Tribeca Wine Bar Racines Shuts Down After Seven Years — And More Closings

More than one year after New York’s first indoor dining shutdown, restaurants and bars continue to close their doors. At least 1,000 have closed since March 2020 due to the economic downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Due to the difficulty of tracking restaurant and bar closings right now, experts say that number could be even higher, and will likely take months or even years to assess.

Among them are newer neighborhood favorites like Uncle Boons and MeMe’s diner, along with decades-old institutions including 21 Club, Fedora, and Frank’s Cocktail Lounge. Below, Eater is documenting the city’s permanent restaurant closures so far. If a restaurant or bar has closed in your neighborhood, let us know at tips@eater.com. This post will be updated regularly.

July 30

East Village: Short-lived coffee shop Brooklyn Bean Roastery has vacated its spot in the neighborhood, EVGrieve reports. Owner Khaled Abdelhaleem originally opened the cafe in February 2020, just before the citywide shutdown. It stayed open for takeout throughout last year.

Tribeca: Seven-year-old Tribeca wine bar Racines is closing its doors on July 30. Chef Diego Moya, the fourth chef to take over Racines’ kitchen, is stepping away in order to spend time with his newborn child, Grub Street reports. The owners decided to not install a fifth leadership team. Under Moya’s tenure, the restaurant was known for well-executed seafood and vegetable dishes including scallops with squash and grilled Caraflex cabbage. The establishment was also a popular destination for people interested in wine where customers could geek out over an extensive list of bottles. On its website, Racines owners say that they plan to revamp the spot with a new restaurant that will open in the same location “at some point later this year.”

NoHo: Movers were spotted hauling equipment out of Parisi Bakery last weekend, marking an apparent end to the Elizabeth Street shop, according to Bowery Boogie. The family-owned bakery, a spinoff of the nearby, century-old Parisi Bakery Delicatessen, was known for churning out golden, crusty loaves of Italian bread that it sold to grocery stores and restaurants across the city.

July 23

East Village: Open since 1994, El Rinconcito is a family owned restaurant that’s been serving Latin American dishes ranging from mofongo to double bacon cheese burgers. This mainstay closed on July 16, but there are signs in the window indicating there is a new forthcoming location in the neighborhood.

East Village: One Zo, an international bubble tea chain which started in Taiwan, debuted nearly two years ago at 110 Third Avenue in an area with no shortages of boba purveyors.

Fort Greene: Tyler Kord has closed No. 7 Restaurant in Fort Greene after 14 years, but he’s keeping the name of the restaurant when he plans to reopen this fall in Prospect Heights at 627 Vanderbilt Avenue, the New York Times reports.

Greenwich Village: Long before Volare opened in the 1970s, several different families ran this historic Downtown Manhattan establishment as a red sauce restaurant dating back to the Roaring 20s. The writer Richard Snow wrote an ode to the Italian spot for Grub Street and even described it as a “secret steakhouse, one that didn’t disappoint the most devoted frequenter of Peter Luger.”

Kensington: An offshoot of Prospect Heights favorite Look By Plant Love House, Mondayoff was also a destination for stellar Thai food in Brooklyn. Our senior critic Robert Sietsema gave a favorable nod back in 2017 to a number of dishes on the menu here, such as the hor mok pla (a chunky fish mousse steamed in a banana leaf) and gai yang (grilled chicken that was flavored with pandan and lemongrass). While this restaurant closed in mid July, the group’s other establishment Noods N’ Chill in Williamsburg is still going.

July 16

Bushwick: Lisa Fernandes, a former Top Chef contestant and executive chef at Dos Caminos in Midtown, opened Sweet Chili, which started off as a food truck, in November 2019. The restaurant, which served a menu spanning Thai- and Vietnamese-inspired dishes, closed in late June, the Bushwick Daily reported.

Bushwick: Since it opened in December 2014, Onderdonk & Sons quickly became a go-to spot in this Brooklyn neighborhood for burgers and beer. It closed permanently on June 28, however, and on the bar’s Instagram account, one of the last posts noted that “the decision, like the last year, was tough.”

Garment District: While New Yorkers like to joke about avoiding Penn Station at all costs, Just Pho was a delicious reason to head toward the transit hub for some of the city’s best bowls of pho. Our critic Robert Sietsema was a fan of the Hanoi-style beef noodle soup served here (Ligaya Mishan also reviewed it for the New York Times). The restaurant had been closed during the pandemic for stretches at a time, and it’s not clear when it shuttered. Currently, there is a for-sale sign out front and the dining room sits empty.