Rare West Village Southwestern Gem the Banty Rooster Is Shutting Down

The Banty Rooster — one of a handful of New York City restaurants that showcase Southwestern cuisine — is closing next month, less than a year after it opened. A spokesperson for owner Delores Tronco-DePierro says that they weren’t able to come to a new agreement on rent in light of the coronavirus crisis.

The restaurant — which is currently open for outdoor dining — will serve its last meal on August 22. Tronco-DePierro, an acclaimed restaurateur from Denver, will return to the city after closing up in the West Village, and plans to reopen the Banty Rooster there sometime in the future.

Tronco-DePierro debuted the restaurant — located at 24 Greenwich Avenue, near West 10th Street — late last year, and brought on her husband, John DePierro, formerly a chef at places like Rebelle and Miss Ada, to lead the kitchen. The couple spotlit Southwestern fare like roasted delicata squash with pepitas, brown butter, and squash mole; New Mexican lard cookies called biscochitos, and fried dough called sopapillas. Eater critic Ryan Sutton raved about the dish in a visit to the restaurant earlier this year.

The Banty Rooster was one of the few — along with Santa Fe on the Upper West Side, Piquant in Prospect Heights, and Mojave in Astoria — to showcase Southwestern fare on its menu. Now, the couple plans to move back to Denver to focus on opening a restaurant there.

Before closing up in NYC, the Banty Rooster — which only recently reopened again following the coronavirus-related shutdown in March — will serve dinner outdoors from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m., Wednesday through Saturday. The Banty Rooster now joins dozens of restaurants across the city that have been forced to shutter due to the financial fallout from the pandemic.