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 would have closed at the end of 2023.
These include her gourmet restaurant Menton, one of the city's most prestigious destinations since it opened in 2010, and two others in the same building in the Fort Point district: the stylish Trattoria Sportello and the elegant cocktail bar Drink. The Butcher Shop and Stir, both in the South End, have also closed.
No. 9 Park, the Beacon Hill institution on which her empire was built, will remain in business, as will seafood bar B&G Oysters and Ms. Lynch's latest venture, Rudder, a seasonal waterfront restaurant in nearby Gloucester that opened in June after a two year delay.
According to the company Barbara Lynch Collective, about 100 employees have lost their jobs. In 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 “outstanding” and cited hopes for expansion on the North Shore, where Ms. Lynch Life.
In the statement, Ms. Lynch attributed the closures to “post-pandemic reality,” financial mismanagement by her former employees and “an uncooperative landlord.”
Acadia Realty Trust, a New York-based investment firm, owns the Fort Point building, one of the first luxury projects in the neighborhood: with Ms. Lynch's three street-side restaurants, it helped usher in the gentrification of the long-neglected neighborhood of South Boston, where she grew up.
“Boston is no longer the place where I opened seven restaurants in the last 25 years,” she wrote. “Properties have been flipped over and over again and landlords just want the rents that only national chains can maintain.” Acadia Realty did not immediately respond to phone calls seeking comment.
Ms. Lynch's statement failed to mention the long-standing problems arising from her alcohol abuse and verbal and physical aggression toward employees, which resulted in high staff turnover and were an open secret among Boston hospitality workers.
After a long, hard climb to the top during her difficult childhood in South Boston, the last few years have been a long, hard fall for Ms. Lynch, one of the most famous women in American gastronomy and one of New England's leading chefs since the 1990s.
At the height of her success, circa 2017, she had countless culinary awards, a best-selling memoir, and a spot on Time Magazine's annual Most Influential People list.