A Neighborhood Gem Leaves Brooklyn After 15 Years — And More Closings

More than two years after New York’s first indoor dining shutdown, restaurants and bars continue to struggle. At least 4,500 have closed since the onset of the pandemic due to the economic downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Due to the difficulty of tracking restaurant and bar closings, experts say that number is likely much higher and will take years to fully assess.

Below, Eater is documenting the city’s permanent restaurant closures, including Dig Inn’s sit-down restaurant 232 Bleecker and Brooklyn’s 14-year-old mainstay James. If a restaurant or bar has closed in your neighborhood, let us know at ny@eater.com. This post will be updated regularly.

November 18

East Village: Compilation Coffee is out on St. Marks Place after less than two months. EV Grieve first reported that the coffee shop appeared to have closed earlier this month; a spokesperson for the cafe now confirms that the owners decided to shutter the space after business failed to pick up.

East Village: Short-lived restaurant and bar Luna Cafe Lounge has closed on Second Avenue. A for-rent sign now hangs in the building’s window, EV Grieve reports.

East Williamsburg: Nite Nite is done on Meserole Street after a little over a year. The corner spot from the team behind Brooklyn restaurants Walter’s and Karasu opened in the summer of 2021, finding fans as a neighborhood hangout where it was always possible to find a table. The restaurant announced the closure in an Instagram post last month.

Prospect Heights: Brooklyn’s popular James restaurant has closed after nearly 15 years in Prospect Heights. Chef Bryan Calvert and Deborah Williamson opened the seasonal American spot on a residential corner of the neighborhood after living upstairs for more than a decade. The restaurant announced the closure in an Instagram post earlier this month, closing things out with a final dinner service on November 12.

Tribeca: Chambers Street slice shop Cafe Amore is no more, Tribeca Citizen reports.

Upper West Side: Uptown Japanese restaurant Moonrise Izakaya ended its three-year run in the neighborhood, West Side Rag reports. “We are so happy with everything that Moonrise has done, the people we have brought together, and the community we have built,” the restaurant shared in an Instagram post announcing the closure.

Upper West Side: Columbus Ceafood Bar & Restaurant has closed on Columbus Avenue, West Side Rag reports. The neighborhood seafood spot vowed to return as a food truck in a post on Instagram.

November 11

Greenwich Village: The downtown location of popular vegan restaurant Blossom is out after two years. The team announced the closure of their University Place outpost in an Instagram post, saying that they were “grateful for the chance to focus our energies and resources on our flagship Upper West Side location.”

West Village: 232 Bleecker, the sit-down restaurant from fast-casual chain Dig, announced its closure over Instagram in early September. The restaurant shuttered just shy of its three-year anniversary, but it sounds like the company isn’t done with the space just yet. “We’re closing the doors, papering up the windows, and reimagining the space and the food from top to bottom,” the post reads. “The vibe is changing but the address stays the same.”

Long Island City: Bellwether, a New American restaurant that collected a handful of nods from Michelin in its four-year run, won’t be reopening, according to LIC Talk. The business is listed as “permanently closed” on Google, and a sign posted to the restaurant’s front door claims the space is under new management.

Sunnyside: The owners of Brooklyn Burmese restaurant Rangoon have pulled the plug on their takeout and delivery spot in a Queens ghost kitchen. Mandalay Club, which spotlighted regional Burmese dishes like chile-infused pig head slaw and pork shoulder curry, opened last December in a New York outpost of CloudKitchens, run by Uber founder Travis Kalanick. The restaurant closed a few weeks later, according to co-owner Daniel Bendjy, and the team is now focusing on its second location of Rangoon, which opened in Chelsea this month.

November 4

Astoria: A Queens diner that’s been open since the 1920s closed in September following a dispute with the building’s landlord over unpaid rent, the Astoria Post reports. Mike’s Diner announced the closure in a sign posted to its front window: “End of Lease. We appreciate your patronage throughout the years.”

Astoria: Pizza Palace, a neighborhood staple that’s been slinging slices from the corner of Ditmars Boulevard and 31st Street since 1973, has closed. In June, Patch reported that owner Joe Vitale was in talks to hand over the decades-old shop to a new owner due to various “financial difficulties” that were impacting the business before the pandemic. The phone line has since been disconnected and the restaurant is marked as permanently closed on Google.

Bed-Stuy: Corner restaurant Cafe Tucum is permanently closed after being evicted over $75,000 in unpaid rent on October 17. Brownstoner reports that owner Sid Matos Castelo-Branco had not paid his full monthly rent since signing his lease in 2019. The building’s landlord is now in possession of the space, according to the publication.

Clinton Hill: Fulton Grand, a watering hole at the corner of Fulton Street and Grand Avenue, has dried up. The 12-year-old bar from owners of well-worn Brooklyn spots Fourth Avenue Pub and Washington Commons closed on August 19 “due to numerous factors,” per an announcement on Instagram.

East Village: One of Manhattan’s beloved ice cream shops, Mikey Likes It, is out in the East Village. The scoop shop announced the closure — more of a company restructuring — in an Instagram post this week, citing plans to open multiple new locations and a flagship store in the spring of 2023. “Having gone through the constant day to day battle and hardship because of the pandemic we were just not able to recover fast enough and come to terms with our current landlord,” the post reads.

East Village: Lower Manhattan haunt the Pyramid Club is officially done, according to EV Grieve. The decades-old nightclub closed at the onset of the pandemic, before mounting a brief comeback in the summer of 2021 and opening on weekends. On October 16, the bar announced on Instagram that it would close things out with a Halloween party on October 29, concluding a 43-year run in the East Village.

Greenpoint: West Wine Bar, a neighborhood bar in Greenpoint, ended its five-year run on October 23. The bar’s owners confirmed the closure to Greenpointers saying that the building’s landlord would not be renewing their lease.

Greenwich Village: Village mainstay Pearl Oyster Bar is out after 25 years, owner Rebecca Charles announced in an Instagram post last month. The popular seafood restaurant, famed for its lobster roll, bowls of clam chowder, and legendary bouillabaisse, attributed the closure to the rising costs of running a business during the pandemic. “Independent restaurants, with the current dynamics, are getting to be a thing of the past,” Charles writes.

Upper East Side: Uptown Thai restaurant Maison Bangkok closed its doors after three years earlier this summer, according to UpperEastSite.com. “After careful consideration, we have regretfully decided to close our doors,” a note posted on the restaurant’s front door reads. Its last day was May 31.

Williamsburg: “Modern noodle bar” No Strings Attached is out after just over a year on North Fifth Street, according to an announcement on Instagram. The restaurant with Japanese, Italian, and Japanese Italian dishes (think: angel hair pasta with uni) will reopen at Downtown Brooklyn food court Hana House, at 345 Adams Street and Willoughby Plaza, under the name NSA Noodle House.