Most Popular Restaurants That Won't Reopen After the Pandemic

Variously described by local media as “world-renowned” and a “landmark,” this Tucson Mexican institution was born in the mid-1980s at a different location, moving to larger quarters in 1989. It is now closed for good. A statement on the restaurant’s website quotes proprietor Suzana Davila as saying that after “months of conversation and consideration” with her children, she has decided that remaining open is unfeasible. She blames “the impact of a world pandemic that did not discriminate even with the most successful of businesses.”

“Because of the ongoing pandemic, the temporary closure of the 101 Coffee Shop has become permanent,” according to a statement issued in early January by Warner Ebbink, co-owner of this popular Hollywood hangout. The place operated for almost 20 years, during which time stars like Nicolas Cage, Rosanna Arquette, and Jon Hamm became regulars, and the place was featured in “Entourage” and “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.” A GoFundMe campaign has been launched in support of the coffee shop’s former employees.

The original Cliff House, overlooking the Pacific above Ocean Beach, dates from the mid-19th century. Over the decades, it suffered several fires, an explosion, and the city’s catastrophic 1906 earthquake and was frequently rebuilt or remodeled. The National Park Service took ownership in 1977, incorporating it into the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, and in 1998 leased it to the Hountlas family — who also ran the now-shuttered Louis’ nearby (see below) — as operators. In December, the family announced that it was being forced to close the place, blaming economic pressures brought on by the pandemic as well as the apparent intransigence of the NPS in renewing their lease, which expired in 2018.

Chef Dave Beran, a veteran of Grant Achatz’s Michelin-three-star Alinea in Chicago, opened this 18-seat tasting-menu establishment in 2017, promptly scoring a rave review from LA Weekly and going on to win a Michelin star of his own in 2019. When COVID-19 restrictions made operating the restaurant untenable — there was little room for social distancing in the tiny dining room — Beran tried rebranding the place as Tidbits, a balcony wine bar serving small plates. That experiment came to an end on Nov. 7, and Beran has now given up the place completely.

This upscale regional Chinese restaurant was opened in 2012 by chef Martin Yan — known for his many TV food shows and appearances as a judge on “Iron Chef” and other cooking competition programs — and partners Ronny and Willy Ng of the Bay Area’s Koi Palace restaurants. The place closed in April of last year for what was supposed to be a temporary hiatus, but a spokesperson for the Westfield San Francisco Centre mall, where M.Y. China was located, told Eater in late November that it “will not be returning to the center” even after the pandemic subsides.

Described by the San Francisco Chronicle as a “fantastical seafood restaurant,” Farfallon was noted for its over-the-top decor, which included jellyfish lamps hanging from the ceiling, octopus stools, and a staircase covered with 50,000 iridescent blue marbles. But now the restaurant has called it quits. The 23-year-old establishment has been closed since March, and co-owner Pete Sittnick told the Chronicle that “It was just not going to make sense given all the ramifications of the pandemic for Farallon to try to reopen either as it was — as a fine-dining restaurant with a lot of seats — or to try to think about how to pivot the restaurant.”

This legendary steakhouse’s 30-year-old Santa Monica offshoot closed for good in June last year. Now it’s the original’s turn. Almost a century old when it shuttered (it was founded in 1921), this downtown landmark was open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It was famous for serving customers of every description, dressed in everything from black tie to beach togs. An article two years ago in the Los Angeles Times noted that servers have “waited on strippers, dispensary owners and the San Antonio Spurs.” A statement on the restaurant website says, “We’re taking a beat to assess what next steps are regarding COVID-19 city mandates” — but the Dining Car’s furniture, equipment, and memorabilia are being sold off at auction, and owner Wes Idol says that the operation is switching to online sales only.

In what Time Out described as “a shocking turn,” noted Los Angeles chef-restaurateur Josef Centeno — whose other establishments, Orsa and Winston, have a Michelin star — closed Bäco Mercat early in August. Known for its flatbread sandwiches, fried chicken, and seasonal small plates, the establishment is credited with having kicked off the lively downtown L.A. dining scene when it opened in 2011. “I’m not one for dwelling too much on anything,” wrote Centeno philosophically in a statement on the restaurant’s Instagram page when he announced its closing. “I know that there is always a beginning, a middle and an end.”

