50 Popular Restaurants That Won’t Reopen After the Pandemic

“We are sad to announce this chapter has come to an end,” wrote the proprietors of this 20-year-old Mexican standby in Chandler, southeast of Phoenix, on the restaurant’s Facebook page last month. They left open the possibility of reviving the place in a new home in the future. Meanwhile, they continue to operate three other establishments, one each in Chandler, Mesa, and Phoenix.

A San Francisco restaurant icon, opened in 1937 above the remains of the historic 1894-vintage public swimming complex called Sutro Baths, Louis’s is no more. The owners — grandchildren of the original owners — posted a message on the restaurant Facebook page in mid-July reading in part “After much deliberation and a lot of tears we have decided after 83 continuous years of business…to close our business permanently.”

“With these uncertain times, we have made the difficult decision to close our doors permanently,” reads a notice on this 40-year-old Chinatown institution’s website. The restaurant was known for its Sichuan specialties and for its Peking duck, hailed by LA Magazine as one of the city’s best.

After 46 years serving seafood dinners and a popular brunch on Tomales Bay in Marin County, this establishment called it quits as of May 31. The owners cited a substantial rent hike, on top of the financial difficulties imposed by the lockdown, as making it impossible to continue.

An upscale 170-seat Chinese restaurant, which cost a reported $7 million to build, Hakkasan closed permanently in late May after eight years of serving black cod with Champagne and honey, black truffle duck, and other luxurious specialties. The decision was made “To preserve the long-term stability of our business,” according to a company statement given to the San Francisco Chronicle. There are 11 other outposts of the chain — three more in the U.S., two in London, and one each in six other cities in Asia and the Middle East. Some others might not reopen, but details haven’t been confirmed.

The original Pacific Dining Car in downtown L.A., founded in 1921 and probably the city’s best-known steakhouse, spawned this Westside location in 1990. Serving 24 hours a day until the coronavirus lockdown, it was considered a Santa Monica essential. The owners say that the combination of the pandemic crisis and curfews imposed during the recent Black Lives Matter protests made it untenable for the restaurant to reopen.

This local institution, which billed itself as “Denver’s favorite breakfast, lunch, brunch, dinner & late night place since 1983,” was one of the first places in the city to close temporarily with the onset of the pandemic. The owners had expected to reopen after a few months, but only briefly: They announced that they had agreed to sell the property to a developer, effective in January 2021. Under the circumstances, however, gearing up again for a few months seemed pointless, and they reported on Facebook that they had “decided not to reopen Racines…[because] there is just too much working against us.”

The socially conscious Firebox, a farm-to-table restaurant opened in 2007 by the Melville Charitable Trust with a mission that included bringing “jobs, investment, and opportunity to the community,” will not be reopening. “It has become clear that we are simply unable to sustain the restaurant in its current form going forward,” according to a statement issued by Firebox representatives in early June.

A popular two-year-old purveyor of comfort food, Brown Dog Eatery told its Facebook followers in mid-July that the place was closing permanently. Part of the Be Nice restaurant group, which includes six other establishments, Brown Dog was a victim, owner Elliot Wolf told the South Florida Sun Sentinel, of diner trepidation. “People are scared to go out right now,” he said. “I didn’t see us surviving long-term.”

“I won’t beat around the bush or sugar coat this,” read a statement on the restaurant’s Facebook page, “but we have closed 1812 Osprey a Neighborhood Bistro.” This American-Mediterranean establishment was opened in 2017 by the Palermo family, proprietors of Sarasota’s Oasis Cafe & Bakery, which will remain open. As for Osprey, “It was tough going all along,” Jim Palermo told the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. “The pandemic put the nails in the coffin.”

After 46 years in business in this Atlanta suburb, Anne and Bill’s — known for its meat-and-three menu (various meats served with a variety of side dishes), its breakfasts, and its homemade desserts — is going out of business. A statement from the restaurant in mid-May said that “our sales have dropped so low that we cannot continue to operate….”

