Nearly two weeks after announcing its closure, Propagate Social House will reopen sometime before this weekend, one of its owners said Monday.  

“It’ll definitely be before the weekend,” Propagate co-owner Ella Duke said in a phone interview. “There’s a lot that goes into reopening after you’ve been closed for 10 days. So, we’re just trying to get everything figured out.” 

The restaurant’s closure was due to issues with construction work behind the building, necessitating a 10-day shutdown to ensure safety and fix the issues.  

“There was just some issues with some work being done behind our buildings, not related to us,” Duke said. “I mean, that’s it. It caused some issues for us. And we closed to make sure that it was safe for us to open… Health wasn’t going to be compromised.” 

She said updates will be available on Propagate’s social media channels. 

“We are very active on social media, and we will definitely be making announcement very soon, letting the public know,” she said. “We’ll update our Google page—right now it says that we’re temporarily closed, but, in the meantime, we used all of the downtime to do a lot of cleaning in and around the property, updated some of the things that we have been wanting to update, just to continue to be a nice, attractive, cozy place for people to come and enjoy coffee and cocktails and stuff like that.” 

Propagate Social House at the Fifth Street Plaza in July 2021, in downtown Apopka. The restaurant’s popularity gained traction in the community with its special coffee, wine, cocktails, its menu, and variety of house plants for purchase.  

Propagate also became known for its outdoor patio and deck, a venue for social events and live performances, and for operating the Friday night farmer’s market on Fifth Street.  

In May, Propagate conducted a soft opening of Hall’s on Fifth, Apopka’s first food hall, in the edifice across the street that once was the historic Hall’s Pet Feed Store.  

Propagate Social House announced its closing “for the foreseeable future” in a June 28 post on its Facebook page.  

“This photo was taken the day we opened Propagate … we look a little more tired these days [laughing emoji],” Propagate Social House wrote in the June 28 Facebook post. “Unexpected challenges hit us hard yesterday. We’ve got a few things to sort out, so Propagate will be closed for the foreseeable future, while we figure some stuff out. We will be back!” 

In the announcement, Propagate co-owners thanked the community for its support as the fourth anniversary of the restaurant’s opening approaches. The post also urged people to stop by Hall’s on Fifth, located across the street from Propagate.  

The announcement of Propagate’s temporary closure shocked and disappointed Facebook users, who said that they will miss the restaurant and acknowledged its role in boosting the downtown area including Fifth Street.