Los Angeles is home to the world’s largest Korean community outside Korea itself, and its ever-growing Koreatown neighborhood has long been famous for its many restaurants, serving both traditional and modern Korean fare. Dong Il Jang was one of the oldest of these, launched 42 years ago. In announcing their closing on Instagram, the owners wrote, “Over the four decades we have been through many difficult situations but the Covid-19 pandemic has made it very difficult for us to survive…”

German-born, French-trained chef Joachim Splichal opened the original Patina in Hollywood in 1989, moving it downtown to the Frank Gehry-designed Walt Disney Concert Center in 2003. Patina eventually spawned an empire of more than 50 other restaurants in five states and Japan, and while Splichal no longer owns the Patina Restaurant Group, the original had remained his flagship. Last July, the company informed employees that its contract with the Concert Center hadn’t been renewed and that their jobs would be eliminated effective Aug. 15.

According to the New York Times, the proprietors of this hole-in-the-wall tasting-menu restaurant — French chef Ludo Lefebvre and his American colleagues Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo (of the popular Animal and Son of a Gun) — “are surely among the most influential restaurateurs” in L.A. Unfortunately, neither their prominence nor their Michelin star helped them survive the pandemic. “Covid-19 has changed everything,” Lefebvre wrote on his Instagram page, adding, “I had to accept the reality that it was time to let the idea of reopening Trois Mec go.”

Español Italian Restaurant — the oldest continuously operating restaurant in the state capital, opened in 1923 — has announced that it has permanently ceased operations. Originally, the dining room at the Hotel Español, or Spanish Hotel, was known for Basque food. When the Luigi family bought it in 1959, they switched to Italian fare, moving the place to its current location in 1965. Looking at the books in early July last year, co-owner Perry Luigi told Valley Community Newspapers, he “kind of made the decision that we can’t stay open another month or everything will be gone.”

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.”

Opened in 1992 in Denver’s Cherry Creek neighborhood, Zaidy’s became a go-to place for Reuben sandwiches and other classic deli fare. In announcing that it is now “closing its doors indefinitely,” a statement from the owners on the deli website explained that they had “made the decision to stop compromising the integrity and quality of our renowned Jewish comfort food in order to stay open, no matter how much we wish we could.”

An essential pizza stop for decades for students from the nearby University of Florida, the 47-year-old Leonardo’s went out of business on Dec. 16. It would have closed in 2021 anyway — the university bought the property in 2016 as part of the site for a new $55 million music school — but its lease ran through July 2021. COVID-19 made staying open that long impossible. “The pandemic led to a financial burden that we couldn’t withstand,” co-owner Brian Johnson told The Gainesville Sun. The pizzeria was opened the same year as another local restaurant, originally under the same ownership, called Leonardo’s 706. That place closed in August.

This 30-year-old waterfront restaurant and sports bar in the John’s Pass Village and Boardwalk complex southwest of Tampa — known for its collection of Florida Gators memorabilia — has been closed since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in March. Now it has called it quits for good, announcing on its Facebook page in mid-October that “With a heavy heart, we deliver the news that Gator’s Cafe will not be reopening.”

Opened by Greek immigrants John and Maria Giannes in 1979 and more recently run by their son Christos, this well-liked East Cobb area establishment, which has occupied three different locations over the years, closed on Dec. 5. The younger Giannes wrote on Facebook, “I have decided to curtail talks with landlord over options to remain operational,” adding, “My heart goes out to the independent operators, their staffs and their families, struggling to navigate the unknown and unpredictable course of Covid-19.”

Known for its casual but authentic Italian cuisine and its unusual train-car dining room, this 27-year old establishment served its last meal at the end of December. Owners Val and Sonny Dervishi wrote on the restaurant Facebook page on Dec. 18 that they were “devastated,” but although they survived “the dot com bubble, 9/11, and the 2008 housing and financial crisis,” the pandemic “has brought us beyond the point of not being able to meet our obligations.”

“It is with heavy hearts that we have come to the decision to close Fountainhead effective November 14, 2020,” wrote the owners of this North Side establishment on their Facebook page on Oct. 1. According to Eater, Fountainhead “helped usher the age of the gastropub in Chicago” when it opened in 2010. The restaurant’s Facebook statement went on to say, “We would like to hold out a little bit of hope that if, by chance, the situation changes, we will be able to stay in business.” However, they also admitted that “pressures facing our industry at this time make it financially impossible to operate past the roof deck season.

This well-loved West Loop restaurant — hailed by the Chicago Tribune as “one of Chicago’s greatest restaurants” — was opened 23 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.”

For almost 25 years, Three Floyds Brewing has produced some of America’s most delicious beers, and in 2005 it opened a brewpub adjacent to the brewery. Serving such fare as cheese curds, fish & chips, and smothered calzones, it became, according to the regional news publication NWI.com, “a major draw to Northwest Indiana for years.” The brewpub closed permanently as of Dec. 1. A letter to investors, signed by brewery founder Nick Flyod and his team, said, “As many of you know, this pandemic has not been kind to the restaurant industry, and we are no exception.” Three Floyds will continue to brew its popular beers.

