Legendary Fine Dining Restaurant Files for Bankruptcy After Shutting Its Doors
This year's string of restaurant bankruptcies isn't over quite yet, unfortunately. After 40 years in business, an iconic fine-dining institution is facing bankruptcy as it looks to reorganize its hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt.
Gotham Restaurants LLC, the parent company of the iconic New York City eatery Gotham Restaurant, filed for Chapter bankruptcy on July 24. The filing revealed that the company is nearly $484,000 in debt to the New York State Department of Taxation Finance Bankruptcy/Special Procedures Section, Nation's Restaurant News reported. The company has racked up additional debt with credit card and utility companies and some of its food suppliers, including nearly $84,000 owed to Baldor Specialty Foods and nearly $97,000 owed to Dairyland.
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The bankruptcy news comes about a month after Gotham Restaurant, formerly known as Gotham Bar and Grill, temporarily closed its doors to customers. A pre-recorded message that plays upon calling the restaurant's phone number says that Gotham has "decided to take June and July of this summer to make a few improvements, and we are discontinuing dinner and lunch services until August."
Gotham co-owner Bret Csencsitz told the New York Post in June that they had halted operations after being targeted in a payroll cyberscam. Csencsitz said a thief impersonated a worker at their payroll company to get him to wire $45,000 to a new account, and his bank had yet to recover the lost funds.
Cassandra Csencsitz—a Gotham co-owner and Bret's wife—told Eater New York that they had already been running "close to the bone" each week. So, losing $45,000 added additional strain to their already tight finances.
"Please know that this was a difficult decision and it was not made lightly. Business levels and a recent cyber-deception incident that resulted in a large loss made it necessary for us to pause operations to consider our options. Please know that I am deeply appreciative to every employee, and I am sorry for any distress this may cause. I do hope that all will consider rejoining Gotham at the end of the summer," Bret Csencsitz said in an email to employees earlier this month, according to Eater NY.
This isn't the first time that the legendary New York restaurant has had to shut its doors. The eatery—known for its elaborate presentations and string of three-star New York Times reviews—closed for a whopping 18 months during the COVID-19 pandemic. Gotham then reopened in Nov. 2021 with new owners, a redesigned interior, a new menu, and former pastry chef Ron Paprocki as the new executive chef.
Though lunch and dinner services are currently on pause until August, Gotham recently reopened its bar and began serving cocktails and bites from 5 p.m. until closing time Tuesday through Friday. A legal representative for Gotham Restaurants LLC was not immediately available for comment on the bankruptcy filing and whether it will impact restaurant operations further.
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