The Palm Owners Foolishly Destroyed Their Beloved Cartoon Murals

The management of 89-year-old steakhouse The Palm has released a statement addressing the closure of the restaurant and the sale of the building. Apparently, the group could not support two restaurants directly across the street from each other due to the "demographics and zoning ordinances of New York City." So the owners decided to keep Palm Too and close the original, because the older building needed more upkeep and saving it would have been "an uneconomical choice."

As feared, the cartoon murals that graced its walls are totally gone. The owners explain: "The beloved hand painted caricatures were housed on walls made of plaster, which made it impossible to remove the caricatures for preservation purposes. Photos and videos have been taken of the famous walls prior to the sale for our internal preservation purposes." The murals were only one part of the equation, though. The space itself had countless historical details that cannot be replicated or replaced — including the tiny bar in the back, the worn-in booths, the ancient fixtures, and the warped staircase that connected the first and second floors.

New York just lost one of its all-time greatest restaurant spaces.