May 31, 2006
Le Cirque opens; EU, Bistro du Vent, Happy closed
Although Le Cirque today opens its doors to the public in its new location at 151 E. 58th Street, a number of other notables have recently locked their doors for the last time.
European Union, or EU, -- unable to get a liquor license -- has called it quits, according to the New York Times. And Mario Batali has shuttered his Theater District spot, Bistro du Vent.
Playbill also reports that Puleo's, a long-time Theatre District eatery, surprised everyone by closing over the holiday weekend. More from Playbill: Frankie & Johnny's, the steakhouse that began life 80 years ago as a speakeasy, is the only eatery that remains on the west end of the W. 45th Street block between Broadway and Eighth Avenue. Though Frankie & Johnny's has refuted rumors that it, too, is closing, the landmark, second-floor business is expected to end its run soon to make way for a projected highrise hotel. The Biltmore Room, which looked closed, is only sleeping. It's "closed its restaurant for summer-long renovations but remains open as a bar and lounge," according to the NY Times.
Greenwich Brewing Company, however, is sleeping with the fishes.
And finally, the much-raved about dairy-free bakery Happy Happy Happy is closed closed closed. A long note at the bakery's web site explains they could return in the future if the conditions are right, but now is not the time:
By January 2006 we had exceeded the capacity of our small bakery. The time had come to expand into a bigger space and hire more personnel. We had willing investors and the money was there. However, it had become apparent via research and empirical knowledge that the market was not. The volume of customers in the New York area necessary to support a larger gluten-free dairy-free baking facility for our fresh-baked products was not yet present. We explored many ideas that would allow us to reach greater numbers of people and find a solution to this problem. We rejected them because these solutions would have either compromised the taste of our products, added prohibitively to their manufacturing cost (already much higher than our competitors, ingredients such as Belgian cocoa and Tahitian vanilla beans being quite expensive), or would have contradicted our baking philosophy by adding chemicals, ingredients, or preservatives we would not abide. As such rather than invest hundreds of thousands of dollars on personnel and on a facility that in the long term would lose money, we made the very difficult decision to close Happy Happy Happy. Earlier: You’re too late: the Biltmore Room is closed
Le Cirque to open at Beacon Court on May 31
Happy Happy Happy has dairy- and gluten-free desserts
Biltmore Room builds booth for cell phone users
May 31, 2006 07:55 AM in Foodology
Comments (0)
®Copyright 2006, All Rights Reserved
|
