Longtime Restaurateur Tony May Is Getting Out of the Restaurant Business

Longtime New York restaurateur Tony May is selling his restaurant SD26 on 26th Street and getting out of the game, reports Flo Fab. May has been in the restaurant scene for 50 years, running the Rainbow Room for 22 of them. He opened San Domenico in 1988, closing it in 2008, and reopening it as SD26 in 2009. Restaurant consultant John Doherty, who previously worked as an executive chef at the Waldorf Astoria, is buying it for $1.125 million and plans to operate it as is for a bit before closing it this August for a remodeling and menu revamp that will skew American rustic.

May, who has spent the past year settling lawsuits with former employees over tipping and other issues, said he will lose $1.5 million in the sale and that his investors would lose $4 million. Still, the restaurant is producing capital. "I pay my bills," he told the Times. "I didn't have to close. Maybe if I were 40 years old I could handle all of this, but I'm 77."