“[O]ften credited as the first restaurant in Hawai’i with a focus on craft beer,” according to Honolulu Magazine, this popular pub and its associated craft brewery, Bent Tail Brewing Co., has poured its last pint. “We were going to lose money if we reopened,” co-owner Lisa Kim told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser in mid-June. “Mahalo to the many team members, guests, industry friends and beer geeks we have had the honor to meet and befriend,” said a message on the REAL website.

This well-loved West Loop restaurant was opened 22 years ago by Paul Kahan, who has since become one of Chicago’s best-known chef-restaurateurs (his other places include Avec, Publican, and Big Star). Blackbird’s intimate size and layout made social distancing impossible, and the restaurant announced on its website, “we have made the very difficult decision to close our doors.”

An offshoot of an upscale Los Angeles-based Japanese restaurant with a celebrity clientele opened in Chicago three years ago, specializing in creative sushi offerings and top-of-the-line wagyu beef cooked on charcoal imported from Japan. The group that owns Katana (in addition to L.A., there is another location in Dubai) announced in mid-May that it would not be reopening.

The demise of the legendary K-Paul’s in mid-July is one of the most significant of all COVID-related restaurant closures. This highly influential Cajun establishment was opened in 1979 by chef Paul Prudhomme (formerly of Commander’s Palace, where he trained Emeril Lagasse and other subsequently famous chefs) and his wife, Kay. Lines formed nightly outside the restaurant, and with such vividly flavored dishes as the iconic blackened redfish, K-Paul’s ignited a nationwide craze for Cajun cooking. Kay died of cancer in 1993 and Prudhomme followed in 2015, but the place stayed open under the chef’s niece, Brenda Prudhomme, and her chef husband. After several coronavirus-mandated closings and reopenings earlier this year, though, they issued a statement on July 13 saying “the management team of K-Paul’s is regretfully announcing permanent closure of K-Paul’s Louisiana Kitchen.”

Though it specializes in tasting menus of imaginative modern American fare, chef Tony Maws’ Craigie on Main in Cambridge became most famous for its epic burger, only 18 of which were prepared each evening. Last year, Maws capitalized on its fame by opening Craigie Burger in the new Time Out Market Boston in Fenway. The temporarily closed Craigie Burger won’t reopen, according to Maws and his partners. They feel that the lack of Red Sox games at Fenway Park and the absence of students from several nearby colleges would make reviving the enterprise too chancy.

Famed French chef-restaurateur Daniel Boulud announced in mid-June that he was closing down his sole Boston property, located in the Mandarin Oriental Boston hotel. An official statement reported that the restaurant, which opened in 2014, was a victim of the pandemic, which had a “negative impact on business levels….”

After 50 years in business, Markovski’s, famous for its stuffed cabbage, kielbasa, and other Polish specialties, has said goodbye. In a statement on Facebook, the proprietors declared that “A worldwide pandemic was the only thing that could separate our tightly knit family [and] if you were here, you were definitely family.”

James Beard Award-winning chef Gavin Kaysen announced on July 16 that he was permanently shuttering this well-reviewed French bistro and bakery in suburban Minneapolis. Kaysen — who came to prominence as chef de cuisine at Daniel Boulud’s lauded Café Boulud in New York City before moving back to his native Minnesota in 2014 — told the Sun Sailor, a local newspaper, that “in a location that is so dependent on seasonal success we are losing more than we can sustain.”

When Reiko Weston opened Fuji Ya in 1959, it was apparently the first-ever Japanese restaurant in Minnesota. It expanded and spawned offshoots, but Weston died in 1988, and two years later the place closed down — until her daughter brought it back to life in 1997. The restaurant shuttered temporarily in early May, but by the end of that month, its website carried the message: “Thank you for your support! Unfortunately we are closing our doors.”

