Bruce Buschel blogged in the New York Times about opening and running Southfork Kitchen, and now he's written about its closing.
The world would be our oyster if we just stopped giving away oysters in Bridgehampton. Some Hamptons restaurants could stay open year-round. Southfork Kitchen was not one of them. We were neither a long-standing institution nor a flexible, casual, off-season, three-courses-for-$19.95 kind of place — not that there's anything wrong with that. After he realizes the problems, Mr. Buschel tries to sell the place, and one possible buyer, a Wall Street investor, wants to pay in cash under the table.
"Is this a sting? Is Mr. Wall Street going to wear a wire or a hidden camera? Does he work for Curbed Hamptons?" We sting people? Coooooooooool.
After Mr. Buschel leased the site to Todd Jacobs, who is now running Fresh in the space, he felt elegiacal.
At one point, someone asked, "Are you going to miss the place?" and my restaurant life passed before my eyes: the late nights, the daily dramas, the joyous weddings, the miscalculations, the staff D.W.I.'s, the noble essentialness of the dishwasher, the antisocial social media, the lost treasure, the dizzy flirtations, the gas leaks and bright lights and kitchen fires and superstorms and a lot of spilled milk. Our take? You tried. You stayed true to your vision. You did it the way you wanted to do it. Closing the restaurant doesn't mean failure. Not trying is failure. Thanks for the great restaurant, Mr. Buschel.
· Gone Fishin' [NYT]
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