Has running a small neighborhood restaurant in New York become untenable? Harold Dieterle has announced that Kin Shop, his acclaimed Thai concept, will shutter before Thanksgiving, and Perilla’s closure will follow in early December. Around this time last year, Dieterle closed the Marrow after a less-than-two-year run. “The cost of doing business in New York is going up and up and up, and our sales haven’t continued to go up to keep that in line,” he tells Eater’s Ryan Sutton. “It’s been very frustrating.”
But unlike so many chefs these days, Dieterle, who rose to fame on Top Chef, has no current plans to relocate to another city. Instead, he says that he wants to take a break (one that might be permanent) from the restaurant industry. “I’m not saying I never want to return to the restaurant business, but right now, I’m feeling a little beat up and a little tired.”
What does appeal to Dieterle is the idea of having his own Shake Shack or Fuku or Sweetgreen: “I’d like to maybe do some consulting work and perhaps eventually get into a fast casual concept. But I don’t really know. I’m kind of figuring it all out.”
[Eater NY]
