MenaTriBeCa restaurant, headed by chef Victoria Blamey, will close at Walker Hotel after its last service on Saturday, less than six months after it opened to enthusiastic reviews.
Mrs. Blamey announced closure for a Instagram post on Thursday morning, saying it was “an ownership decision”. She added that she was “dedicated to bringing Mena back” by reopening it in a different location.
In a phone call, Blamey declined to comment on details of the closure, but said she was informed of the decision about a week ago.
A spokesman for the Walker hotel said the hotel was the owner of the property, but a hotel company had leased the premises and brought Blamey back to run the restaurant. (Mrs Blamey is listed as a partner on the restaurant’s website, but she has denied being the owner.)
A spokesman for the hotel said the hotel company had decided to close the restaurant for “financial reasons”, and cited the challenges of labor shortages “and the current climate that makes a restaurant eat… good drink open the door.” She said there was a lack of demand after opening.
Mena is the hotel’s anchor restaurant, the spokesman said, adding that the hotel was delighted to have “someone of Victoria’s caliber arrive”.
Mena’s opening in January has received rave reviews from restaurant critics, including Pete Wells, who wrote in The New York Times that “Mena has eclipsed a lot of the other expensive restaurants that have opened in the city over the past few years.”
Before Mena, Madame Blamey ran the kitchen of Gotham Bar and Grill and Chumley’s in the West Village.
Some of the dishes at Mena are reinterpretations of some of her earlier ideas, like a bowl of lentils with grated mushrooms. But much of the menu is inspired by her upbringing in Santiago, Chile. Ms. Blamey said on Thursday that the restaurant gave her the opportunity to broaden her “vision about being a Latina, South American immigrant, but at the same time, have a broad background knowledge.” about classic, international dishes.”
Ms. Blamey said she hasn’t started looking for another location yet, but feels “the idea is to look ahead. It’s about what Mena will be more than what Mena has ever been. These situations happen, and I will work really hard to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”
