All Three Payard Bakery Locations Shutter

All three New York City bakeries originally opened by renowned pastry chef François Payard have closed, parent company MARC confirmed. The bakery — which had locations in Soho, Battery Park City, and Midtown — had remained open after Payard suddenly resigned as its executive chef in 2016.

MARC said in a statement that it’s “assessing and reconfiguring its U.S. businesses.”

The company, run by London-based restaurateur Marlon Abela, hasn’t had a good go as of late. It also ran two NYC locations of Italian fine dining restaurant A Voce, both of which have closed. The Columbus Circle location, once helmed by pasta star Missy Robbins, shuttered after a messy battle with the landlord that revealed financial decline. In London, a Financial Times piece found last week that a slew of Abela’s businesses are suffering financially too, with reports of unpaid suppliers and tax issues.

Payard’s bakeries, around in New York for close to decade, were well-known for French pastries — launched into acclaim by its former executive chef, who used to work at fine dining institutions like Daniel and Le Bernardin. Payard never said why he resigned in 2016, though it happened as MARC was going through a bankruptcy case.

Blog BatteryPark.TV first spotted the closure.