Boston chef Barbara Lynch, who was accused of multiple forms of workplace abuse by more than 20 employees in a New York Times report last year, announced Friday that most of her restaurants had closed by the end of 2023. .
These include its fine-dining restaurant Menton, one of the city’s most prestigious destinations since its opening in 2010, and two others in the same building in the Fort Point neighborhood: the elegant trattoria Sportello and the sophisticated cocktail bar Drink. The Butcher Shop and Stir, both in South End, also closed.
No. 9 Park, the Beacon Hill institution upon which his empire was built, will remain in business, as will seafood bar B&G Oysters and Lynch’s newest project, The Rudder, a seasonal waterfront restaurant from nearby Gloucester, which opened its doors. in June after two years of delays.
About 100 employees have lost their jobs, according to a statement from the company Barbara Lynch Collective. On a Zoom call Friday, the company’s new chief operating officer, Lorraine Tomlinson-Hall, who was hired after the Times report was published, called the remaining restaurants “stellar” and signaled hopes for expansion in the company. north coast, where Lynch is located. lives.
In the statement, Lynch attributed the closures to “post-pandemic realities,” financial mismanagement by his former employees and “an uncooperative owner.”
Acadia Realty Trust, a New York-based investment company, owns the Fort Point building, one of the first luxury developments in the neighborhood: with Lynch’s three street-level restaurants, it helped usher in gentrification in the long-neglected area of South Boston where he grew up.
“Boston is no longer the same place where I opened seven restaurants in the last 25 years,” he wrote. “Properties have been flipped and flipped and landlords just want the rents that only national chains can sustain.” Acadia Realty did not immediately respond to phone calls seeking comment.
Ms. Lynch’s statement made no mention of the long-standing problems created by her alcohol abuse and verbal and physical attacks on employees, which led to high staff turnover and were an open secret among hospitality workers at Boston.
After a long, hard rise to the top from her difficult childhood in South Boston, the last few years have been a long, hard fall for Lynch, one of the most famous women in American food and a prominent chef in New England. since the 1990s.
At the peak of his success, around 2017, he earned countless culinary awards, a best-selling memoir, and a spot on Time magazine’s annual list of most influential people.
