Lunch Slop Chain Dig Inn Is Out in the Financial District — And More Closings

Close to three years after New York’s first indoor dining shutdown, restaurants and bars continue to struggle. More than 4,500 have closed since the onset of the pandemic due to the economic downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Since it’s difficult to track 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 a beloved location of lunch bowl chain Dig Inn, an Irish pub popular with rugby fans, Sichuan favorite Guan Fu, and a Mexican restaurant where discounted margaritas drew a crowd for over three decades. If a restaurant or bar has closed in your neighborhood, let us know at ny@eater.com. This post will be updated regularly.

January 20

Astoria: Kilo, a Brazilian restaurant popular for watching live soccer matches, ended its five-year run earlier this month, Queens Post reports. The restaurant announced the news on Instagram without providing a reason for the closure and encouraged customers to visit Favela, its sister restaurant, at 33-18 28th Avenue, near 34th Street.

Bed-Stuy: Bedford Avenue’s Fancy Nancy closed in October. The restaurant with strong drinks and a popular order of glazed duck wings was open for seven years. The owners announced the decision on social media without citing a reason for the closure.

East Village: Tony’s Famous Pizza is out after a year and a half, according to EV Grieve. The pizzeria was a second location for a slice shop of the same name at 128 Second Avenue, between Seventh Street and Saint Mark’s Place.

Financial District: A location of Dig Inn popular with the Eater team — mostly due to its proximity to our offices in the Financial District — has shuttered on Broad Street. The chain has gone through changes including wanting to be referred to as “Dig” and other closures, including one on West 55th Street and Fifth Avenue. The restaurant has been emptied and a “for rent” sign now hangs in its front window.

Flushing: Sichuan favorite Guan Fu has gone dark. The restaurant, a favorite of New York Times critic Pete Wells, has been listed as permanently closed on Google since at least December. The restaurant’s last post on social media was on December 23, the phone line reroutes to an unidentified voicemail, and all of its delivery options have been shut off. The last Yelp review is dated October 31.

Murray Hill: Baby Bo’s Cantina is done on Second Avenue after 34 years. The small Mexican restaurant known for its burritos and six-dollar margarita special on Mondays announced the closure on Instagram in October, adding that it plans to reopen at a new location. The team did not provide a reason for the closure in the post.

Sunnyside: Irish sports bar the Halfway Line permanently closed after six years this past weekend. The pub, popular with rugby fans and Irish immigrants, closed due to a downturn in business, according to Sunnyside Post.

Tribeca: Sit-down pizzeria Saluggi’s has permanently closed, Tribeca Citizen reports. A sign announcing the closure is posted on the front door of the restaurant.

West Village: Casa Restaurant, a longtime home for Brazilian fare in the Village, closed its doors on December 23. The restaurant announced the closure online, thanking customers for close to 25 years in the neighborhood.

January 5

Clinton Hill: Brooklyn Hots, a home for Rochester-style Garbage Plates in Clinton Hill, is done. The restaurant opened about nine months ago next door to wine shop Radicle Wine, from the same team, but couldn’t make it work due to rising food costs and other factors, says owner Brian Heiss. It closed on December 30.

East Village: Manhattan dive bar the 13th Step has closed in its current form after 12 years. The team thanked patrons of the bar for years of support at their “cathedral of tomfoolery,” popular with SantaCon revelers, sports fans, and local bros in a post on Instagram. A spokesperson for the bar confirms it’s since reopened under the name Downtown Social.

East Village: Dallas BBQ, a chain barbecue restaurant that nonetheless captured the hearts of the East Village, closed on New Year’s Eve over a dispute with its landlord. The chain opened at this location in the 1980s, according to EV Grieve, and has since spawned a dozen well-priced barbecue joints across the city.

Garment District: The Midtown location of Turkish chain Sumit Sarayi has closed. The bakery is listed as permanently closed on Google.

Gowanus: The original location of the Brooklyn barbecue spot Pig Beach has closed after eight years. In an announcement on Instagram, the team explained that the closure was due to a rezoning project in the neighborhood to build more housing. The popular summertime barbecue spot with a sizable side yard is survived by locations in Queens and Palm Beach; a Pig Beach in Louisville is also underway.

Greenpoint: Neighborhood cocktail bar Ramona has closed after a decade in Greenpoint, Greenpointers reports. “Our ten-year lease is coming to a close at the end of the year and due to leasing situations beyond our control, we are unable to renew ours,” the team shared in an Instagram post announcing the closure.

Tribeca: L’Angolo is out on the corner of Duane and Greenwich streets, Tribeca Citizen first reported. The restaurant attributed the closure to a disagreement with its landlord on Instagram and in a note posted to the door: “We were left with no option but to close the restaurant in this location.”

Lower East Side: Cocktail bar Sally Can Wait closed things out with a party on New Year’s Eve. In a post on Instagram, the bar shared that it was unable to recover from an initial downturn in business due to the pandemic. “Opening a month before the Omicron variant swooped in out of nowhere took a huge toll on our business,” the caption states.

Midtown: After filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last spring, the international BLT Restaurant Group has shuttered its flagship restaurant BLT Steak. A spokesperson confirms that the steakhouse closed in November.