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Goodbye, massive, 200-seat restaurants. Hello, smaller dining rooms.
On the heels of the closures of two very large, acclaimed Boston restaurants, The Atlantic food writer Corby Kummer says smaller restaurants are safer in the current economy.
Rocca restaurant, housed in a massive former factory building, shuttered its doors after New Year's Eve - a shocking development, Mr. Kummer reports, since its owners have been long-time supporters of the city and its chef, Tiffany Faison of Top Chef fame, is one of Boston's highest profile chefs. Similarly, Ginger Park, an equally large and stylish Boston restaurant, closed in December.
"[O]e possible national lesson from a sad local loss is that in the current economy...even a celebrity chef can't keep a very large restaurant open," Mr. Kummer writes. "...Another is that large restaurants are tough for independent restaurateurs to keep open, period."
But then, there's also something to be said about the coziness of a smaller dining room.
Certainly in Canada, we've seen a proliferation of tiny, bachelor apartment-sized restaurants since the recession. Could this be the end of large-scale restaurants?
Wency Leung