Coronavirus Closes 1st Vegetarian NYC Eatery To Get Michelin Star

GREENWICH VILLAGE, MANHATTAN — The first vegetarian restaurant in New York City to earn a Michelin star has closed permanently due to the financial strain of the coronavirus crisis, the restaurant announced this week.

Nix, which opened on University Place four years ago, said on its Instagram page Wednesday that they won't be able to reopen after being forced to close when the city's restaurant industry shutdown amid the coronavirus pandemic in March.

"We were four years old, almost to the day, when Covid obligated us to close," the eatery wrote. "Everything that’s happened since has shown us that there is no path back to where we had been: an intimate, busy restaurant that was able to pay its staff fairly, serve its neighborhood, maintain exacting standards of excellence, and still operate as a (more-or-less) sustainable business."

The restaurant's chef and co-owner, John Fraser, confirmed the news on his own Instagram page, Eater first reported.

Fraser is known for his Upper West Side eatery Dovetail, which nabbed him his first Michelin star before closing in 2018. He also runs two eateries at the Times Square Edition Hotel, though those have also been shutdown by the coronavirus crisis, according to Eater.

The chef said Wednesday that the closing of Nix comes with a "heavy heart."

"Letting vegetables take center stage has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my career," Fraser wrote, thanking his business partner James Truman. "I‘m grateful to every guest who brought an open mind & hungry belly to the restaurant and proved that the appetite for modern vegetarian dining is real."

The eatery is one of many New York City restaurants that has closed permanently as the coronavirus mandated-closure ravaged the industry.

City officials have been working on a plan to help restaurants rebuild with outdoor dining as they reopen as early as next month.

"We're proud of what we did, which was to make a delicious, fun, Michelin-starred meatless restaurant, and we hope we made a positive difference in the many lives we intersected with, two hours at a time," Nix wrote. "Thank you to everyone who supported us and worked for us. We will miss you."