The Spotted Pig Restaurant Is Closing

(Bloomberg) -- The Spotted Pig, the West Village multistoried hot spot that was party central for celebrities in the 2000s, is shutting down. The news comes after a sexual harassment case against owner Ken Friedman, brought on by former employees, was settled on Jan. 7.

Rumors about a potential close had been floating even before New York Attorney General Letitia James announced that Friedman would pay $240,000, as well as 20% of the restaurant’s profits, to the victims. The shuttering of the restaurant was confirmed by Spotted Pig chef Tony Nassif who posted on social media that the restaurant had closed. He says the Spotted Pig has stopped serving food but might serve drinks Monday night.

The Spotted Pig opened in 2004 as one of New York’s first gastropubs, and it was a hit from the beginning. The celebrity roster of owners included Jay-Z; Michael Stipe, the former frontman of R.E.M.; and Norman Cook, the English DJ and musician who records under the name Fatboy Slim.

The Spotted Pig also distinguished itself with notable food—then-chef April Bloomfield served one of the city’s best burgers, topped with Roquefort and accompanied by a pile of shoestring fries. The restaurant had a famous “no substitutions” policy, and it was awarded a Michelin star every year from 2005 to 2016. During that time it was the de facto after-party spot for everyone who was in town to perform, from Coldplay to Kanye West.

But in December 2017 multiple reports of sexual harassment by Friedman were reported by the New York Times, ranging from physical relationships with employees to text messages demanding nude photos. The restaurant’s private third floor, where top chefs would hang out with celebrities, was nicknamed “the rape room” by former employees. Disgraced chef Mario Batali, another Spotted Pig investor, was a regular on the third floor. He reportedly stepped away from his empire in late 2017 in part because of video from the Spotted Pig’s third floor that showed him assaulting an unconscious woman.

“This is a sad day,” said Friedman via text. “An iconic special place is gone. There will never be another place like it again.” He declined to comment further.

Some chefs have already begun to ask about the possibility of taking over the space, which sits on prime West Village real estate at the corner of Greenwich Street and 11th Street. Jasmine Moy, a hospitality attorney with several clients in the business, says she would probably advise clients against taking over the space in light of how much available real estate there is in the area. “There are hundreds of thousands of dollars in NYC Department of Building fines against the space because of noncompliance, using parts of the building for things it wasn’t authorized for,” she says. 

Moy sees a possible changing of the guard throughout: “There’s a world in which the building owners who might be investors in the restaurant will sell or offload the building in its entirety. That would change things.”

To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Gaddy at jgaddy@bloomberg.net

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