It started with a scathing New York Times review, followed by pushback from the celebrity chef in the hot seat, and now the saga is ending with a high-profile restaurant closure. The AP reports that Guy Fieri's Times Square eatery, Guy's American Kitchen & Bar, has closed down for good, serving up its last dishes to the general public on Saturday; a private event was held there on New Year's Eve. Guy Fieri didn't offer an explanation for the shuttering of what the Washington Post calls the "most mocked restaurant in America," which opened in 2012 and was instantly subjected to criticism from Yelp reviewers, fellow celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain, and Pete Wells, who penned the now-infamous review that asked: "Guy Fieri, have you eaten at your new restaurant in Times Square?"
Fieri didn't offer up an explanation for why he was closing down his namesake restaurant, which is part of the Blue Stein Group, simply noting in a statement to the New York Times that he was "proud that for over five and a half years, Guy's American … served millions of happy guests from all over the world." Despite Wells' roast, the restaurant made a chunk of change, bringing in more than $16 million a year, and it still made it onto Restaurant Business Online's top 100 list for independent restaurants. Even Wells doesn't think his review is what led to the restaurant's downfall. "It's likely that the restaurant closed for the same reason the review was bad: Because the restaurant was terrible, or the restaurant wasn't working, and the review was just reflecting that," he tells the Post. (A Daily Beast writer describes her experience at the restaurant's final event.)
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