Why an “unusual” number of restaurants closed their doors in first half of 2018

A total of 1,500 seats were taken off-line due to incidents of property damage

Michael Jordan's The Steak House N.Y.C. (Credit: Carl Mikoy via Flickr)
Michael Jordan's The Steak House N.Y.C. (Credit: Carl Mikoy via Flickr)

A spate of Manhattan’s finest eateries closed–temporarily or permanently–due to a range of property damage-related incidents in the first six months of the year.

The disappearance of about 1,500 restaurant seats throughout the borough so far this year would indicate to most insurance brokers an extreme weather disaster, like Hurricane Sandy, according to the New York Post, but there’s no smoking gun.

“This year’s number of closings without a single major storm is unusual,” insurance broker Neil Owens told the Post. That said, a few brokers are pointing fingers as to who’s behind restaurants’ inability to rebound from property damage.

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“Honestly, water and the FDNY sometimes do more damage than the fire itself,” MSA Insurance Group broker Myles Share told the Post.

Peter Glazier, co-owner of Michael Jordan’s The Steak House N.Y.C. in Grand Central Terminal, experienced that first-hand when his restaurant had a chimney fire in February. It was the “50,000 gallons of water the FDNY had to pour” into the kitchen that “ruined” the facilities and “destroyed our equipment,” Glazier explained to the Post. [NYP]Erin Hudson