Mark and Connie Martin opened this popular fried-chicken emporium in 2000, but it traces its origins to a small 1870-vintage hotel and restaurant in nearby Brookville, bought by the Martin family in 1894. Despite the establishment’s long history — and recognition as an “American Classic” by the James Beard Foundation in 2007 — the place became yet another victim of the pandemic in late September. Martin told WION-TV that he usually cleared $50,000 a year in profits, but by the time he shut down last year he had already lost $50,000.

The demise of the legendary K-Paul’s last 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.”

“People from Aroostook County and beyond have been enjoying Reno’s Family Restaurant’s one-of-a-kind pizzas for over half a century,” enthused an article in The County in January. Co-owner Danny Corriveau added that he hoped to continue running the 55-year-old place for the next decade. Then came COVID-19. The Corriveau family posted a notice on Reno’s website, announcing that the restaurant would close on Sept. 30. “Face masks, plexiglass shields, it’s just not what Reno’s was,” Corriveau told WAGM-TV.

Once hailed as one of the best gastropubs in America by Food & Wine, this popular 10-year-old aftershow stop for patrons of the Downtown Crossing district’s theaters has permanently turned out the lights. “It’s time to say goodbye,” wrote owner Frankie Stavrianopoulos on Facebook. According to a Twitter post by one of his partners in the enterprise, Ace Gershfield, the place counted on revenue not only from theater patrons but also from local office workers, and both groups were now largely absent from the area.

Built in 1954 in New Jersey — the so-called Diner Capital of the World — and originally called Pal’s Diner, this old-style eatery was moved to Grand Rapids in the early 1990s, becoming Dan’s Diner when chef Dan Chudik bought it in 2018. The diner was able to stay open in the pandemic’s early days, alternating between dine-in and takeout as Michigan restrictions changed, and receiving PPP money to help pay employees. However, when the state issued a new ban on indoor dining on Nov. 18 for a minimum of three weeks, Chudik threw in the towel. “Whether or not shutting down restaurants is right or not, who knows?” he told Michigan Live. “But if we can lower the numbers and keep people from dying, then you got to do what you got to do.”

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.”

Occupying a building that traces its history back two centuries, this institution in the city’s Lemay neighborhood — featuring what it billed as “The Original St. Louis Style Pizza” — opened in 1954. It became a family favorite, and comments on the restaurant’s Facebook page sentimentally recall first dates, birthdays, anniversaries, and other momentous occasions celebrated there. It was also on Facebook that the owners announced that Aug. 30 would be the restaurant’s last night of service, “Due to covid and unforeseen circumstances …”

George LaForge emigrated from Paris to Las Vegas in 1962, and after working at the Desert Inn for 11 years he opened a crêperie called The Morning After. Three years later, he launched this more serious place, serving things like escargots, foie gras, and rack of lamb. Eater Las Vegas described it as one of the city’s oldest restaurants (it long predated the appearance of celebrity chef restaurants in the early 1990s) and “a hidden gem for both locals and celebrities alike.” LaForge died in 2019, and late last year, his widow announced that she was closing the place, citing a substantial loss of business after the Las Vegas convention business evaporated due to the pandemic.

This 47-year-old Romanian Jewish restaurant, an iconic establishment on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, posted a message on its Instagram page on Jan. 3 reading in part: “It is with great sadness that we announce that the rumors are true and we have had to shut the doors.” Owner David Zimmerman told Gothamist that he plans to reopen the place in another location at some undetermined point in the future, adding in a text message that “We can’t wait and hope to see everyone enjoying latkes, vodka, chopped liver and steaks once again.”

In 2003, at the height of his pre-scandal fame as a celebrity chef-restaurateur, Mario Batali opened this Greenwich Village pizzeria-cum-wine bar in partnership with his associate Joe Bastianich. Business reportedly declined, here as at other Batali-Bastianich enterprises, after Batali was accused of sexual harassment and other offenses in 2017. When the pandemic hit earlier this year, Otto closed temporarily, then reopened with a limited takeout menu. While Bastianich has issued no official statement on the closure, a representative of the building’s owners told Grub Street in early November that the space was available to rent.