The Venetian and Palazzo hotel and casino complex has reopened, but one of its restaurants, the 12-year-old Morels, is not following suit. “Unfortunately,” the owners told Eater Vegas, “these uncertain economic times brought on by COVID-19 has made it impossible to survive as an independent restaurant operator in a hotel with an estimated occupancy less than 50 percent for the foreseeable future.”

Add this 24-year-old Soho seafood restaurant to the list of establishments that had closed temporarily in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, but has now decided to make the closure permanent. “Aquagrill is not continuing to operate in light of the unsafe effects of the coronavirus on public dining out,” reads a statement on the restaurant website.

Described by the Peekskill Daily Voice as “One of the area’s favorite restaurants for elegant dining,” this establishment in suburban Westchester County called it quits on June 28. “It’s with deep sadness at end of business tonight we will be closing our doors permanently,” owner Fatsmir Pushka wrote on Instagram. “The financial burden as a result of COVID has made it impossible to remain open.”

Known for its creative cocktails and its ever-changing roster of DJs and art exhibits, as well as for such casual fare as Sicilian tuna sandwiches and meatloaf locomoco, Kinfolk is going out of business after a dozen years. “Unfortunately, the reality of the extended shut down and piling up of operational costs has essentially forced the decision to be made for us,” read a statement on the Kinfolk Instagram page.

A well-known Manhattan steakhouse that bills itself as having been “instrumental at the forefront of a revolution of fine kosher food and wine,” Wolf & Lamb opened this Brooklyn outpost almost a decade ago. A statement on the restaurant website states that “Due to Covid 19, Wolf & Lamb sadly closed our Brooklyn location…[but] we look forward to opening a new location in Brooklyn when the conditions are right.” The Manhattan location remains in business.

Cairo-born Nader Gebrin, who opened this Long Island restaurant in 1996, serving what Newsday called “an eclectic quasi-Italian menu,” will not be reopening. “I have to make $14,000 to break even every week,” he told the publication. “But two weeks before I closed I made $6,700; the next week I made $2,700. I paid my employees in full and I said to them, ‘Guys, it’s been a pleasure, but I can’t be a hero anymore.'”

Celebrity chef Charlie Palmer announced in mid-June that his upscale 32-year-old Aureole, which relocated to 42nd Street across from Bryant Park in 2009, would not be reopening. However, said Palmer on the Aureole website, “Moving through these uncertain times and with a changing industry landscape, we remain dedicated to offering our loyal patrons the very best in American cuisine … .” That means “boutique-style take-out,” as the website explains, plus wines and craft cocktails and an Aureole catering operation. Palmer will eventually open a steakhouse on the site, with fewer seats to meet social distancing requirements, and he has left open the possibility of opening a smaller Aureole at another location at some future time.

A sign in the window of this well-loved Michelin-starred sushi bar near Manhattan’s Cooper Square, posted in mid-May, announced an “open house sale” of kitchen goods, appliances, and equipment, as well as wine “for cheap.” In 2018, Jewel Bako’s owners opened a chef’s counter place next door called Restaurant Ukiyo, which also won a Michelin star. A statement on the Ukiyo website announced officially that both establishments have closed for good.

Noted Boston chef-restaurateurs Ken Oringer and Jamie Bissonnette have permanently closed the once-bustling Manhattan location of this tapas restaurant, opened in 2013. The original Boston restaurant and a location in Dubai remain in business. “Toro NYC has come to the end of our journey,” reads a statement on the restaurant’s Instagram page, “and the staff will not have a restaurant home to come back to when this pandemic ends.”

The website for this eight-year-old barbecue restaurant now shows only a photo of a sign that used to hang on the door during off hours: It’s a metal cutout of a pig with the words “Sorry we’re closed.” Queen City took a break initially in mid-March when the coronavirus first threatened. It later tentatively reopened, but closed again during protests against the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The decision by the Republican National Committee to move most of this year’s GOP convention from Charlotte to Florida was the last straw, managing partner Bryan Meredith told the Charlotte Observer.

