News for places to eat across the United States was bad enough when Yelp published an economic report on the effect last June that revealed that, as of June 15, more than 57,000 indexed eaters had closed permanently since the start of the coronavirus. Pandemic. Things have only gotten worse since then. Between mid-June and July 10, permanent check-ins for places to eat increased to 72,842, according to new figures just released in Yelp’s Average Report for the quarter 2020.
“Restaurants now represent the largest total number of business closures, exceeding retail rates,” according to Restaurant Dive, an industry bulletin. He adds: “Unlike retail, food stall closures fluctuated from March to July, depending on the disparate and changing mandates that have been established locally.” There is no doubt that food stalls are at the top of the list of small businesses that need assistance most during the COVID-19 crisis.
In the early days of the pandemic, food service analysts predicted that giant chains have a better chance of surviving closures and capacity constraints than independent ones.
This didn’t necessarily turn out to be the case. Le Pain Quotidien has closed 63 of its 98 American restaurants. The Sweet Tomatoes / Souplantation 97-unit buffet chain has permanent darkness. TGI Friday’s can close up to 20% of its 386 locations.
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However, the crisis has also particularly affected restaurants of other kinds: local staples that have been in business for generations, bright new places with famous customers, restaurants run by famous chefs. In fact, coronavirus has already charged many restaurants through culinary celebrities such as Wolfgang Puck, José Andrés, David Chang, Daniel Boulud, Charlie Palmer and the late Paul Prudhomme.
While Tempo 24/7 continues to monitor the disappearance of restaurants across the country, we have combined a special list of notable (and unfortunate) closures in approximately 15 states and the country’s capital. These are iconic restaurants with committed followings, illustrious stories and featured names. (For a longer list, covering a wider variety of locations, check out the latest edition of our 50 popular restaurants that you might not reopen after the pandemic.)
California: Biba Restaurant
Location: Sacramento
Born in Bologna, Biba Caggiano intensified the restaurant scene in the Californian capital when she opened the place for lunch 33 years ago. Caggiano, who has become one of the best-selling cookbooks and a culinary television personality, died last August and, according to reports, his family circle had trouble managing the place to eat before the crisis.
A signed through The husband and daughters of Caggiano on the Biba online page announced that “our last day was Friday, May 8, 2020,” explaining that “our beloved network of places to eat has closed and with the uncertainty of what the long term holds, we can’t wait for this storm.”
California: Hakkasan
Location: San Francisco
There are 11 other outposts in the chain: 3 more in the United States, two in London and one in five other cities in Asia and the Middle East. Hakkasan in Shanghai, the chain’s own operation in China itself, has also closed its doors in reaction to the effects of coronavirus on companies.
California: Louis
Location: San Francisco
An icon of San Francisco’s place to eat that opened in 1937 over the remains of the historic 1894 public swimming complex called Sutro Baths, Louis is no longer. Homeowners, grandchildren of original homeowners, posted a message on the place’s Facebook page to eat in mid-July, in which the component “After long deliberations and many tears, after 83 years of uninterrupted activity … to shut down our business forever.”
California: Pacific car
Location: Santa Monica
The original Pacific dining car in downtown Los Angeles, founded in 1921 and probably the city’s best-known steakhouse, created this location on the west side in 1990. Serving 24 hours a day until the coronavirus was blocked, it was thought to be an essential component of Santa Monica. The owners claim that the mix of the pandemic crisis and the curfews imposed by the recent protests has made the reopening of the dining room unsustainable.
The contents of the stall (kitchen equipment, table decorations, furniture and paintings) were added in June.
Colorado: Street Café
Location: Denver
After 74 years in business under 3 generations of the Okuno family, this local status quo for breakfast and lunch has stopped working. The post has survived “crazy turns and economic recessions,” current owners Rod and Karen Okuno wrote on the restaurant’s website, “but it has proven to be second to none for our little corner of the world.”
