It’s empty now, but it’s anything but a white elephant. Last spring, owners Scott and Roxanne Bok unveiled their soup-to-nuts renovation and redecoration of the historic White Hart Inn on Salisbury’s Town Green at the junction of Routes 41 and 44.  While locals raved about the decor by designer Matthew Patrick Smyth of New York and Sharon, many were less than thrilled with the restaurant’s new, trendy menu and longed for the New England comfort food the inn had been known for. Indeed, the usually boosterish Lakeville Journal ran a vicious piece about the restaurant (and the Boks ran an ad the following week in that newspaper defending their new chef and his cooking.) Today, the Boks, who have had a weekend house in Salisbury for two decades,  abruptly shuttered the inn—the signs on the doors only said it was closed for the day— and they put it on the market for $5 million (Best & Cavallaro has the listing.) Scott Bok issued a press release today that explained why they decided not to keep the inn open while trying to sell it. “We have owned the inn for over 12 years. While much of that time was a pleasure, it was also a heavy responsibility and time commitment to oversee a 24 hour, 364 day a year enterprise, despite having a young family and a full-time job 100 miles away. Unfortunately, it would be impossible to retain staff and continue to operate while the property was for sale, so it seemed appropriate to close now as we enter the quieter winter season. The property is now fully renovated, in pristine condition and debt-free, ready to wait patiently for a new owner.

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