
The ice cream shop Carnival I Scream located in the same building as Gusanoz and also owned by Yager and Limon will remain open, Yager said.
