A WAVE OF RESTAURANT CLOSINGS HITS MANHATTAN RIGHT BEFORE NEW YEAR’S

In this weekly column, Eater is documenting the city’s permanent restaurant and bar closures, a list that includes a popular Neapolitan pizzeria, a decade-old Italian restaurant, and a Lower East Side “bro bar” known for its whiskeys. If a restaurant or bar has closed in your neighborhood, let us know at [email protected].

December 22

Chelsea: The seafood restaurant Seamore’s has closed its Chelsea location. Owner Michael Chernow opened at this address in 2017; his first location of Seamore’s opened two years earlier in Nolita; that location closed in 2022. A sign on the door announced the restaurant’s permanent closure. There are other locations in Battery Park, Dumbo, and on the Upper East Side. 161 8th Avenue, at 18th Street

East Village: Cacio e Vino has closed in the East Village. The restaurant, which had been open since 2006, went dark in November, according to EV Grieve. New operators were granted a beer and wine license at the address last month. 80 Second Avenue, between Fourth and Fifth streets

East Village: Cinnamon Girl, a bakery and cafe that has a sibling location in Bed-Stuy, has closed down in Manhattan. The location first opened in 2021, according to EV Grieve. 73 Second Avenue, between Fourth and Fifth streets

East Village: It’s been a tumultuous couple of years for Gaia Italian Cafe. The small Italian restaurant closed during the pandemic, after nine years on the Lower East Side. Owner Gaia Bagnasacco revived the shop in the East Village last year, but it has since closed. Her landlord took possession of the space earlier this month, the website EV Grieve reports. The restaurant will continue to offer delivery and catering through its website. 226 E. Third Street, between avenues B and C

East Village: Neapolitan pizza spot Luzzo’s has closed on Avenue B. The restaurant has been closed since October when the building’s landlord took possession of the space. Employees of the pizzeria’s other locations insisted it would reopen, but it has since been marked as permanently closed. Owner Michele Iuliano opened at this address in May 2022. The pizzeria has other locations in Brooklyn Heights, the Financial District, and the Upper East Side. 15 Avenue B, at East Second Street

East Village: Cuban restaurant Mi Salsa Kitchen has closed after a year and a half. “We closed our doors and we are looking for a new location,” an Instagram post reads. The business will continue to offer catering through its website. In November, the owners of C as in Charlie in Noho applied for a liquor license at this address. 205 Allen Street, near East Houston Street

East Village: Kung Fu Tea, a bubble tea chain with more than 400 locations in the United States, has closed on St. Marks Place. The short block between Second and Third avenues, is home to three other bubble tea chains: Gong Cha, Xing Fu Tang, and Moge Tea. 28 St. Marks Place, between Second and Third avenues

Greenpoint: Blank Coffee, not Blank Street Coffee, has handed over the space to bakery pop-up 123 Dough Fine Foods & Provisions, according to Greenpointers. 123 Dough popped up at the coffee shop a year ago. Breads and sourdough noodles are the draw. 192 Nassau Avenue, at Humboldt Street

Greenwich Village: ZZ’s Clam Bar, the seafood spot from Major Food Group that first opened in 2013, ceased operations and has flipped into extended private dining for Carbone, its neighboring red-sauce celebrity-magnet restaurant. ZZ’s had maintained its Michelin star until it lost it in 2022. It was not immediately clear when ZZ’s closed. Eater has reached out for more information. 169 Thompson Street, near West Houston Street

Lower East Side: Leave Rochelle Out of It, a “bro bar” with 150 kinds of whiskey available, closed this fall after nine years. The bar was named after a mutual ex-girlfriend of owners Brett David and Stephen Yorsz. The owners of 205 Club, a skater bar downstairs, have taken over the space. After a renovation, Bar Louis opened this month with new ceilings, furniture, and banquettes. The whiskey list has been edited, too: There are now 120 on the menu. 205 Chrystie Street, at Stanton Street

South Slope: Hey Monday Coffee shut down in late November. The coffee shop announced the closure in a post on Instagram. 689 Fifth Avenue, near 21st Street

Windsor Terrace: Italian restaurant Giovanni’s Brooklyn Eats is moving after 12 years. In June, the restaurant sustained “significant damage” after a fire broke out in its kitchen. Owner Giovanni Tafuri raised $69,000 through a GoFundMe campaign to reopen. In November, he shared that he would be moving across the street to 424 Prospect Avenue, at Eighth Avenue. The former restaurant is now listed with an asking price of $11,900 monthly. 1657 Eighth Avenue, at Prospect Avenue