Georgia: Anne and Bill’s
Location: Forest Park
After 46 years in business in this Atlanta suburb, Anne and Bill’s, known for its meat menu and 3 (several meats served with a variety of looky dishes), their homemade breakfasts and desserts, went bankrupt. A from the dining room in mid-May said that “our sales have fallen so much that we can no longer operate.” It has also closed a location for the time being in McDonough, southeast of Forest Park.
Illinois: blackbird
Location: Chicago
This much-loved place to eat in the West Loop, hailed by the Chicago Tribune as “one of Chicago’s largest eateries,” was opened 22 years ago through Paul Kahan, who has since been one of the city’s best-known restaurant chefs. (His other places come with With, Public, and Big Star.) Blackbird’s intimate length and design made social estrangement impossible, and the place to eat advertised on its online page that “we’ve taken the hard resolution of closing our doors.”
Illinois: rice
Location: Chicago
This well-known place to eat that offers Portuguese-Chinese fusion cuisine from Macau (and having won a Bib Gourmand score from the Michelin Guide, which means “smart quality cuisine, smart value”) suspended catering in April. Instead, he became, supposedly permanently, Super Fat Rice Mart, promoting special groceries and food kits.
In June, however, this operation was halted indefinitely, not by COVID-19, but by allegations of former workers of abusive behavior and racist comments through co-owner Abe Conlon.
Illinois: Katana
Location: Chicago
A branch of a luxury Japanese restaurant in Los Angeles with a famous clientele opened in Chicago 3 years ago, and specializes in arts sushi offerings and high-end wagyu meat cooked with coal imported from Japan. The owner of the Katana group announced in mid-May that it would not reopen. A location in Dubai has also closed its doors.
Louisiana: K-Paul Louisiana cuisine
Location: New Orleans
However, after several closures and reopenings by previous coronavirus this year, they issued a July thirteen “lamenting the permanent closure of K-Paul’s Louisiana Kitchen.” Miller explained to NOLA.com that “the company has bled through this, and you can’t bleed as much before you have to prevent it.”
Maine: Uncle Andy’s dinner
Location: Portland
Location: Boston
Uncle Andy opened in 1954, a strong local reputation for the comforting dinner classics, adding traditional pancakes, which current owner Dennis Fogg would turn into dinosaurs or flowers to attract his younger guests.
The place to eat was suffering even before the virus arrived, it was the subject of a makeover on the Food Network screen “Restaurant Impossible”, but, as Fogg explained to the Portland Press-Herald, “we have been able to survive, we still can’t now.”
Massachusetts: Bar Boulud
Renowned French restaurateur Daniel Boulud announced in mid-June that it was his only definitive status quo in Boston, located at the Mandarin Oriental Boston hotel. One official reported that the restaurant, which opened in 2014, was a victim of the pandemic, which had a “negative effect on the business.”
Massachusetts: Craigie Burger
Location: Boston
While specializing in tasting menus of fashionable and imaginative American dishes, Chef Tony Maws’ Craigie on Main at Cambridge has been awarded for his epic burger, of which only 18 were ready every night. Last year, Maws capitalized on his fame by opening Craigie Burger at the new Time Out Market Boston in Fenway. The temporarily closed Craigie Burger will not reopen, according to Maws and its partners. For them, the lack of Red Sox games in Fenway Park and the absence of academics from several nearby schools would make reliving the business too risky.
Maws told the Boston Globe that the concept would eventually return and that the burger is still on Craigie on Main’s takeaway menu.
Massachusetts: the day’s
Location: Cambridge
Top Chef finalist Carl Dooley announced in early May that the 20-seat fixed-price dining place he ran, a component of the Season to Taste catering operation, was permanently closed. Season to Taste owner Robert Harris restructured his restaurant business and introduced a takeaway and delivery logo called Season to Go, but felt the place to eat disappear. “[It’s] the sad, harsh truth that the groups I and I have had to face,” he said in a press release.
Michigan: Markovski Family Circle Restaurant
Location: Dearborn Heights
Location: Minneapolis
When Reiko Weston opened Fuji Ya in 1959, it was the first Japanese food stall in Minnesota. It has evolved and spawned ramifications. Weston died in 1988, and two years later, the post closed its doors, until his daughter brought him back to life in 1997. The food stall closed temporarily in early May, but at the end of this month, its online page carried the message: “Thank you for your support! Unfortunately, we are at our door.”
