Midtown's Blue Smoke, Jazz Standard Close Permanently
MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY — After nearly 20 years in Midtown, the joint barbecue restaurant-jazz club Blue Smoke and Jazz Standard are closing permanently, its managers announced Wednesday, saying the businesses could not survive the pandemic.
"We have explored every avenue to arrive at a different outcome, but due to the pandemic and months without revenue—as well as a lengthy rent negotiation that has come to a standstill—we’ve reached the disappointing conclusion that there is no alternative but to close Blue Smoke Flatiron and Jazz Standard," reads a message on the restaurants' website.
The closure affects Blue Smoke's original "Flatiron" location at 116 East 27th St., while the restaurant's other location in Battery Park City will remain open.
Belonging to Danny Meyer's Union Square Hospitality Group, Blue Smoke first opened in March 2002. The Southern-inspired eatery quickly grew popular and helped spur a barbecue renaissance in New York City, Eater reported Wednesday.
Jazz Standard, meanwhile, first opened in 1997 and merged with Blue Smoke five years later. It was frequently named among the city's top clubs, praised by New York magazine in 2007 for its "critically acclaimed artists and unobstructed, candlelit views of the stage."
It is with great sadness that we, along w/ @BlueSmokeNYC, share that our doors on 27th Street will remain permanently closed. The current situation surrounding COVID and #livemusic regulations precludes us from maintaining our quality & continuing to "set the standard". @USHGNYC pic.twitter.com/rvFbey8F26
— Jazz Standard (@JazzStandardNYC) December 2, 2020
"We can’t begin to express how incredible it has been to make so many lasting friendships in both the barbecue and jazz communities throughout the last two decades. Those relationships live on," management wrote.
Blue Smoke and Jazz Standard are now two of the most high-profile casualties of the pandemic, but they are far from unique: more than 1,000 restaurants in New York City have closed permanently due to COVID-19, according to a running tally by Eater.
In September, a state audit found that more than half of New York's restaurants — as many as 12,000 — could close within months if they did not get help through city and state funding or a federal bailout.
This article originally appeared on the Midtown-Hell's Kitchen Patch
