Restaurateur Shot to Death Outside His UWS Lounge

The owner of Manhattan Brew & Vine died from gunshots outside his Upper West Side restaurant early Saturday. Damian Ramirez, 48, was leaving the restaurant around 12:40 a.m. when a gunman fatally shot him twice in the chest.

Ramirez reportedly tried to run before collapsing on the sidewalk on Columbus Avenue near 109th Street. He was then rushed to St. Luke’s Hospital, where he died.

Ramirez leaves behind five children and wife Myriam Ramirez, who left the restaurant just minutes before to head to their New Milford, New Jersey home. A cook called her after the shooting and told her to return.

“I thought he was joking. He said, ‘I’m serious. We don’t know what happened ... He’s on the floor outside,’” she told the Daily News.

The identity of the lone gunman, who was wearing a beige bubble jacket, is unknown, as is his motive. The Post reports that there have been “violent altercations” at the restaurant before that police have had to respond to, with one police source calling the restaurant “problematic.”

A neighborhood man told the Daily News that he was “shocked” and called Ramirez a “good man” who “worked his ass off.”

Manhattan Brew & Vine opened in August 2015 and focuses on food and drink pairings.

• Widow devastated after husband shot dead outside his Upper West Side lounge [NYDN]
• Restaurateur shot to death outside his Manhattan eatery [NYP]