According to Eater and various sources, El Faro, one of the oldest Spanish restaurants in the City, and one of the oldest period, will be shuttered indefinitely followed a visit by the health department that forced it to temporarily close its doors. The owner, Mark Lurgis, said he has to raise $80,000 to make the necessary changes and will stay closed until he does so. (No doubt, the DOH charged its usual ludicrous inflated fees.) The restaurant's kitchen is 150 years old.
Ironically, this is the restaurant I had planned to visit for my most recent "Who Goes There?" column. The night I scheduled to visit was the night it closed. I changed my plans and visited El Quijote, another Spanish standby, instead.
The Times says in today's Dining and Wine section that El Faro is closing for good. I hope that's not true.
ReplyDeleteIf you look at the city's Dept of Health site you can see the violations over the years. Hmmm, just 12 points last November. Then it suddenly shoots up in April. That doesn't sound like just the problems of an elderly kitchen. Sounds like quotas to me. Something evil is going on in the DoH.
ReplyDeletewow, haven't been here in ages. Sad.
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