October Edition

Barbara Lynch Is Closing All of Her Remaining Restaurants

operating officer Lorraine Tomlinson-Hall confirmed with Eater today that Lynch is shutting down all of her remaining restaurants after other local outlets reported the sole closure of the Rudder in Gloucester earlier this morning: The Rudder is shutting down, but so is Lynch’s flagship spot in Beacon Hill, No. 9 Park, and B&G Oysters in the South End. The Rudder is closed effective immediately, No. 9 Park will close at the end of the year, and B&G’s exact closing date has not yet been finalized. coming to an end. Lynch’s chief B The chef’s ambitious, tumultuous era in Boston’s dining scene has come to an end oston’s Barbara Lynch era is officially “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.