A popular Upper West Side restaurant has abruptly shuttered after the owner suffered a bizarre, \u201clife-threatening\u201d accident in Mexico \u2014 and may be on the hook for more than $1 million in back rent, Side Dish has learned.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Milling Room, known for its airy dining room and vaulted glass ceiling \u2014 closed unexpectedly in December after more than 12 years with as much as $1.2 million owed to its landlord, according to a source close to the situation.<\/p>\n
When reached in Mexico, owner Luis Gonzalez declined to comment on how much he owed. He told Side Dish that he was forced to close following a mishap during an ancient temazcal ceremony, where participants enter a womb-like dark space with a fire and hot volcanic rocks, herbs and steam.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Owner Luis Gonzalez suffered a \u201clife-threatening\u201d accident in Mexico. Tamara Beckwith<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an ancient practice, and I\u2019ve been practicing these ceremonies my entire adult life. But this one was not well managed. It was too hot and crowded, and I fell onto the red rocks. Luckily, someone pulled me out and I\u2019m here to tell the story.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
He\u2019s had 14 surgeries since then and burns over 30% of his body.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But the owner had stopped paying rent long before that, sources told Side Dish.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe landlord thought it was better to work out a payment plan \u2014 the restaurant had been there a long time \u2014 instead of having\u00a0a vacant\u00a0storefront,\u201d a source said.<\/p>\n
The 7,000-square-foot\u00a0restaurant space at 445 Columbus Ave. between West 81st and West 82nd Streets is now available for lease at $60,000 a month. A contract is out with a top restaurateur, said Rafe Evans, the broker of record, with Walker, Malloy & Co.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Milling Room had closed in December and was going to become Ashi, a Mexican restaurant from top Mexican chef Jesus Duron.\u00a0 Walker, Malloy & Company, Inc<\/p>\n
\u201cThe neighborhood will be very pleased,\u201d Evans said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Indeed, the team behind the popular Olio e Piu and Boucherie eateries is currently in talks to rent out the space and create a Boucherie Upper West Side, sources told Side Dish exclusively.<\/p>\n
However, if the contract is not signed, there are \u201cmultiple other restaurateurs on standby,\u201d the source added.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The 7,000-square-foot\u00a0 restaurant space at 445 Columbus Ave., which seats 185, is now for lease for $60,000 a month. Walker, Malloy & Company, Inc<\/p>\n
As for the back rent, Evans would only say: \u201d When people leave, there\u2019s usually a back rent situation. ..You can\u2019t run a restaurant from thousands of miles away.\u201d<\/p>\n
After closing in December, the Milling Room was slated to become Ashi, a Mexican restaurant from top Mexican chef Jesus Duron, a two-Michelin-starred chef.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were preparing to relaunch as another restaurant, Ashi, but I couldn\u2019t materialize the change due to the accident,\u201d Gonzalez said. \u201cI was bedridden for four months. I had to take care of my health before anything else.\u201d<\/p>\n
The restaurant was going through a difficult time before the accident, Gonzalez said, as prices for everything from vegetables to meat were up \u201c20% to 30%\u201d since the pandemic.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The restaurant was going through a difficult time before the accident, Gonzalez said, as prices for everything from vegetables to meat were up \u201c20% to 30%\u201d since the pandemic.\u00a0 Walker, Malloy & Company, Inc<\/p>\n
\u201cHonestly, right now all my strength and attention is focused on my recovery,\u201d Gonzalez said. \u201cI was head of the operation and largely MIA, and things took the course they took. I had to prioritize my time and financial resources for restoring my health.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Gonzalez\u2019s former publicist has a different explanation for the very \u201ccharming\u201d restaurateur.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s in the wind,\u201d said Ken Frydman, hired by Gonzalez to publicize Ashi. \u201cNot only did he leave unpaid rent but he didn\u2019t pay his PR guy. The last time I saw him was a couple of months ago. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe sat\u00a0on a bench on Columbus Avenue, and he said was going to buy a million-dollar apartment in Montreal the next day, and that\u2019s the last I heard.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Yesterday\u2019s, a new cocktail bar, has opened at\u00a0157 Bleecker St.\u00a0 Courtesy of Jessica Bozzello<\/p>\n
We hear \u2026 that Yesterday\u2019s, a new cocktail bar, has opened at\u00a0157 Bleecker St.\u00a0in the former home of Carroll Place \u2014\u00a0 to bring a fresh take on old-school bar culture. Think classic cocktails, wood-fired pizza, throwback music, and watch parties for the NBA playoffs and upcoming World Cup.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Spanning 6,500 square feet across two floors, Yesterday\u2019s seats 150 people. It was designed by\u00a0Yakka Studio, with leather booths, \u201cbook nooks,\u201d and disco balls overhead.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A popular Upper West Side restaurant has abruptly shuttered after the owner suffered a bizarre, \u201clife-threatening\u201d accident in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":213358,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[288,68,289,2106,9,56,63,65,64,821,292,62],"class_list":["post-213357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-business","tag-exclusive","tag-food-drink","tag-mexico","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-restaurants","tag-side-dish","tag-upper-west-side"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213357","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=213357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213357\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}