Like many restaurants, Prune was shuttered during the pandemic. Unlike other restaurateurs who quietly left, the head of Prune wrote a brilliant essay on its passing: My Restaurant Was My Life for 20 Years. Does the World Need It Anymore?

Like many of the other noted restaurants loved and lost, this one hurt. Especially so. I had only just started to make it a destination whenever I was in New York and suddenly it was gone. Or was it?

As this piece noted in 2023, the restaurant was being renovated and private events were being held there. Heck, Alison Roman and her beau had celebrated part of their wedding there. I was hopeful that it eventually would go from being private to being public. But as of March 2024, at least, it still looked like it did in the photo I took above. Indeed this article in The New Yorker at the same time said it is only available for private parties at the owner’s discretion. Sigh.

There was something magical about Prune. It was a world class restaurant that was also a small neighborhood restaurant. I remember the first time I went: I wandered by it while in NY’s Lower East Side and I popped in to see if they had any tables available for the evening. To my surprise they said I could sit at the bar at 7:30. I had a fabulous meal that day. I thought: I want to come back here often and for ever.

And maybe I will someday. Maybe Gabrielle Hamilton will throw open her doors to the public once again. But for now, I am including this among the restaurants loved and lost. I’ll miss your snack plate, Prune, and your duck breast over beans, and all the other great meals there. I’ll miss your small, perfect space. I may walk by you from time to time, but I doubt I’ll leave the sidewalk and cross your threshold any more.