This six-year-old restaurant in the Oregon capital — “beloved for its modern takes on steakhouse classics, Asian flavors and creative cocktail program,” according to the Statesman Journal — has the dubious honor of being the first victim of COVID-19 in downtown Salem. On July 10, its Facebook page announced that “Due to circumstances beyond our control, we will be closed for the weekend.” Three days later, a post read simply “TableFIVE08 is permanently closed.”

July 3 was the last day for this popular Chinatown Mexican place. In a statement on its Facebook page, owner Nick Zukin noted that he depended on tourists, office workers, and concert goers, among others, to keep the place alive, and “We don’t expect any of those customers to return until this pandemic is over.” He went on to say, “We have lost money every day we have remained open and only did so because our staff is like family to us and we didn’t want to let them down.”

A Cajun-Creole place opened in 2007 in this coastal town in the northwestern corner of the state, Sweet Basil’s has extended its temporary closure into a permanent one. Social distancing requirements, says co-owner John Sowa, would have allowed him to fill three or four tables at the most — which, he adds, “doesn’t cut it.” Sowa plans to take the executive chef job at Silver Salmon Grille in Astoria, just up the coast, where he will add some of his Louisiana specialties to the menu.

Restaurateur David Machado announced that he is permanently closing this, his oldest Portland restaurant, opened in 2009 — as well as four other restaurants and bars he runs in the city. Machado told Portland Eater that he anticipated increased costs due to new sanitation and social distancing measures and feared that revenue would decrease 50% to 70%. He is also concerned that if he did reopen all or some of his places, a spike in COVID-19 cases could force him to shutter a second time, and “I could not bear to go through layoffs again.”

James Beard Award-winning chef-restaurateur Andy Ricker, whose Pok Pok restaurant group specializes in northern Thai and Vietnamese cooking, announced on Instagram in mid-June that he was closing four of his six Portland locations. The shuttered restaurants include Pok Pok NW, Whiskey Soda Lounge, and two outposts of Pok Pok Wing. A third Pok Pok Wing might reopen, and Ricker’s original Pok Pok will remain.

Opened in 2010 in Lehigh Valley’s Airport Shopping Center, this “popular spot for pizza, pasta and other Italian fare” (according to The Morning Call), which closed for what was expected to be a temporary period on March 21, announced in mid-July that it has ceased operations. “Due to the ongoing impact of Covid-19,” read a post on the restaurant’s Facebook page, “it is with a heavy heart that we have closed Roma Ristorante….”

Chef Daniel Stern’s high-end lounge and restaurant on the 37th floor of Two Liberty Place in downtown Philadelphia has shut down permanently. Its website and Facebook page are now offline, but Eater Philadelphia reported that a statement on the latter read, “Prior to the mandated Covid-19 closure, we had been actively planning to serve you all for another decade. That is not to be.”

Described by the Morning Call as “An Allentown landmark restaurant where generations of families gathered for barbecue, banana splits, milkshakes and more,” the Ritz grew out of a fairgrounds stand established in 1927 and moved to its present site 10 years later. The current owners, Jeff and Grace Stinner, who took over in 1981, announced in mid-June that they would not reopen. Though the restaurant had been for sale since 2019, Grace stressed to the Morning Call that the pandemic is to blame for their recent decision. “We did want to stay open until someone else took over,” she said, “but that’s not feasible now.”

This 15-year-old Old City establishment — whose mission statement reads “Our emphasis on local, seasonal ingredients is based on our support for sustainable agriculture & to the growing demand for healthy, creative cuisine” — has called it a day. “It is with a sad heart and with deepest regrets,” read a post on the restaurant’s Facebook page in mid-May, “that FARMiCiA Restaurant will be permanently closing its doors due to the coronavirus pandemic.”

After 44 years of serving Rhode Island johnnycakes and other comfort food in this community just west of Newport, “The era of Oatley’s has come to a close,” according to a post by owner Jill Oatley on the Our Town: North Kingstown Facebook page. She called the COVID-related decision not to reopen a “bittersweet ending.”

