“I am very proud of what I have achieved over three decades, creating these much-loved entities where so many of you chose to celebrate your special occasions,” Lynch said in a statement on the closures. “The harsh realities of the global pandemic and the many difficulties faced calls for significant investment, which neither myself nor my fellow shareholders are positioned to do.”
The group is working to finalize sales on the spaces as the restaurants wind down. Tomlinson-Hall says that they are in advanced discussions with a buyer for No. 9 Park, and the group is hopeful that jobs will not be lost at the restaurant as ownership changes hands. “A lot of hard work has been undertaken to find a buyer who is interested in developing that iconic space with a desire to build upon the legacy that has seen No. 9 Park operate for 26 years,” Tomlinson-Hall said in an email.
If all goes according to plan, the sale will be finalized and the restaurant will undergo renovations starting on January 2, 2025. The group is timing the closure to allow for one last holiday season at the restaurant, including the final annual holiday lunch, plus time for gift cards to be honored before the shutdown after service on December 31.
The news comes less than a year after Lynch shut down Sportello, Menton, and Drink in Fort Point, as well as the Butcher Shop and Stir in the South End. The group was similarly looking for buyers for those spaces when they announced the closures in early January; the Butcher Shop spot was initially earmarked for a Lynch protégé, but that deal fell through and the space has since been taken over by the South End’s Mazi Food Group (Kava Neo-Taverna, Ilona, Gigi), which is planning to open an all-day gastropub in a few months. The futures of the other spaces are still unknown.
Recent years have been tumultuous for Lynch and her restaurants. Over a dozen employees came forward to allege in both the Boston Globe and the New York Times that Lynch fostered toxic workplaces in the wake of two Menton employee deaths, which she has denied. Separately, a group of employees sued Lynch last year for allegedly withholding tips during the pandemic, which she has also denied. (That lawsuit is ongoing.) Lynch was also arrested and charged with drunk driving in 2017.
Still, Lynch is a renowned figure in Boston’s dining scene. A South Boston native, the chef has been a driving force in putting Boston restaurants in the national spotlight since the late 1990s, when her James Beard award-winning Beacon Hill restaurant No. 9 Park first opened. She went on to open five more restaurants in Boston, cementing her status as one of the city’s most prominent (and prolific) restaurateurs. The projects ranged from fine-dining destination Menton to Drink, Lynch’s subterranean cocktail den where there was no menu and each drink was crafted to diner’s tastes. The latter was at the industry’s forefront, ushering in a new age of craft cocktail bars in the U.S. when it opened in 2008.
