Bobby Flay Shutters Bar Americain in Midtown Today

Bobby Flay’s Midtown West American bistro Bar Americain serves it last meals today. Eater New York reported back in the fall that the celebrity chef’s restaurant, known for its Kentucky hot brown, would be closing due to a new lease and “prohibitively costly” renovations. After lunch service on Wednesday, it will shutter forever, employees confirm.

Located at 152 W 52nd St., between 6th and 7th avenues, Bar Americain opened in 2005 and became a bit of a tourist destination due to its location and celebrity chef cred. Critic Sam Sifton at the Times gave the restaurant two stars in a 2010 review, noting that Bar Americain was “still quite on top of its game” five years after opening. In addition to the hot brown, the bistro served other straightforward American-style fare like shrimp and grits, lamb chops, and a rib-eye with steak sauce and fries.

Now, 13 years after Flay opened Bar Americain with Laurence Kretchmer, the restaurant will serve its last hot brown after the partners decided that the necessary upgrades weren’t worth the cost. “My partners and I were in agreement that in order to take on another long term commitment that would take us into the next decade or two, Bar Americain would need a full renovation that would be prohibitively costly,” Flay said in a statement upon the announcement of the closure.

A Mohegan Sun location of the restaurant remains open, and Flay still runs Gato in Noho.