What’s your favorite restaurant that has closed? The one you still think about, the one you miss with all your heart, the one you mourned? Most people ask for recs on places they can visit but let’s hold some space for the places we can’t. The ones that only live in fond memories.

Question

MaryAnn · Answer

Tortilla Flats in West Village: My family’s home away from home. Last stop of the night for drinks but their food was sneakily excellent. Legendary bartenders too! Just glad it was sent off in style and not a Covid-related death. RIP!

Leslie · Answer

886: The perfect chaotic Taiwanese American restaurant that always felt like a party. I knew I loved it before I even moved to NYC. A generation of young chefs and restaurateurs breaking rules and creating something exciting and cool out of food that tastes so nostalgic. 886 is the area code for Taiwan and this little restaurant on st marks was a home away from home for Taiwanese kids in the city all these years. It’s the end of an era, but it’ll always be a food media darling in my heart.

carina · Answer

Walzwerk in the Mission, SF - gone but not forgotten: charming and cozy, you felt like you were in a cool corner of berlin. the waitresses were super stylish, 100% from germany, and slightly intimidating but in a good way. super yums comfort food made with the best californian ingredients.

carina · Answer

Potlikker in Williamsburg, Brooklyn -- gone but not forgotten: not overly fussy, just solidly honed food with asian influences. the best neighborhood spot but also impressive to bring even the snobbiest out of town guests with very high international standards. lackluster interior tho. still wonder what the chef has been up to since then.

Sholokov · Answer

Stars: Best meal i ever ate

Simone · Answer

Axe in Venice Beach.: I dream about the salads, the ginger tea and the flax seed pancakes. I know they sell their mix still, but not the same. rip

Alaina Andreozzi · Answer

Momofuku Ssam Bar: The raw bar. The cocktails. The country ham and gravy. The bo ssam. Back room was iconic. Everything was perfect.

Kelsey · Answer

Bywater - Warren, RI: Only went once before they closed, but it was arguably the most glorious meal I’ve ever eaten. Patio vibe was impeccable, cool and casual.

Menu highlights: the most refreshing Pimm’s cup you’ve ever had, black sea bass crudo, green salad with garlic scape pesto, southern fried squid

Eric F · Answer

The Tomato (Denton, TX) 🍅: Pizza and pitchers of beer near the University of North Texas. Closed May 13, 2007, and set ablaze June 27, 2007 🔥 RIP

elaine · Answer

trois familia, silver lake: the potato taco had no business being so good! god damn. perfect crunchy shell, melted cheese, feathery, savory potato and a tangy carrot slaw enrobed in a soft tortilla. i’ve tried to replicate it at home so many times— the carrot slaw is amazing with ice cold cabbage.

Maddy · Answer

Spain Restaurant - NYC: The. Best. Vibe. I don't think I ever actually ordered food here, just endless pitchers of extremely potent sangria and beer. The (congenial yet somehow also grumpy) suited waiters would bring out free platters of tapas all night long. Everyone I brought here adored it. It was tragically closed during the pandemic, but people are still leaving love notes on Yelp.

Kaia · Answer

Noona’s ice cream: Not a resto but my fav east village ice cream shop

sunset strip mall · Answer

Han West (Berlin, Germany): i miss this place so much :( and it closed so suddenly! they had a location right by Tempelhofer Feld in Berlin, and you could pick up a box of the most delicious dumplings and fries to eat and gossip while the sun set with friends over the big abandoned tarmac. also such a special COVID-era discovery ... sigh.

Emily Teague · Answer

Johnny McGuire's Deli: Johnny McQuire’s was one of those places that became part of the fabric of my teenage life. “Health food sucks” was the motto, the sandwiches were messy, legitimately exceptional, and only eight bucks in a ski town. What I would do for a Ranchhand on sourdough

Mo · Answer

Bamiyan Afghani Restaurant: Bamiyan was a restaurant in the suburbs outside of Seattle. It was my first introduction to Afghan food and I have been obsessed ever since. When I googled the restaurant just now the yelp rating was 3.5, this is pure lies, I dream of their food. I went there for my birthday one year and - trigger warning gross - I stuffed myself so full that I ended up barfing in the parking lot afterwards and still considered it worth it. True story.

matilda gonzalez de anda · Answer

Thai kitchen at my mall’s food court: This place just closed down last week for what reason? I have no idea. The food was the same as any other cheap Chinese food place(even tho it was called thai kitchen it wasn’t really thai food) but what i’ll forever miss about this place are the free mango chicken samples one of the employees would always hand out over the counter for passersby walking near the food court.

