Dean & DeLuca has closed its flagship store in SoHo, after months of financial turmoil in which it shuttered all its other New York City stores. Two notices on its locked and grated front doors Monday announced the store’s “temporary closing,” and said it “will reopen soon.”
Asked to elaborate, a Dean & DeLuca spokeswoman said in a text message Tuesday that she was hearing only “silence” from Pace Development, the Thai real estate company that bought the cafe and grocery chain in 2014.
Pace’s chief executive, Sorapoj Techakraisri, told The Nation, an English-language paper in Thailand, this summer that he planned to expand the brand into major Asian capitals.
When The New York Times reported the first of the New York closings in July, Dean & DeLuca confirmed that it was shutting three of its stores in New York. Four more closed in August, and a Midtown location closed in September. The company’s website no longer lists the SoHo location, only Dean & DeLuca’s two remaining United States stores, in Hawaii. Calls on Tuesday to both Honolulu shops confirmed they are still in operation.
In New York, suppliers had complained that they had not been paid, and employees said their paychecks had been frequently delayed.
The SoHo store stayed open throughout the summer, despite nearly empty bins and shrinking customer traffic. Signs saying it would close for renovations hung on pillars in recent weeks.
When the store opened in 1977, it quickly became a destination for imported and specialty foods.
“We have been a proud part of this neighborhood and building for over 30 years,” the signs on its doors read. “From all of the Dean & DeLuca team, we thank you for all the years of support you’ve given us.”
Above, in lipstick, someone wrote, “SO SAD!”
