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Payard Patisserie & Bistro Will Close In Face of Steep Rent Hike
By
John Del Signore
Published May 27, 2009
Modified May 27, 2009
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By
John Del Signore
Published May 27, 2009
Modified May 27, 2009
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Famous pastry chef Francois Payard says he may have to close his flagship bistro on the Upper East Side because landlord Stephen Kirschenbaum wants to double the rent to $1 million a year. (Kirschenbaum presumably fell into a coma just as the Dow hit 14,000 and only woke up yesterday.) Payard, who came here from Paris to be the pastry chef at Le Bernardin, has told the New York State Department of Labor that he'll soon have no choice but to shut down the Lexington Avenue location (he also operates a bakery in DUMBO) and terminate 74 employees in August. The chef tells Crain's, "The maximum increase I can bear in this economy is 20%" The building is also home to prince Ertugrul Osman of Turkey, who has lived there since 1945 and paid considerably less than Payard for his rent-controlled apartment: $350 a month. Of course, he had to raise hell in 2006 just to get Kirschenbaum to repair his bathroom ceiling after it collapsed.
Tagged
bakery
francois payard
Payard Patisserie & Bistro
upper east side
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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