Hale and Hearty, a well-liked New York soup cafe for 20 years, quietly closed all of its shops “briefly,” based on indicators within the home windows. The model has, or had, 16 places in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Lengthy Island comprising tens of 1000's of sq. toes of retail house in prime places.
The shutdowns got here with out warning. The department at 745 Seventh Ave. was ladling out soup as not too long ago as two weeks in the past.
However the unexplained shutterings went unreported till now. Paradoxically the shops additionally had indicators that introduced “We're hiring!”
No additional data was instantly out there. The Hale and Hearty web site “Contact us” field didn't work.
One Hale and Hearty department at 111 Fulton St. was not too long ago sued by main meals vendor Cooks Warehouse for practically $160,000 in unpaid invoices and by its landlord for $400,000 in unpaid lease.
However nothing was identified about circumstances at different places.
The chain has had its ups and downs. It scaled down from 21 places a number of years in the past and its Midtown and FiDi shops have been hammered by COVID-19-driven lack of lunchtime visitors.
However the shutdown, if it seems to be everlasting, can be a loss to town, particularly as workplace staff proceed to trickle again. Reliably good soup is more and more arduous to seek out in Manhattan, and no chain supplied such a variety of selections every day — from mild hen vegetable to thick New England clam chowder with pancetta, all made in its Brooklyn kitchens. Its sandwiches weren’t unhealthy both.
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