December 8

Bed-Stuy: Valentine’s, a pizzeria from the owner of Greenberg’s Bagels next door, has closed. Owner Julian Cavin sold the space to Regina’s Grocery, a small chain of Italian sandwich shops that will be opening there imminently, he says. The pizzeria opened at the address this spring, after originally operating as Frankie and Vali’s pizza. 1063 Bedford Avenue, near Lexington Avenue

Long Island City: Top Quality, a popular Mexican restaurant, recently closed. The restaurant is listed as permanently closed on Google and Yelp. There are reviews on both platforms written as recently as a month ago. It opened in 2020. 10-29 44th Road, near 11th Street

Noho: It’s the end of an era for Duck Season, a vendor that sold duck fat french fries at Smorgasburg for almost a decade. Josh Appelbaum, the stall’s owner, attributed the closure to the consecutive weekends of rain that hit New York City this fall. “You plan for some rain,” he says, “but we couldn’t plan for the extent that we got. It’s impossible to make that revenue up.” The popular vendor got its start at Smorgasburg in 2015, originally selling duck legs. As the duck fat piled up, Appelbaum started selling fries and poutine, too. “That’s when things really took off,” he says. This fall, it opened a Manhattan storefront that was supposed to be its first year-round shop. It has since closed. 289 Mercer Street, near Waverly Place

Red Hook: Fort Defiance has closed after 15 years. The destination for Irish coffees and other cocktails opened for the last time on December 3. Owner St. John Frizell says he plans to focus on Gage & Tollner and its upstairs cocktail bar, the Sunken Harbor Club, which he runs with another team. The bar opened at its original address in 2009. It relocated to a larger space down the street in 2021, where it operated as a grocery store during the pandemic and later, as a full bar. 347 Van Brunt Street, at Wolcott Street

Upper East Side: Greek Eats, a casual Mediterranean restaurant, closed in November after eight years, according to Patch. A sign from the owners in the window claims the closure is “temporary.” A large “restaurant for rent” sign hangs beside it. 1229 First Avenue, between East 66th and 67th streets

Williamsburg: Decade-old Italian restaurant Fabbrica closed last weekend with a day’s notice to customers. Owner Alberto Baudo shared on Instagram that the restaurant had “unexpectedly” lost its lease. The last day was December 3. 44 North Sixth Street, at Kent Avenue

December 1

Chinatown: Hak Box, one of the city’s few restaurants to serve Hakka food, closed earlier this year. “With the increasing expenses and drop in revenue, it makes it impossible to sustain,” the restaurant shared online. Owner Warren Wan opened the shop in 2019. For years, it was one of the only places in town to find Hakka food, a subset of Cantonese cooking that’s difficult to find in New York, or even in mainland China. The small shop was known for its affordable rice rolls and dumplings. 88 East Broadway, at Forsyth Street

Crown Heights: A Southern restaurant from a fine dining team has closed: The Ryerson is done. Owners Matt Rudolph, Larry Glogau, and Max Glogau worked at upscale restaurants like Jean-Georges and Gramercy Tavern before opening their own spot in 2019. It served a little bit of everything: po’ boys, “Vietnamese” cauliflower, and pita with kimchi. The last day was September 30. 698 Nostrand Avenue, between St. Marks Avenue and Prospect Place

East Village: Another location of Blank Street coffee bites the dust this week. The coffee chain has dozens of locations across the city. It’s backed by millions in venture capital funding, but it’s been closing locations in the city as it expands to other markets, like Washington, D.C., and London. Blank Street shuttered another one of its coffee shops in the East Village, on Avenue A, this year, according to the website EV Grieve. The last day for this location was November 12. 36 Third Avenue, near East Ninth Street

Harlem: Babalucci, an Italian restaurant, closed at the start of the month. The restaurant was known for its wood-fired pizzas with toppings, like fried shrimp and gorgonzola cheese, that strayed from the beaten path. The owners run another business, 314, in the neighborhood. 331 Malcolm X Boulevard, between West 126th and 127th streets

Staten Island: Texas-style barbecue joint Juicy Lucy has shut down. At its peak, the award-winning barbecue spot had locations in Ocean Breeze and Eltingville. Those restaurants closed last December, and only this location in Annadale remained. A note on the restaurant’s Instagram says, “Sales have been down, prices of supplies have been way up, and over the past two months we’ve lost our pitmaster and two of our employees.” 20 Jefferson Boulevard, near Annadale Road

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