New York City landmark Gotham Restaurant closes for good

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Gotham Restaurant, a culinary landmark in New York City, has closed its doors for good. The restaurant’s website now includes the message, “Gotham at 12 East 12 Street is permanently closed. We thank you for an extraordinary 40 years. Enjoy this site for sense memories of a place you loved.”

The closure comes after several tumultuous years for the bar and grill concept. In July, parent company Gotham Restaurants LLC filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the Southern District of New York. The filing listed its largest creditor as the New York State Department of Taxation Finance Bankruptcy/Special Procedures Section, which it owes nearly $484,000. It also owes tens of thousands of dollars to suppliers and is indebted to credit card and utility companies, as well as other service providers.

Much of that debt accumulated through the COVID lockdown, in which Gotham was closed until 2021. This year, the debt load was compounded by a cyberscam in June that cost the restaurant $45,000 and kept it from making payroll. Following the cyberscam and bankruptcy, the restaurant closed for lunch and dinner service through August to “make a few improvements,” as an outgoing phone message noted.

The restaurant first opened in 1984 and Alfred Portale became executive chef and partner a year later. It soon became a signature fine-dining spot in New York City, admired for, among other things, its dramatic presentations; Portale is credited for having invented “tall food,” in which many of a dish’s components were stacked on top of each other. It became a trend-forward style from the late ’80s through the turn of the century.

Over the years the restaurant attracted many young cooks who went on to become culinary stars in their own right, including Wylie Dufresne, Tom Colicchio, and Bill Telepan.

Portale parted ways with the other owners in 2019 (he currently operates Portale, an Italian restaurant eight blocks away) and was briefly replaced by Victoria Blamey, a culinary rising star at the time, whose innovation won her high praise, including a three-star review in the New York Times.

Andrea Strong, author of The Strong Buzz Substack, reported that co-owners Cassandra and Bret Csencsitz will continue to publish their “Friends of Gotham” newsletter.

Bret Thorn contributed to this article.

Contact Alicia Kelso at [email protected]

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