The 35 Most Popular Restaurants That Won’t Reopen After the Pandemic

Bologna-born Biba Caggiano ramped up the restaurant scene in the California capital when she opened this place 33 years ago. Caggiano, who went on to become a successful cookbook author and TV food personality, died last August, and her family was already reportedly having difficulty running the restaurant before the crisis.

A statement signed by Caggiano’s husband and daughters on the Biba website announced “Our last day was Friday, May 8th, 2020,” explaining that “Our beloved restaurant community has been shuttered and with the uncertainty of what the future holds, we are unable to wait out this storm.”

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 five other cities in Asia and the Middle East. The Hakkasan in Shanghai, the chain’s only operation in China itself, has also closed in response to the coronavirus’s effects on business.

A San Francisco restaurant icon that 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.”

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 protests made it untenable for the restaurant to reopen.

The contents of the place — including kitchen equipment, table settings, furniture, and paintings — were sold at auction in June.

After 74 years in business under three generations of the Okuno family, this neighborhood breakfast-and-lunch establishment has called it quits. The place has survived “up-turns and crazy downturns in the economy,” wrote current owners Rod and Karen Okuno on the restaurant website, “but this final one proved to be insurmountable for our little corner of the world.”

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….” A second location, in McDonough, southeast of Forest Park, has also closed.

This well-loved West Loop restaurant — hailed by the Chicago Tribune as “one of Chicago’s greatest restaurants” — was opened 22 years ago by Paul Kahan, who has since become one of the city’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 that “we have made the very difficult decision to close our doors.”

This well-known restaurant featuring the Portuguese-Chinese fusion cooking of Macau (and given a Bib Gourmand rating from the Guide Michelin, signifying “good quality, good value cooking”) stopped restaurant service in April. Instead, it was converted, supposedly permanently, into the Super Fat Rice Mart, selling specialty groceries and meal kits.

In June, however, that operation shut down indefinitely — not due to COVID-19 but following accusations by former employees of abusive behavior and racist remarks on the part of co-owner Abe Conlon.

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 announced in mid-May that it would not be reopening. A location in Dubai has also closed.

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 and his wife, Kay, and it soon became a Crescent City bucket-list destination, with lines forming nightly outside. 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 passed away in 2015, but the place stayed open under the chef’s niece, Brenda Prudhomme, and her chef husband, Paul Miller.

After several coronavirus-mandated closings and reopenings earlier this year, though, they issued a statement on July 13 “regretfully announcing permanent closure of K-Paul’s Louisiana Kitchen.” Miller explained to NOLA.com that “The business has been bleeding through this, and you can only bleed so much before you have to stop it.”

Uncle Andy’s opened in 1954, establishing a strong local reputation for comforting diner classics — including made-to-order pancakes, which current proprietor Dennis Fogg would shape into dinosaurs or flowers to please his younger customers.

The diner was struggling even before the virus hit — it was the subject of a makeover on the Food Network show “Restaurant Impossible” — but as Fogg explained to the Portland Press-Herald, “We’ve always been able to just get by, but now we can’t.”

Massachusetts: Bar Boulud

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….”

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.

Maws told the Boston Globe that the concept will eventually make a comeback, and that the burger is still available on Craigie on Main’s takeout menu.

“Top Chef” finalist Carl Dooley announced in early May that the 20-seat prix-fixe restaurant he ran, attached to the Season to Taste catering operation, is permanently out of business. Season to Taste owner Robert Harris is restructuring his catering arm, and launching a take-out and delivery brand called Season to Go, but felt that the restaurant had to go. “[T]his is the sad and harsh reality I and the teams I employ all had to face,” he said in a press release.

After 50 years in business in this suburb of Detroit, 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.”

When Reiko Weston opened Fuji Ya in 1959, it was apparently the first-ever Japanese restaurant in Minnesota. It expanded and spawned offshoots. 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.”

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.