New York: Aquagrill
Location: New York
Add this 24-year-old SoHo seafood food place to the list of institutions that had temporarily closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but have now made the decision to make the closure permanent. “Aquagrill doesn’t continue to work despite the harmful effects of coronavirus on public places to eat,” it reads on the place’s website to eat.
Location: New York
Palmer will eventually open an on-site steakhouse, with fewer seats to meet social estrangement requirements, and left open the option to open a smaller Aureole elsewhere later. For a moment, Aureole’s site at the Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas remains temporarily closed, but on its online page it says “our priority is to reopen.”
New York: Gotham Bar and Grill
Location: New York
Gotham, one of the most notorious and durable places to eat that permanently closed to the pandemic, resisted the departure last year of chef Alfred Portale, who had been on the kitchen pace for 34 years (started in 1985, a year after the open lunch spot). The new leader, Victoria Blamey, has won promising reviews. Then came the pandemic here.
In announcing the closing resolution in mid-March, Gotham issued an explanation that “the unforeseen scenario created by the coronavirus has made the dining room function unsustainable.”
New York: Jewel Bako
Location: New York
A sign in the window of this Michelin-starred sushi bar near Cooper Square in Manhattan, which was displayed in mid-May, announced an “open space sale” of kitchen utensils, appliances and equipment, as well as “cheap” wine. “In 2018, jewel Bako’s owners opened a chef’s counter next door called Ukiyo Restaurant, which also won a Michelin star. A on Ukiyo’s online page officially announced that both institutions were permanently closed.
New York: Lucky Strike
Location: New York
Opened in 1989 through the famous Keith McNally, a rich place to eat in Manhattan, this SoHo bistro first provided takeaway and delivery facilities when food was banned on site, as in many other places. He stopped doing so at the end of March, before giving a ruling in April that he would not reopen. The restaurateur blamed the “owner clinging to lockdown syndrome” for the closure. McNally, whose other places to eat include the well-known Balthazar and Minetta Tavern, was hospitalized in London with COVID-19 in early April.
New York: Momofuku Nishi
Location: New York
David Chang, the restorative chef whose Momofuku empire has been a major influence on the American food scene. He opened the status quo in 2016 on an Italian-Korean theme, and reformulated it with a more purely Italian menu the following year. It never took off like some of his other positions, as early as mid-May, his corporation announced in his “return to general is not an option,” so the position will not reopen. Chang also plans to move his popular Ssum Bar from the East Village to South Street Seaport, where he has another restaurant.
New York: Toro
Boston’s famous restaurateurs, Ken Oringer and Jamie Bissonnette, have permanently closed the once bustling location of this Manhattan tapas restaurant, which opened in 2013. The original Boston restaurant and a Dubai location are still in operation. “Toro NYC has come to the end of our journey,” reads on the place’s Instagram page to eat, “and the staff won’t have a place to eat at home to return to the end of this pandemic.”
Oregon: Pok Pok
Location: Portland
James Beard Award-winning chef and restaurateur Andy Ricker, whose organization of Pok Pok dining venues specializes in Northern Thai and Vietnam cuisine, announced on Instagram in mid-June that it was the last 4 of its six locations in Portland. First, it was reported that closed dining spots would come with Pok Pok NW, Whisky Soda Lounge and two Pok Pok Wing outposts. The original Pok Pok would reopen, it was said, and a third Pok Pok Wing could also come back to life. Currently, however, the Pok Pok online page states that “All Pok Pok Eating Places are closed for on-site service,” adding that ready food kits and food can be picked up in the company commissioner’s kitchen.
Pennsylvania: Ritz barbecue
Location: Allentown
Described by the Morning Call as “an iconic place to eat in Allentown where generations of families gathered for a barbecue, split bananas, smoothies and more,” the Ritz was born at a fairground established in 1927 and moved to its existing site 10 years later. Existing owners Jeff and Grace Stinner, who took office in 1981, announced in mid-June that they would not reopen. Although the place to eat has been on sale since 2019, Grace told the Morning Appeal that the pandemic is to blame for her recent decision. “We tried to stay open until someone else takes over,” he said, “but now it’s not feasible.”