A major tourist draw for 24 years, Jestine’s was named for the African American housekeeper and cook employed by the white family that founded the place. It was recently criticized as “the last Charleston restaurant to openly capitalize on the narrative of black servitude,” in the words of The Post and Courier. After reopening on May 20, the restaurant announced in mid-June that it would cease operations for good due to “the quick onset of the scary pandemic.”

The Green Pheasant, an izakaya (Japanese bar food) place named Best New Restaurant of 2019 by Nashville Scene, announced in early June that it would not be reopening. Chef Jessica Benefield told the Scene that the pandemic struck the restaurant with “a triple whammy” — meaning that the combination of the downturn in tourism, the cancellation of shows at Ascend Amphitheater across the street, and the fact that more people are working from home instead of in local offices made it unlikely that the izakaya could survive.

Famed chef-restaurateur Wolfgang Puck’s modern Asian restaurant on top of Dallas’s Reunion Tower, which opened in 2009, is no more. A press release blamed its demise on “scheduled improvements” to the space “in combination with the unknown timeline due to the Coronavirus.” Puck has also shuttered another of his modern Asian places, The Source, a 13-year-old establishment in Washington, D.C.

Known for its zucchini muffins, chicken-fried steak, homemade pies, and other comfort food, this community favorite, opened in 1925, will not reopen. Addressing its customers, a statement on the restaurant website said “We would love to have a farewell event to honor you and our faithful employees, but due to the current restrictions, we won’t be able to do so.” The statement left open the possibility that the place might be revived in the future, adding “So, making no promises — but who knows? Zucchini Muffins may one day make a comeback!”

“It is with heavy hearts,” reads a statement on the restaurant website, “we announce that after 40 years, Bill’s Off Broadway will be unable to reopen due to situations outside of our control.” On its Facebook page, Bill’s published the social media handles of some 11 employees, in case “anyone would like to show some love to the staff … .”

Prolific Seattle restaurateur Tom Douglas temporarily closed 12 of his 13 local establishments in mid-March over coronavirus concerns. Now, he has announced that he won’t reopen this one, a popular pasta place located in one of Amazon’s buildings in the South Lake Union neighborhood. He will also close his Brave Horse Tavern in the same complex. “Many factors weighed into the determination,” he said in a statement, “but in the end, it is the appropriate choice for our business.”

Peripatetic chef-restaurateur and humanitarian José Andrés opened the original America Eats in 2011 as a pop-up on the site of his Café Atlántico to coincide with an American food exhibition called “What’s Cooking, Uncle Sam?” at the National Archives. It moved from there to the suburb of Tysons Corner, Virginia, and then, two years ago, to Georgetown. In late June, a post on the restaurant’s Facebook page announced that “we will not be reopening in our current home, we look forward to revisiting this concept in the future.”

A 19-year-old French bistro in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, Montmartre has shut down for good. Chef Stephane Lezla worries that even with restaurants reopening, the dining-out experience won’t be the same and enough customers might not want to return. He told Eater Washington D.C. that he thinks closing was the right decision. “People need to realize it’s a matter of life, not money,” he said.

Though in business for only two years, this Mediterranean French restaurant in Milwaukee’s Third Ward was ranked as the fifth-best restaurant in town by the Journal Sentinel’s dining critic last year. With limited patio space and no open windows, however, the place found it difficult to navigate new dining rules. Revenue for the second quarter of this year was down 91% over the same period last year, one of the owners told the Journal Sentinel, in announcing its permanent closure.

A popular family dining destination since 1938 in this city on Lake Winnebago in eastern Wisconsin, Schreiner’s announced in late May that it was closing its doors. The decision not to reopen, according to a statement on the restaurant website, “was not one that we made easily; unfortunately, it was unavoidable and our only real option given the economics associated with the current pandemic crisis.”