{"id":120161,"date":"2026-02-02T16:27:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T16:27:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/120161\/"},"modified":"2026-02-02T16:27:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T16:27:16","slug":"chez-napoleon-serves-its-last-dinner-after-more-than-60-years-in-hells-kitchen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/120161\/","title":{"rendered":"Chez Napoleon Serves Its Last Dinner After More Than 60 Years in Hell\u2019s Kitchen"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>There was a crowd of people of all ages outside, spilling onto the sidewalk after a show at New World Stages \u2014 tourists comparing flights, theatergoers tucking into scarves, winter sneakers grinding through that dried-up salt-snow. Down the block, across the street, at the modest little restaurant at 10pm closing time, three tables of melancholics sipped water and the last dregs of cocktails, refusing to let the Edith Piaf soundtrack stop.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" width=\"1250\" height=\"833\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260131_w42st_chez-napoleon-closes_jorge.corona_003.jpg\" alt=\"Chez Napoleon Closes\" class=\"wp-image-127401\"\/>Some of the final diners at Chez Napol\u00e9on prepare to leave the restaurant on Saturday evening. Photo: Jorge Corona<\/p>\n<p>On Saturday night (January 31), resistance met reality: Chez Napol\u00e9on, the tiny French standby at 365 W50th Street (just west of 9th Ave), served its final diners and <a href=\"https:\/\/w42st.com\/post\/chez-napoleon-closing-hells-kitchen\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">closed its doors after more than six decades in the neighborhood<\/a>. The Bruno family has run the place since 1982 \u2014 with owner Elyane Bruno and her son Guillaume (better known to regulars as William, or \u201cSir William Welles\u201d) at the helm \u2014 but the pressures finally added up: higher costs, shifting dining habits, post-pandemic strain and building issues, <a href=\"https:\/\/w42st.com\/post\/chez-napoleon-saved-after-11-months\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">including a 358-day gas problem<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Success! Your account was created and you\u2019re signed in.<br \/>Please visit <a href=\"https:\/\/w42st.com\/my-account\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">My Account<\/a> to verify and manage your account.<\/p>\n<p>An account was already registered with this email. Please check your inbox for an authentication link.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/w42st.com\/post\/author\/jorge-corona\/\" rel=\"author nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Jorge Corona\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/cropped-Screenshot-2026-02-01-at-11.21.02-PM-80x80.png\"  class=\"avatar avatar-80 photo\" height=\"80\" width=\"80\" decoding=\"async\"\/>\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Jorge Corona is a Hell\u2019s Kitchen-based photographer, writer and filmmaker. He\u2019s covered national politics, sports, food and features for journalism outlets in New York and beyond, reporting in the US and internationally. An MFA film graduate, he also produces visual stories and shoots for NYC nonprofits.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<a class=\"author-link\" href=\"https:\/\/w42st.com\/post\/author\/jorge-corona\/\" rel=\"author nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\tMore by Jorge Corona\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There was a crowd of people of all ages outside, spilling onto the sidewalk after a show at&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":120162,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,43784,9,24,63,15679],"class_list":["post-120161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-cheznapoleon","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-whats-closing-and-closed"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}