[Ed note: This article was updated on September 8 to reflect the fact that the restaurant will be opening back up.]
A New York institution that was once rated the best restaurant in the world is closed for now like so many other dining spots across the country--but there appears to be a chance that it might not reopen.
According to an article in Bloomberg, the future of Eleven Madison Park in Manhattan is unknown, as chef-owner Daniel Humm says that "There is definitely a question mark over Eleven Madison Park—if it will reopen....It will take millions of dollars to reopen. You have to bring back staff. I work with fancy equipment in a big space. I want to continue to cook with the most beautiful and precious ingredients in a creative way, but at the same time, it needs to make sense." The 80-seat Madison Avenue dining spot closed for the time being back in mid-March, with its staff being laid off--including approximately 30% of them who were in this country on visas; Humm says of the workers, "They all had to go home without anything. It pretty much broke my heart."
Humm is a board member of Rethink Food, a nonprofit that turns excess food into meals for underserved communities, and he has actually converted the Eleven Madison Park space into a commissary kitchen while it is closed, preparing nearly 3,000 meals a day for people in need.
Eleven Madison Park is a fine-dining restaurant that has received countless awards since opening in 1988, including being named the #1 dining spot on The World's 50 Best Restaurants list in 2017.
[September 14 update: Eater New York states (via astrolabe.substack.com) that Eleven Madison Park will be able to reopen, as Daniel Humm has gotten enough funding to get through the pandemic and that the landlord "stepped up in a big way," while the bank where he gets loans from "allowed us to not pay until this is over." If all goes well, the restaurant could open as early as mid-November, with the worst-case scenario being that they open back up in March of 2021.]
by Marc Hurwitz (Also follow us on Twitter at @hiddenboston)
[A related post from our sister site (Boston's Hidden Restaurants): List of Restaurant Closings and Openings in the Boston Area]
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