Huge blow to the downtown Wilmington restaurant community as well as a major bummer.
Just received from an email from Nate Garyantes, one of the owners, and the very talented chef, of 821 in downtown Wilmington.
The Market Street restaurant "has closed its doors for service....An economy on the brink of recession, rising operating costs, and a difficult city location are all reasons for the owners to close the restaurant," he wrote.
"We are particularly sorry to have to close right before Meals from the Masters and Restaurant Week, both events that we have always thoroughly enjoyed being a part of. We are extremely grateful to all of our patrons for our three and a half successful years, and are honored to have received the recognition that we have."
Nate Garyantes (in the photo at last year's Meals from the Masters event at the Bank of America building in Wilmington) and co-owner Alysha Garyantes bought the eatery from former owner Tobias Lawry in 2004.
Nate wrote that he is continuing to pursue other opportunities as a chef and restaurant consultant.
Let's hope so.
Nate, good luck and let us know where you land.
11 comments:
"Difficult city location" Read between the lines.
Wilmington is a joke - and I live in the city - by choice.
IT won't be long before the banks start pulling out and the crime forces the second wave of mass migration out of the city.
What about my $100 Gift Cert??? They could at least let me get my last meal.
seriously, can't wait til I transfer out and save about $1200/yr on wage tax..
WHY SO NEGATIVE?? LOOK AT THE PROGRESS OF THE RIVERFRONT. BUCCINI HAS BOUGHT ALL OF MARKET ST AND IN A YEAR IT WILL BE AN AMAZING PLACE....
I hate to be the one that said "I told you so", but I did. The city is dead and nothing can revive it...it's been tried and failed, time and time again. Give it up and write it off. It's history.
It's Wilmington; the food is too eclectic for the neighborhood... the North Wilmington socialites will spend their $$ there to look good and then move on. After you feed the group that can understand that type of food, after those 200 or so folks have moved on, who else do you feed?
BUCCINI POLLIN started buying up Market Street more than a year ago- promises that Market Street would get better started looong before that. The place is scarier than ever before. No wonder people leave ths city. I'm tired of hearing the hoopla. Maybe it's time to admit when it's not going to happen...
North Wilmington is full of "socialites"??? Since when?? Centreville maybe...Philly maybe, but not North Wilmington. I ate at 821 once, and nothing about that place was casual. It was waaaay too out there to be successful in Wilmington.
The menu (before they changed it as a last resort) was so complicated that the waitstaff would apologize when they handed it to you. It was trying to hard to be chic and ended being overpriced and snobby. Even one of the owners told me “We changed the menu because no one around here understands haute cuisine”. Ha. Elitist posers. Just means The Exchange will get more business after the Grand lets out.
Responding to the question about the gift certificate, the outgoing message notes that gift certificates will not be refunded.
Not only that, but they are still selling them on line!
How can that be legal? Don't they know what escheating is?
The problem here was more than just the neighborhood, it was also a confused owner/chef who had too many other things on his mind than running a good restaurant- those in the know will know about his legal problems.
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