Monday, March 16, 2020
I am late getting the story out here, but I wanted to update you. The last 5 days have been the most traumatic of my 30-year cooking career in NYC. Closing one restaurant is hard. Closing 11 at once is unfathomably difficult. A lifetime of teamwork, and millions of breakfasts, brunches, lunches, dinners, parties, and weddings, just–stopped. As this crisis developed, we had hoped to be able to find a way of staying open—giving our community a sanctuary and keeping our teams working—while keeping everybody safe. We worked nonstop to address the effects of COVID 19 and react in the best way possible. As things progressed, our plans changed by the hour. But it was impossible. We began closing restaurants last Thursday, and we have been steadily closing down our spaces since then. Now it's done. All of our restaurants, bars, pubs and event spaces are closed.Time to hunker down, be the best leader I can be, and look forward to the day we can get back to cooking for you and serving you. Hope it’s very soon. In the meantime, take care of yourselves and be strong.
