E-mail messages from despondent patrons missing their favorite restaurant started to arrive last summer. Soon, more than 400 people had implored the owners of the Upper East Side brasserie to reopen.
“New York is not the same without La Goulue,” wrote one. “Hurry and open again.”
Most restaurants that close these days are facing financial ruin and have little hope of an encore. But La Goulue, a dining institution in the city for 36 years, is different.
When it closed in August, because its landlord had other plans for the building, the French brasserie was profitable. It was sustained by its well-heeled customers—including celebrities like Kim Cattrall, Jude Law and Bruce Springsteen as well as the privileged residents of the neighborhood—even through an economic downturn.
“La Goulue has been a very successful restaurant all these years,” says its founder and co-owner, Jean Denoyer. “It would be a shame to let it die.”
“He's never tried to be trendy or the flavor of the month,” says restaurant consultant Clark Wolf.
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