This modest Taiwanese restaurant, known for its fried chicken and pork buns, launched the career of chef Eddie Huang — who went on to write a best-selling memoir, “Fresh Off the Boat,” which in turn became an ABC-TV sitcom running for six seasons. That didn’t ultimately help the restaurant. Posting on Instagram in early October, Huang said, “We held out as long as we could, but have decided to close.” While Huang didn’t specifically mention COVID-19, the owner of a neighboring convenience store painted a dark picture of the local business climate to Spectrum News NY1. “There is no future,” he said. Speaking of potential customers, he added, “I don’t think they are going to come back until January, maybe.” Huang is now directing a movie, “Boogie,” about a Chinese-American basketball player in New York City.

When San Francisco’s Mission Chinese expanded to Manhattan in 2012, according to Eater critic Robert Sietsema, it hit the city “like a ton of bricks, generating long lines eager for salt cod fried rice, chicken hearts in Sichuan chile oil, and Mongolian long beans.” The challenges posed by the pandemic, however, were its undoing. A message from Bowlien on the restaurant’s Instagram page in mid-September said that he was closing the restaurant, with plans “to create a business model that forges a new path for survival on our terms.” That’s probably just as well because a story on Grub Street in late October detailed “nightmare” working conditions in the restaurant’s kitchen, including racist insults and physical abuse. (A second location, in Brooklyn, remains open.)

Blaming the inflexibility of his landlord, celebrated restaurateur Keith McNally announced on Instagram in late July that his French brasserie in downtown Manhattan’s Beekman Hotel, opened in 2016, is now out of business. McNally, who himself was hospitalized for COVID-19 last April but is now fully recovered, had earlier closed his 31-year-old SoHo bistro Lucky Strike due to the pandemic. On Instagram, McNally wrote that he looked forward to seeing his customers at one of his other New York City establishments — which include Balthazar, Pastis, and Minetta Tavern — “Or Debtor’s Prison – whichever comes first.

Opened in 1972, this unpretentious diner has served breakfast and lunch — waffles, of course, as well as pancakes, omelettes, burgers, sandwiches, and the like — to generations of University of North Carolina students and staff as well as the Chapel Hill community at large. A message posted on the restaurant’s Facebook page on Dec. 1 read in part, “After much consideration, we have decided to close Ye Olde Waffle Shoppe,” adding that “from a public health perspective and due to the ongoing challenges of the pandemic, it is the right choice for us.”

In a lengthy Facebook message posted Sept. 18, Elmo’s — famous for almost 30 years for its all-day breakfasts — announced that it was permanently closed. “We cannot wrap our heads around how we can safely serve people and stay distant from our co-workers and our customers,” read the statement in part. “We cannot wrap our heads around how limited capacity can pay the bills or how take-out can be enough to outweigh the risks for both us and our customers.” The message adds, “while scrutinizing the whole of our situation, our moral and financial obligations we realized we have been waiting in denial for a miracle.”

Cleveland’s best-known chef, Michael Symon, announced on Nov. 20 that he was shutting down his flagship downtown bistro permanently. The 23-year-old Lola closed at the start of the pandemic, then reopened for limited service on June 25. Several Lola employees tested positive for COVID-19 the week of Nov. 16, but Symon’s business partner, Doug Petkovic, told Cleveland.com that the closure wasn’t related to those cases. “We closed because the pandemic made the situation untenable at the level of business we were doing,” he said.

“They don’t get much more Cleveland than Sokolowski’s,” according to Cleveland Scene. Founded in 1923, the restaurant served Polish specialties to celebrities (including more than one U.S. president) and ordinary locals alike. Facing health issues, third-generation proprietors Bernie and Mike Sokolowski, who owned the place with their sister Mary Lou, had planned to close the place for good after their 100th anniversary two years hence. “Covid just sped up our decision unfortunately,” Mike told a reporter for Cleveland’s WOIO-TV.

“One of the early stars in Portland’s culinary renaissance,” as Eater put it, 13-year-old Beast is history. Owner Naomi Pomeroy explained to The Oregonian’s Oregon Live website that her tiny restaurant — which occupied only about 800 square feet, including kitchen, prep area, and bathroom — could serve only about two dozen customers at two communal tables, even in pre-COVID times. Now, she said, she’d have room for only eight customers to observe social distancing protocols. Pomeroy told Eater that she might reopen Beast in a larger space once the pandemic has passed, and in the meantime plans to install a neighborhood market, called Ripe Collective, in its former premises.

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.

When this restaurant featuring seafood and Lowcountry fare opened in 1993, The Post and Courier dubbed it “the hottest spot in town.” In reporting the establishment’s demise in early December, the publication noted that it “helped build the first wave of Charleston’s current culinary renaissance.” Unfortunately, COVID-19 proved too much for the place, which posted a message on its Instagram page on Dec. 7 saying: “Sadly, last night was our final dinner service after 27 years.”

