Less than a year after more than 20 employees accused the renowned Boston chef Barbara Lynch of workplace misconduct, she has closed most of her restaurants, citing rent increases and failed landlord negotiations. Once Boston’s most established fine dining chef—with countless culinary awards under her belt, a rave-reviewed memoir, and a coveted spot on Time’s Most Influential People list—Lynch’s fall from grace has been sudden.
Starting in 1998 with her flagship restaurant No. 9 Park, serving sophisticated French- and Italian-inspired cuisine, Lynch put Boston on the map as a not-to-be-ignored dining destination. Over the next two-plus decades, her empire grew to encompass a slew of restaurants that each brought something cutting edge to the city’s dining scene, from Drink, the innovative cocktail bar where customers could order based on flavor profile, to B&G Oysters, which was buzzing well before slurping raw bivalves and ’tinis after work was cool.
At the end of 2023 Lynch’s restaurant group, the Barbara Lynch Collective, shuttered three locations: Menton, her temple to fancy tiny plates, swanky trattoria Sportello, and Drink, all housed in the same Fort Point building on Congress Street. In the South End, Stir and the Butcher Shop have also shut their doors—and are apparently under agreement for sale. Still in business are No. 9 Park, B&G Oysters, and The Rudder, Lynch's latest ode to seasonal cooking, which opened last year.
A statement from the restaurant group explaining the closures cited a combination of “post-pandemic realities,” as well as alleged mismanagement by ex-employees and inflexible landlords at Acadia Realty Trust (the company behind the Fort Point building that housed three of her restaurants), which supposedly collected a cumulative $88,000 per month in rent from the chef.
Lynch took aim at Boston’s real estate scene more broadly, claiming that independent chefs are getting squeezed out by sky-high leases. “Boston is no longer the same place where I opened seven restaurants over the last 25 years,” Lynch said in the press release. “Properties have been flipped and flipped and the landlords just want the rents that only national chains can sustain.” (Bon Appétit reached out to Lynch and Acadia Realty Trust for comment, and will update this story accordingly.)
Notably absent from the statement was any mention of the chef’s alleged behavior over the years, such as accounts of alcohol abuse, verbal abuse of staff, sexual contact, and violent threats—outbursts that were somewhat of an open secret in Boston’s kitchens. At the time, Lynch waived off the allegations as unfounded gripes from disgruntled ex-employees. In March 2023, former staff also filed a lawsuit accusing her of pocketing tips during the pandemic, which Lynch denied.
In a press conference call on January 5, Lorraine Tomlinson-Hall, Lynch’s new COO—hired to stabilize the restaurant group after last year’s New York Times and Boston Globe investigations into Lynch’s problematic workplaces—expressed regret about the loss of jobs for about 100 staffers but painted the picture of a rosy future for the restaurant group. She called the remaining restaurants “stellar” and nodded to the possibility of expansion on the North Shore (the coast between Boston and New Hampshire), where Lynch lives. In an emailed statement to Bon Appétit, Tomlinson-Hall denied that Lynch's alleged misconduct contributed to the closure of the restaurants or that tips were paid improperly, and said that “the collective looks forward to bringing many talented people to a bright future.”
Meanwhile, some weren’t impressed with the group’s handling of the closures. As Boston Globe restaurant critic and food writer Devra First wrote recently, “Lynch’s press release is an exercise in deflection, blaming the closures on landlords, middle management, Boston itself—everyone but the boss, whom it praises for handing out toilet paper to staff during the pandemic.”
Though a shaky economy has certainly put financial pressure on restaurants around the country, resulting in a number of high-profile closures, Lynch also faced a deluge of bad press following claims of misconduct in her kitchens. No. 9 Park and B&G Oysters may still be open, but it’s clear the chef’s empire is no longer as sprawling and mighty as it once was.
Update (1/9/24): This story was updated to include a statement from a representative of Lynch.