{"id":31654,"date":"2025-12-28T19:03:02","date_gmt":"2025-12-29T00:03:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/?p=31654"},"modified":"2025-12-28T19:03:03","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T00:03:03","slug":"health-issues-forcing-back-40-closing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/28\/health-issues-forcing-back-40-closing\/","title":{"rendered":"Health issues forcing Back 40 closing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By BOB SHRALUKA<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

WZBD.com<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI just can’t do it any longer, I just can’t,\u201d said John Ferrise, explaining why the Back 40 Junction restaurant, a Decatur icon, will go out of business after Wednesday, New Year’s Eve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

His health is forcing him to close the doors on the buildings which have been situated on the southwest corner of 13th St. and Washington St.\/Archbold Road since 1974 and have attracted a few million hungry visitors from numerous states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ferrise had a stroke in May and although he looks good physically, it’s brought on some problems which are forcing him to close the family business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe’re trying to sell,\u201d he said, \u201cbut right now I can’t say anything. We’re hoping…\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

John said that if a sale is completed, part of the deal will be that all currently outstanding gift certificates must be honored and any employees who wish to stay on must be retained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ferrise is in no way eager to leave. He has been working in the Back 40 for 27 years, having been initially employed by Azar’s, a longtime corporate owner who purchased the business from builder\/owner Clete Miller.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

John bought the business in 2020. His son, Nathan, is an employee.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By BOB SHRALUKA WZBD.com \u201cI just can’t do it any longer, I just can’t,\u201d said John Ferrise, explaining<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31656,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[14,15,21],"class_list":["post-31654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-decatur","tag-featured","tag-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wzbd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Back-40-front.jpg?fit=673%2C469&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31654"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31654\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31657,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31654\/revisions\/31657"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}