One of the world’s best restaurants, Eleven Madison Park, may not reopen after the pandemic, its chef owner has admitted.
Daniel Humm said a ‘question mark’ hangs over the future of his three Michelin starred joint, telling Bloomberg reopening ‘will take millions of dollars’.
He added: ‘You have to bring back staff. I work with fancy equipment in a big space. It needs to make sense.’
Eleven Madison Park is a favorite with celebrities and in 2017 earned the No 1 spot on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list. As recently as January Gigi Hadid and Zayn Malik celebrated the singer’s 27th birthday there.
Announcing their closure at the outbreak of the pandemic, the restaurant had said in a statement: ‘In this unprecedented crisis, the health and well-being of our staff and our guests is of primary importance; in keeping with NYC and NY State requirements, Eleven Madison Park will be closed beginning Monday, March 16.
‘We hope to open our doors soon when all of this has passed, and look forward to seeing you then.’
Humm said he had considered a delivery service but decided he ‘didn’t feel’ that ‘the world needed Eleven Madison Park food in fancy boxes’.
Other top Manhattan restaurants, including Carbone and Peter Luger, had opted to offer take out. The latter has now closed indefinitely.
Humm said: ‘I knew it wouldn’t make so much money. Anyway, I didn’t want people to be exposed; delivery isn’t what we do.
‘At EMP, we’re in a bubble sometimes, but we were literally full, up until the end.’
Since then Humm, who moved to the US from Switzerland in 2003, has used the kitchen at EMP to make 3,000 meals a day to feed the hungry in NYC.
This story was originally appeared on Dailymail.
