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Gotham Restaurant owner files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection

The New York City culinary landmark is closed at least through August

Bret Thorn, Senior Food Editor

July 24, 2024

2 Min Read
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Gotham Restaurants LLC, operator of Gotham Restaurant, better known by its former name of Gotham Bar and Grill, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the Southern District of New York on Wednesday.

In the filing, the company listed its largest creditor as the New York State Department of Taxation Finance Bankruptcy/Special Procedures Section, which it owes nearly $484,000. It also owes tens of thousands of dollars to suppliers, the largest of which are Dairyland, which it owes nearly $97,000, and Baldor Specialty Foods, which it owes nearly $84,000. It also is indebted to credit card and utility companies and other service providers.

The 40-year-old restaurant, long a Manhattan fine-dining landmark, closed its doors in June as a result of what The New York Post called a cyberscam that cost it $45,000, which was enough to keep it from making payroll.

An outgoing phone message at the restaurant says it is closed for lunch and dinner service through August “to make a few improvements.”

The restaurant was opened in 1984 and Alfred Portale became executive chef and partner a year later. It soon became a fine-dining go-to in New York City, admired for, among other things, its dramatic presentations; Portale is credited for having invented “tall food,” in which many of a dish’s components were stacked on top of each other. It became a trend-forward style from the late ’80s through the turn of the century.

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Over the years the restaurant attracted many young cooks who went on to become culinary stars in their own right, including Wylie Dufresne, Tom Colicchio, and Bill Telepan.

Portale parted ways with the other owners in 2019 (he currently operates Portale, an Italian restaurant eight blocks away) and was briefly replaced by Victoria Blamey, a culinary rising star at the time, whose innovation won her high praise, including a three-star review in the New York Times.

The restaurant closed during the COVID lockdown, reopening in 2021 with its longtime pastry chef, Ron Paprocki, taking the helm as executive chef as well.

The bankruptcy filing did not state whether the restaurant would remain in business but it did report assets of between $1 million and $10 million and said funds would be available to unsecured creditors.

Gotham Restaurants legal representation is Gabriel Del Virginia.

Contact Bret Thorn at [email protected] 

About the Author

Bret Thorn

Senior Food Editor, Nation's Restaurant News

Senior Food & Beverage Editor

Bret Thorn is senior food & beverage editor for Nation’s Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality for Informa’s Restaurants and Food Group, with responsibility for spotting and reporting on food and beverage trends across the country for both publications as well as guiding overall F&B coverage. 

He is the host of a podcast, In the Kitchen with Bret Thorn, which features interviews with chefs, food & beverage authorities and other experts in foodservice operations.

From 2005 to 2008 he also wrote the Kitchen Dish column for The New York Sun, covering restaurant openings and chefs’ career moves in New York City.

He joined Nation’s Restaurant News in 1999 after spending about five years in Thailand, where he wrote articles about business, banking and finance as well as restaurant reviews and food columns for Manager magazine and Asia Times newspaper. He joined Restaurant Hospitality’s staff in 2016 while retaining his position at NRN. 

A magna cum laude graduate of Tufts University in Medford, Mass., with a bachelor’s degree in history, and a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Thorn also studied traditional French cooking at Le Cordon Bleu Ecole de Cuisine in Paris. He spent his junior year of college in China, studying Chinese language, history and culture for a semester each at Nanjing University and Beijing University. While in Beijing, he also worked for ABC News during the protests and ultimate crackdown in and around Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Thorn’s monthly column in Nation’s Restaurant News won the 2006 Jesse H. Neal National Business Journalism Award for best staff-written editorial or opinion column.

He served as president of the International Foodservice Editorial Council, or IFEC, in 2005.

Thorn wrote the entry on comfort food in the Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, 2nd edition, published in 2012. He also wrote a history of plated desserts for the Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets, published in 2015.

He was inducted into the Disciples d’Escoffier in 2014.

A Colorado native originally from Denver, Thorn lives in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Bret Thorn’s areas of expertise include food and beverage trends in restaurants, French cuisine, the cuisines of Asia in general and Thailand in particular, restaurant operations and service trends. 

Bret Thorn’s Experience: 

Nation’s Restaurant News, food & beverage editor, 1999-Present
New York Sun, columnist, 2005-2008 
Asia Times, sub editor, 1995-1997
Manager magazine, senior editor and restaurant critic, 1992-1997
ABC News, runner, May-July, 1989

Education:
Tufts University, BA in history, 1990
Peking University, studied Chinese language, spring, 1989
Nanjing University, studied Chinese language and culture, fall, 1988 
Le Cordon Bleu Ecole de Cuisine, Cértificat Elémentaire, 1986

Email: [email protected]

Social Media:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bret-thorn-468b663/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bret.thorn.52
Twitter: @foodwriterdiary
Instagram: @foodwriterdiary

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