On Jan. 8, this crowd-pleasing pizzeria and sandwich shop — which described itself as “Austin’s Carb Capital, since 1994” — posted a message on its Facebook page announcing that it would close, “with great sadness,” effective Jan. 17. The landmark restaurant opened 27 years ago in a distinctive stone building dating back to 1898. A last-minute rush of business prompted the restaurant to add that it was doing its best “to keep up with the demand the closure has created but we’re a much smaller crew than before covid.”

Oct. 24 was the final day for Mother’s Café, a 40-year-old vegetarian restaurant in the Texas capital’s Hyde Park neighborhood. In September, John Silverberg, owner of the iconic establishment, told CBS Austin that since the pandemic hit, “We’ve seen a 75% drop.” Mother’s had been serving only a limited takeout menu, and by mid-October, Silverberg realized that the business wasn’t sustainable and made the decision to shut down permanently.

This iconic 73-year-old Texas cafeteria chain, with some 60 locations currently open across the Lone Star State, announced on Sept. 8 that it was liquidating its assets. Generations of Texans have flocked to Luby’s for its chicken-fried steak and other comfort food (it was a particular family favorite for Sunday lunch). The chain responded to the emerging pandemic in March by temporarily closing restaurants and furloughing more than half its corporate employees. In June, Luby’s revealed that it was putting its restaurants up for sale, at least partially, due to the effects of COVID-19. The decision to shut the operation down was made to “maximize value for our stockholders, while also preserving the flexibility to pursue a sale of the company should a compelling offer that delivers superior value be made,” Luby’s CEO and president Christopher J. Pappas said in a statement. The company also owns the nationwide Fuddruckers burger chain, which is also being liquidated.

This iconic 83-year-old establishment north of Houston, said to have been the oldest café in Texas still in its original location, is gone for good. Owner John Strickland told The Huntsville Item that he had remained closed for months out of concern for the health of his customers, many of whom were seniors, and his staff. However, he said, “I had not intended to close it permanently.” When he realized that that would be necessary, he sold the building, which will apparently be turned into a museum.

“Sold Out: All Locations Are Now Closed,” reads a message on the home page for this 13-unit Virginia cafeteria chain. In noting its demise, the News Virginian described the typical Country Cookin unit as “A community gathering place for lovers of low-cost buffet dining and where kids ate for free.” Oct. 17 was the chain’s last day in business. “The devastation to our communities, industry, employees and company resulting from the pandemic and mandated closures is heart-breaking,” wrote company president Tom Dodson on the chain’s social media platforms.

Jalisco was a modest storefront restaurant known for its colorful decor, its wide-ranging menu, and the warmth and hospitality of the owners. Some sources report that it was 28 years old, but the restaurant’s website reads “Est. 1977.” Whatever its age, it closed without fanfare in December. Allecia Vermillion, editor-in-chief of Seattle Met, while admitting that she’d never been to the place, told Eater Seattle that “The Jaliscos of the world give our life texture and connection — and those are the things we lose when a restaurant closes.”

Oct. 30 marked the end for this James Beard Award-winning restaurant, which the Seattle Times said “represented a movement in Seattle dining: talented, independent chefs expressing creativity and supporting local farmers.” Since COVID-19 hit, chef-owner Maria Hines told the publication, her business had dropped 70%. She added, though, that saving lives was more important than the shuttering of her establishment — an act she described as “downright trivial compared to a lot of the suffering people are going through.”

The description on the website of this casual eatery on the south shore of Lake Superior says: “Owner Mary H. Rice’s ode to flamingos, food and fun delivers the best of Bayfield’s fruits, vegetables and fresh fish to your table.” On Oct. 20, Rice added a note to Maggie’s homepage that reads, “Moving through these uncertain times and with the daily changing industry landscape, on December 31st, 2020, the doors to Maggie’s will be closing permanently and I will be retiring from the restaurant world

An innovative Mexican establishment launched in 2018 by chef Victor Albisu, owner of the Taco Bamba taquería chain in northern Virginia, Poca Madre reached the No. 6 slot on Washingtonian’s list of the area’s 100 best restaurants, and Washington Post critic Tom Sietsema named it one of his top ten favorites in 2019. Poca Madre — along with an adjacent Taco Bamba location — closed with the implementation of a dine-in ban in mid-March, theoretically for a limited period. According to Washingtonian, with tourism in the restaurant’s neighborhood down 53% and offices operating at only 5% capacity, Albisu has made the decision not to reopen either place.