Portland’s Pok Pok, Chicago’s Blackbird, New York’s Aureole have all closed for good

This month saw several prestigious and well-known restaurants close permanently including Paul Kahan’s Blackbird in Chicago, Charlie Palmer’s Aureole in Las Vegas and New York, and Andy Ricker’s Pok Pok in Portland, Ore.

In Chicago, the Michelin-starred Blackbird announced its closure after 22 years. The restaurant was part of the multiconcept One Off Hospitality Group, co-founded by Kahan, which also includes Publican, Avec, Pacific Standard Time, Big Star and Café Cancale, among others.

Aureole, the high-end restaurant that launched Palmer onto the national restaurant scene 30 years ago, has closed and will become a location of Charlie Palmer Steak NY. There are five of Palmer’s steakhouses across the country.

This is a move that Palmer hopes will make it more “accessible” for the public, he told the Commercial Observer.

Aureole once held a Michelin star.

Additionally, Portland’s Thai street-food chain, Pok Pok, announced the closure of several units throughout Portland due to reopening restrictions. Chef/owner Andy Ricker said that, from the beginning of the pandemic, his priority was his worker’s safety — something he emphasized after his friend, Chef Floyd Cardoz, died of COVID-19.

“Pok Pok is a restaurant, not a hospital, not a fire station, not a police station, not a vital food delivery service … I simply cannot bear the thought of one of our team becoming ill for the sake of preparing some chicken wings,” he said in March on Instagram.

See what other well-known restaurants have closed in the past month.

Contact Holly at [email protected]