50 Most Popular Restaurants That Won’t Reopen After the Pandemic

One of the best-known of a diminishing number of old-style Basque boarding houses/restaurants in Nevada, Idaho, and California, the 71-year-old Santa Fe served simple, hearty, multi-course meals in family-style abundance. A message on the restaurant’s Facebook page reads, “It’s official we have closed our doors. THANK YOU TO EVERYONE THAT HAS SUPPORTED US FOR THE LAST 71 YEARS. And a big thanks to all of our guests on our final night you made it an emotional yet awesome farewell.”

Restaurateur Gabriel Stulman bought this iconic Greenwich Village restaurant — once described by The New York Times as “a clubby Italian institution that had morphed into a kind of gay senior center” — from owner Fedora Dorato in 2010. In mid-September, Stulman announced that Fedora would not reopen from its temporary shutdown. “[O]ur stewardship of Fedora has come to an end,” read a post on the restaurant’s Facebook page. The business might have been able to overcome the obstacles presented by the pandemic crisis, the statement added, but “what’s been more devastating has been the lack of support from our elected officials on the city, state and federal level.” Stulman will honor Fedora with a one-day pop-up on Oct. 6 at Fairfax, another of his restaurants, just across the street.

A “The popular gastropub … [that] entertained droves of diners for a decade,” according to the LI Herald, Left Coast ceased operations in mid-August. “After 10 years, we are saying goodbye to our wonderful restaurant,” wrote the owners on their Facebook page. “We are sad yet inspired by the endless possibilities. As this chapter closes we have our eyes set on the future.”

“It is with great sadness that we announce the closing of The Mermaid Inn at 96 Second Ave.,” wrote restaurant owners, Daniel Abrams and Cindy Smith, in an open letter to “Our Valued Guests and Friends.” Debuting almost 18 years ago, this was the first location of what became a mini-chain of three more Mermaid Inns around Manhattan. “Our lease expired on August 31st and we were not able to come to an agreement with the landlord on how to move forward both during and after the pandemic,” the letter added.

This popular nine-year-old Williamsburg restaurant, known for its oysters, its New Orleans-style dishes, and its James Beard Award-winning bar program, is apparently out of business. Though it has issued no official statement, its website and Instagram page have shut down, its Facebook page continues no posts, and its phone number is not in service. Maison Premier’s sister restaurant, Sauvage, also in Brooklyn, is apparently similarly closed. Both restaurants filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy a year ago but had continued operating until they were closed, theoretically temporarily, with the advent of the pandemic.