Michel Richard's Bistro Is Pretty Much Done

The Bistro at Villard Michel Richard, the subject of a devastating zero-star body slam by New York Times critic Pete Wells, has closed for lunch and dinner and is now only open for breakfast. This development follows the summertime shutter of Michel Richard's ultra-expensive Gallery, which this critic guillotined in a December review for Bloomberg News.

A spokesperson for the New York Palace Hotel in Midtown, where both restaurants are located, confirmed that the bistro is now only open for breakfast."Michel Richard and the New York Palace hotel team will continue their collaboration as they re-envision the restaurant's concept and next steps," said David Chase, the hotel's general manager, in a statement released to Eater.

So there you have it. Less than a year after Richard, Washington's most famous French chef, came to Manhattan to sell $34 lobster burgers and $185 tasting menus, his beleaguered space has been reduced to peddling $10 bowls of Frosted Flakes and $26 bagels with smoked salmon and cream cheese.

Richard isn't the only high-profile out-of-towner to have a rough go of it in The Big Apple. Both Joel Robuchon and Alain Ducasse shuttered their critically-acclaimed fine dining outposts in recent years, while Gordon Ramsay, whose namesake restaurant was stripped of its two Michelin-stars, has never commanded much respect among Manhattan's culinary cognoscenti. Still, few culinary figures have had to hit the pause button as quickly as Richard, a James Beard Award-winner who's earned acclaim for his work at the now-closed Citronelle in Georgetown, as well for Central, his duo of popular brasseries in Washington and Las Vegas.

Richard, in addition to his cold-cereal hawking breakfast bistro at the New York Palace, also runs Pomme Palais, a patisserie and cafe, in the same building.

All Michel Richard Coverage on Eater [~ENY~]