With the virus gaining strength in numbers and the chance that indoor dining might shut down once again, the Nieporent brothers have decided to mothball both Tribeca Grill and Bâtard for the time being. It’s a big bummer, and to add to the heartbreak, this is Tribeca Grill’s 30th anniversary. (See the photo below of the staff at Montrachet, their first restaurant in the Bâtard space 35 years ago.)

“We just can’t make out right now,” said Tracy Nieporent, the partner who handles the marketing for their Myriad Restaurant Group, which also operates Nobu. “It’s not a winning formula. If you want to lose money, you can stay open — and I think everyone is in that same boat.”

Tracy said it felt good to be serving again after the lockdown — both restaurants reopened in August — but with winter weather setting in, outdoor dining, as he said, is “not rational.” Trying to figure out what the business would look like over the next four, five or six months was too hard to predict.

They also missed that “buzz” that their restaurants had; so many elements of hospitality and conviviality — greetings, hugs, handshakes — have been sacrificed to the virus. And the uncertainty of the future months, with regulations poised to change at any moment, made the decision more obvious.

“We’re living in a very very difficult time right now — and it’s not just restaurants, it’s museums and hotels and everybody,” said Tracy. “We’ve been resilient over the decades, but after a while you learn you just can’t fight certain things. You have to let nature take its course.”

 

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