South Carolina: Jestine kitchen
Location: Charleston
A major tourist charm for 24 years, Jestine is named after Jestine Matthews, the African-American housekeeper and cook hired through the white circle of relatives who founded the post (Matthews died in 1997 at the age of 112). He recently criticized it as “the last position to eat in Charleston to brarockaneously capitalize on the narrative of black servitude,” in the words of The Post and Courier. After its reopening on May 20, the food stall announced in mid-June that it would permanently stop operations due to the “rapid start of the terrifying pandemic.”
South Carolina: McCrady’s
Known for the cutting-edge tasting menus presented through celebrity chef Sean Brock (left in 2018), McCrady’s will not return to service even after the restrictions have been lifted. David Howard, president of Neighborhood Dining Group, owner of the restaurant, issued a saying on the component that “we have come to the difficult resolution that McCrady’sArray … will no longer be viable in this replaced business environment.” The group’s Mexican restaurant, Minero, on McCrady’s apartment also closed permanently, but the Atlanta site has reopened, with restrictions in place, and is expected to open a new location on John’s Island, southwest of Charleston, later this summer.
Texas: sixty
Location: Dallas
The elegant Asian restaurant of celebrity restaurateur Wolfgang Puck in the most sensible Dallas Reunion Tower, which opened in 2009, no longer exists. A press release attributed its demise to the “scheduled improvements” of the area “mixed with the chronology unknown by coronavirus”. Puck’s staying in a recovery operation in Dallas.
Location: Dallas
Known for its zucchini muffins, fried bird steak, homemade cakes and other prepared meals, this network favorite, opened in 1925, will not reopen. Addressing your customers, one on the restaurant’s online page said, “We would love to have a farewell opportunity to honor you and our unwavering employees, but due to existing restrictions, we will not be able to do so.” The left opened the option that the position could be revived in the future, adding: “Then, without making promises, but who knows? Zucchini muffins may come back someday!”
Texas: Threadgill’s
Location: Austin
Opened as a fuel station and beer bar in 1933, this Austin establishment has become a leading concert hall, luminaries such as Janis Joplin and Jerry Lee Lewis, and then a place to eat in 1981 after a new owner bought it. Threadgill generated a location for the time being in 1996, but closed in 2018, and now the original Threadgill has also closed its doors. The venue will be auctioned on August 8.
Washington: Trattoria Cuoco
Seattle’s prolific restaurateur, Tom Douglas, temporarily closed 12 of his thirteen local institutions in mid-March due to coronavirus problems. He has now announced that he will not reopen this, a popular pasta spot in one of Amazon’s buildings in the South Lake Union neighborhood. You will also close your Brave Horse Tavern in the same complex. “Many points have influenced determination,” he said in a statement, “but in the end, it’s the right choice for our company.”
Washington, D.C.: America Eats Tavern through José Andrés
Location: Washington, D.C.
The traveling and humanitarian chef-restaurateur José Andrés opened the first America Eats in 2011 as a pop-up in his Café Atlonico to coincide with an Exhibition of American cuisine titled “What’s Cooking, Uncle Sam?” National Archives. He moved from there to the suburb of Tysons Corner, Virginia, and then, two years ago, to Georgetown. In late June, a post on the restaurant’s Facebook page announced that “we won’t reopen in our current home, we look forward to review this concept in the future.”
Washington, D.C.: Momofuku CCDC
Location: Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.: The Source
Location: Washington, D.C.
After thirteen years of activity, these are the curtains of Wolfgang Puck’s first place to eat in the country’s capital. (Maintains a branch that he then entered from his CUT steakhouse at the City’s Rosewood hotel).) A trendy Asian restaurant in the basement of what was once the Newseum, a establishment committed to journalism and the First Final that closed in late 2019: the fountain is now permanently closed.
Wisconsin: le Eating Place Schreiner
Location: Lake Bottom
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