I’ll forever miss faking a sour expression after eating the chicken sample so they don’t think i want to buy a full plate.

Jackson Hallman · Answer

Leroy London: The best meal I’ve ever had.

Conner · Answer

brucie in cobble hill: You had to be there.

Diana Morales Murthy · Answer

gusto d’Oro , Catford, London: What a lovely family restaurant for Italian seafood meals yummy and lovely people

Jenna · Answer

little fish in philadelphia

Skylar Hauge · Answer

Patrick’s Roadhouse Santa Monica: This celeb favorite is where I used to eat quesadillas after running away from surf-daycamp every day as a kid. At Patrick’s roadhouse every day was St. Patrick’s day the way when you are famous enough you can choose when Christmas is. RIP 🖤

Bon Vivantelah · Answer

Sidepie: Not a day goes by…(hopefully not forever)

Emily · Answer

frannys brooklyn: RIP the best neighborhood restaurant that ever existed ever

A · Answer

Allston Diner

Sophie B · Answer

Republic (NYC): Republic on Union Square in NYC. Far cry from the best food in NYC but I have so many childhood memories there, sitting at the tables with the big blown up images of people eating noodles. I yearn for their broken rice and fried wontons.

Katy · Answer

canale atwater village: This was a norcal style restaurant- beautiful, sophisticated food and low key cozy atmosphere. The type of place you could go for a special occasion dinner or spontaneously for brunch.

Anna · Answer

Eeva (Philly): Our first night out after moving to Philly was here. So was NYE and dinners celebrating promotions. We still make their chopped salad at home.

They also sold bagels in the morning, so every Sunday we would bike over for an everything bagel with herb cream cheese and cucumbers.

Coco Quizon · Answer

St. Clair's Supper Club in Chicago: I hope they find a new spot by the time I get to go to Chicago again. Best solo dining spot, loved sitting at the bar and talking to the lone bartender. Really great food, had that overdone speakeasy vibe but I enjoyed it and I think about it way too many times for some place I’ve only been to once.

mili · Answer

Rodeo Bar: I always got a fajita and my mom got margaritas. Peanut shells on the floor. 20 and 50 year olds making out after sweating on the dance line. A leather faced bartender who looks like he was flown in from New Mexico to Murray Hill just for the gig.

I didn't know at the time that I would ever know a world with out it. Never take your restaurants for granted!

Steven Weill · Answer

Mh Zh (3536 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles): Mh Zh was too good for this world. The menu was written daily on a piece of kraft paper with fun misspellings, doodles and the BRILLIANT option to 'Fire The Menu' which I managed to resist doing maybe once or twice out of the million times I sat on one of those sidewalk milk crates for a wood fired meal.

The head chef moved to OC and opened the pretty great Mayfield but it's obviously not the same and more importantly, it's in Orange County.

I check the Mh Zh instagram page every once in a while, fully delusional — thinking I'll see some news about a reopening.

Cecilia · Answer

Anella in Greenpoint, Brooklyn: This beloved Greenpoint bistro was everything. I miss the little bread loaves served baked in terracotta pots, I will miss their backyard— I especially miss the little plop of ripe cherries hitting the awning from their 100+ year old cherry tree. Anella was magical and it was the first restaurant that really made me fall in love with Greenpoint. 🍒

Analisa Burns · Answer

Cholada: burned down during last year's Malibu fires- this tiny family spot on the PCH had some of the best Thai food I've ever had.

(but I hear they are rebuilding🙏🏼)

Emma · Answer

Bicyclette: I regularly reminisce about my LA favorite, Bicyclette - a French bistro style restaurant on Pico just outside of Beverly Hills. The vibes were cozy and chic and the menu was the right balance of classic staple dishes and rotating seasonal specials. Luckily, Chefs Margarita and Walter Manzke also own and operate another LA classic, Republique near La Brea & Wilshire. Most importantly, the warm baguette with a mound of French butter imported from Normandy can also be found on Republique’s menu whenever I have a craving.

Samantha Culp · Answer

Hamburger Hamlet (Beverly Blvd. 1978): RIP The Sunset Blvd Hamburger Hamlet… beloved and remembered

Emily · Answer

Mother Dough 🍕 in Los Feliz 🪦: I think about my old neighborhood sit-down pizza place, Mother Dough, at least once a month. The dough and the bake were absolute perfection but the chef totally burnt out. We’ve all been in that place and I hope he’s finding more balance in life. But damn what I wouldn’t give for another one of these wood fired creations.