A Restaurant Backed by a ‘Top Chef’ Star Shutters — And More Closings

Three years after New York’s first indoor dining shutdown, restaurants continue to close due to the lasting financial impacts of the pandemic. At least 4,500 food businesses have shuttered since March 2020. Since it’s difficult to track closings in real-time, experts say that number is likely much higher — and could take years to fully assess.

In this weekly column, Eater is documenting the city’s permanent restaurant and bar closures, a list that includes a halal butcher shop, a longtime bakery cafe, and a takeout sandwich shop that’s making way for a Xi’an Famous Foods. If a restaurant or bar has closed in your neighborhood, let us know at ny@eater.com.

October 27

Chinatown: A popular Chinatown restaurant closed with a crowd this week. New Kamboat Bakery and Cafe, is out on Bowery. The owner is retiring, according to a note on the front door. The bakery was known for its pineapple buns, egg tarts, and custom cakes. Ahead of the closure, customers flocked to the bakery to clear out its shelves. 111 Bowery, between Grand and Hester streets

East Village: Halal butcher Honest Chops has closed. The shop, having opened in March 2014, ran out the lease, with the owners allegedly looking for a new storefront. 319 E. Ninth Street, between First Avenue and Second avenues

Midtown: Park Italian Gourmet, a popular takeout sandwich shop, has closed. The restaurant announced the decision with a sign on the door earlier this month; a location of the hand-pulled noodle chain Xi’an Famous Foods is taking over the lease. Fans of the business mourned the closure in comments online. “I thought that place would outlive us all,” one user wrote. 60 W. 45th Street, near Sixth Avenue

Williamsburg: A restaurant that was once overseen by a winner of Top Chef closes after four years. William Zafiros, the owner of Ten Hope, confirmed to Greenpointers this week that his Brooklyn bistro had closed. The restaurant opened in 2019; Harold Dieterle, the winner of the inaugural season of Top Chef, was a consulting chef. A new business has filed a liquor license for the address. 10 Hope Street, between Roebling and Havemeyer streets

October 20

Fort Greene: The youngest in a trio of neighborhood Thai restaurants has closed its doors after 12 years. The National, a sibling to Joya in Cobble Hill and Song in Park Slope, closed without notice to customers earlier this month. The restaurant temporarily closed this summer after its chef fell ill; a manager said by phone at the time that it hoped to reopen, but it never did. Another Thai restaurant, named Sukh, is taking over the space. 723 Fulton Street, at Lafayette Avenue

Gowanus: The wood-fired ovens at Victor turned on for the last time this month. The two-year-old restaurant, which Eater’s critic called a “Mediterranean gem” in an early review, closed on October 14. Its owners, the Brooklyn chefs Ian Alvarez and Ryan Angulo, announced the news in an Instagram post on Monday. They did not cite a reason for the closure. 285 Nevins Street, at Sackett Street

Greenpoint: A popular Thai restaurant closes this week after nine years in Greenpoint. The owners of Hungry? announced the news with a note on the front door. According to the letter, the restaurant’s lease had expired and its owners are looking for a new location. 77 Norman Avenue, near Manhattan Avenue

Greenwich Village: A home for corn, dulce de leche, and sweet potato gelato has closed. Cones, the decades-old Argentinian gelato shop, thanked customers for 25 years of business in a note on the door. Is it the end? The shop teased a comeback in an Instagram post online: “We’ll have some good news soon. New place, same cones.” During its two-decade run, Cones was known for unusual flavors of gelato like cinnamon with honey and sweet potato with brie. 272 Bleecker Street, near Morton Street

Park Slope: Tutt’Appost, a wood-fired pizzeria in Park Slope, closed at the start of the month. The Italian restaurant opened on Fifth Avenue in April 2021; it temporarily closed six months later after a fire in the space caused “serious damage” to the restaurant. 289 Fifth Avenue, between First and Second streets

Prospect Heights: Petite Patate, the eight-month-old Prospect Heights restaurant, has closed to relocate to Illinois. Owner Greg Baxtrom, who grew up outside of Chicago, also runs the restaurants Olmsted and Patti Ann’s, in Brooklyn, and Five Acres, at Rockefeller Center. He announced the closure on Monday. The restaurant was previously home to Maison Yaki, a Japanese French restaurant Baxtrom opened in 2019; it closed and reopened as Petite Patate, a French bistro, in February. 626 Vanderbilt Avenue, near Prospect Place

West Village: Balkan Streat, a relatively new fast-casual restaurant, is out in the Village. William Djuric, an alum of the Manhattan restaurants Gramercy Tavern and Momofuku Ssam Bar, opened the restaurant in January; he set out to serve Balkan street foods like cevapi and burek in a fast-casual setting. The businesss closed on Monday afternoon without explanation. A second location in the East Village that was announced earlier this year is still on, according to a spokesperson. 353 Sixth Avenue, near West Washington Place

October 6

East Village: The Hard Swallow, a “dive bar for adults” that took pride in its menu of cheap beer and booze, closed after service on September 30. Co-owner Leroy “Big Lee” Lloyd died earlier this year at the age of 51. His wife and business partner, Maria “Sasha” Lloyd, has passed on the space, the website EV Grieve reports. The bar opened at this address in 2015, originally as Big Lee’s.140 First Avenue, between St. Marks Place and Ninth Street

Seaport: An Italian restaurant in Manhattan closed this week after a decade. Barbalu, near Pier 17, announced the news on Instagram last month: “Our decision as a family was not to renew the lease.” Customers mourned the loss in comments on the post. The restaurant has a second location in Boerum Hill, which serves many of the same menu items. 225-227 Front Street, near Beekman Street

Seaport: Momofuku Ssäm Bar, the influential restaurant that helped turn Momofuku into a global brand, has closed. “It is hard to overstate the impact Ssäm Bar had on Momofuku and beyond,” the restaurant shared in a post on Instagram. Ssäm Bar opened in the East Village in 2006. It relocated to the Seaport during the pandemic after 15 years; the restaurant’s lease was expiring, and instead of renewing, it took over the space that had been home to the group’s Bar Wayo, a short-lived Japanese bar. The new location wasn’t the same. Eater’s critic wrote at the time that the new location felt like “a monogrammed polo shirt” version of its former self. The last day was September 30. 89 South Street, on Pier 17

Williamsburg: A vegan cafe known for its crepes has come to an abrupt end. Little Choc Apothecary opened in Brooklyn in 2015. It closed on September 30 without explanation. The restaurant’s general manager, Melissa Rodriguez, announced the news in a post on Instagram. 141 Havemeyer Street, near South 1st Street