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 second Aureole location, in the Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas, remains closed temporarily, but a statement on its website says “our priority is to reopen.”

One of the most famous and long-lived restaurants to shut down permanently in the face of the pandemic, Gotham weathered the departure last year of chef Alfred Portale, who had been in charge of the kitchen for 34 years (he started in 1985, a year after the restaurant opened). The new chef, Victoria Blamey, received promising reviews. Then came the pandemic.

In announcing the decision to close in mid-March, Gotham issued a statement explaining that “the unforeseen situation created by the coronavirus has made operation of the restaurant untenable.”

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.

Opened in 1989 by noted Manhattan restaurant mogul Keith McNally, this SoHo bistro initially provided takeout and delivery services when in-house dining was banned, like many other places. It stopped doing that in late March, before announcing in April that it would not be reopening. The restaurateur blamed “Greedy landlord during lockdown syndrome” for the closure. McNally — whose other restaurants include the acclaimed Balthazar and Minetta Tavern — was himself hospitalized in London with COVID-19 in early April.

David Chang, the chef-restaurateur whose Momofuku empire has been a major influence on the American food scene. He opened this establishment in 2016 with an Italian-Korean theme, recasting it with a more purely Italian menu the following year. It never took off like some of his other places, and in mid-May, his company announced on its website that “returning to normal is not an option,” so the place won’t reopen. Chang also plans to move his popular Ssäm Bar from the East Village to South Street Seaport, where he has another restaurant location.

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.”

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. It was originally reported that the shuttered restaurants would include Pok Pok NW, Whiskey Soda Lounge, and two outposts of Pok Pok Wing. The original Pok Pok would reopen, it was said, and a third Pok Pok Wing might also come back to life. Currently, however, the Pok Pok website states that “All Pok Pok restaurant locations are closed for on site service,” adding that meal kits and some prepared food is available for pickup at the company’s commissary kitchen.

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.

A major tourist draw for 24 years, Jestine’s was named for Jestine Matthews, the African American housekeeper and cook employed by the white family that founded the place (Matthews died in 1997 at the age of 112). 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.”

Known for the avant-garde tasting menus introduced by noted chef Sean Brock (who departed in 2018), McCrady’s will not resume serving even after restrictions are lifted. David Howard, president of Neighborhood Dining Group, which owns the restaurant, issued a statement saying in part that “we’ve come to the difficult decision that McCrady’s…will no longer be viable in this changed business environment….” The group’s Mexican restaurant, Minero, upstairs from McCrady’s, has also closed for good, but the Atlanta location has reopened, with restrictions in place, and a new location, on John’s Island, just southwest of Charleston, is scheduled to open later this summer.

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 will retain a catering operation in Dallas.

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!”

Opened as a gas station and beer bar in 1933, this Austin institution evolved into a leading music venue, hosting such luminaries as Janis Joplin and Jerry Lee Lewis, and then into a restaurant in 1981 after a new owner bought it. Threadgill’s spawned a second location in 1996, but that one closed in 2018, and now the original Threadgill’s has closed as well. The premises will be sold at auction on Aug. 8.

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.”

In addition to shuttering his Momofuku Nishi in New York City (see above), Influential chef-restaurateur David Chang announced the demise of his “hometown project” (he was born nearby in northern Virginia) in mid-May after almost five years. According to a message from Momofuku Group CEO Marguerite Zabar Mariscal on the company website, the organization “investigated every scenario to make the math work” in light of the pandemic, but ultimately “the financial picture…no longer made sense.”

After 13 years in business, it’s curtains for Wolfgang Puck’s first restaurant in the nation’s capital. (He retains a subsequently launched branch of his CUT steakhouse in the city’s Rosewood Hotel). A modern Asian restaurant in the basement of what was once the Newseum — an institution devoted to journalism and the First Amendment that closed at the end of 2019 — The Source is now permanently shuttered.

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.”