This just in from a tipster: Civetta has abruptly laid off most of its staff and is closing for one month to make way for a new concept that will tentatively be manned "…by Nur Khan and Paul Sevigny." The termination comes as quite a surprise to the majority of those involved, as Civetta was just building its mostly-word-of-mouth reputation as a "pretty darned good restaurant."
Apparently, an unnamed very deep-pocketed "investor" with "ties to several projects in downtown" Manhattan, including possible "involvements" with such high-profile operators as "Andre Balazs and Serge Becker," is the primary impetus behind Civetta’s sudden shift in momentum.
Civetta will close its doors next week on December 1st.
Gee, and we hadn’t even had the chance to try it yet.
Oh well, maybe next concept.
**See our UPDATE for more information on Khan, Sevigny and Civetta.**
Tags: ANDRE BALAZS, BLABBER, CIVETTA, COOL PEOPLE, GOSSIP, NUR KHAN, PAUL SEVIGNY, SCOOP
November 24th, 2009 at 8:59 AM
http://gawker.com/5411673/civetta-is-not-the-new-beatrice
“Everyone from Sevigny to The Box partner Serge Becker, Standard Hotel owner Andre Balazs, the Pope and Michael Jackson is being touted as behind this saviour-of-nightlife move.”
Try reading our post again, Gawker. Especially this part: “including possible ‘involvements’ WITH SUCH…”
“Sevigny is in Paris so no deal is complete, that the restaurant only has a license until midnight during the week and 2am at weekends and that any deal is not for the ownership of the space, just for promotions.”
And then try reading it a third time. We said “TENTATIVELY MANNED…”
Nowhere does it say that they are buying the space.
“Except it’s not really true….”
I’m actually surprised that Gawker got this one so wrong. They’re the experts at taking what’s not true and running with it. You’d think they could have easily figured out this one doesn’t fall within their shoddy standards.
November 24th, 2009 at 9:12 AM
http://newyork.grubstreet.com/2009/11/civetta_to_reopen_under_paul_s.html
November 24th, 2009 at 9:13 AM
http://ny.eater.com/archives/2009/11/civetta_said_to_be_shuttering_to_make_way_for_nur_khan_project.php
November 24th, 2009 at 9:13 AM
http://chichi212.com/nightlife/stick-a-fork-in-civetta/
November 24th, 2009 at 9:26 AM
Thank you, my dear.
Oh, Gawker. It’s so cute how you’ve always envied us ever since way back when you installed Joshua David Stein as your ‘nightlife editor,’ and we made him look like the dumbest idiot on the planet.
Don’t stay mad just because when it comes to F&B/Nightlife in NYC, we know soooo much more than you, and it always shows. It’s kind of pathetic.
November 24th, 2009 at 10:14 AM
leaving aside the obvious fact that d.j. never even said that civetta would be the new beatrice is the fact that avenue is now the new beatrice and it blows.
assuming that paul is going to try to reopen the beatrice someplace else, it was always over-hyped in the first place anyway and even it it reopens, it will never be able to even touch boomboom.
of course gawker doesn’t know this, because they can’t get in there either.
November 24th, 2009 at 10:16 AM
paul actually should team up with nur because that’s the only way to make the new beatrice good. even rose bar always kicked beatrice’s ass.
November 24th, 2009 at 10:27 AM
and i’m pretty sure that the only reason that the press always hyped up beatrice is bc it was the only place that gave a shit about chris wilson’s obnoxious drunk ass.
November 24th, 2009 at 2:07 PM
huh. i thought gawker gave up on nightlife reporting entirely, after we spanked them all up and down the internets for their consistently lame and clueless waverly inn coverage.
oh wait, is stupid top chef on hiatus right now? that would explain it. i guess.
November 24th, 2009 at 5:19 PM
Can we give all the blogs that picked this up an F on comprehension? Very interesting how they all chose to read this. No one said a done deal, and no one said all those ‘name’ operators were in on the same project! Send ’em all back to school!
November 24th, 2009 at 5:36 PM
@Anonymous
Yeah well that’s probably what pisses them off most of all. The fact that they did all go to journalism school but they’re all broke and starving while you guys trounce all over them and don’t even need to blog for the money. Ha! That’s why everything they write is so bitter while you guys celebrate life/art and your love of food/wine every day on this blog. Add to that they can’t even get into some places while you guys seem to be out more nights in one week than they go out all year.
November 25th, 2009 at 9:53 AM
Hey Virgo, it’s funny you should say that because “Ravi Somaiya” at Gawker is not the blogger’s real name. It probably IS Chris Wilson.
November 25th, 2009 at 10:04 AM
Also note that the Gawker post has 2600+ views but not one single comment. That should be a pretty good testament to their readership, which are not people that even live in NYC for the most part. They aren’t cool, they don’t get into the hot restaurants/clubs, they likely for the most part aren’t even old enough to drink. That’s why this particular post about Beatrice Inn garners no interest with their commentators.
One of the reasons Gawker started their “elite star” comment system in the first place was to help mask the massive deterioration of the quality of their readership/commentators. Compared to the other successful Gawker Media sites, gawker.com has the least page views, but it was always the marquee flagship for the company that had all the chicness and cache. That’s not the case anymore.
November 25th, 2009 at 10:08 AM
Even when Gawker used to mention Waverly Inn, most of the comments would merely mock Graydon Carter and/or his hair. You would have been hard pressed to find a single commentator who ever stepped foot inside the Waverly Inn, much less dine there.
November 25th, 2009 at 1:52 PM
swee check your forum pm
November 30th, 2009 at 11:33 AM
Swee, I think you mean Azaria Jagger, not Ravi Somaiya. But Azaria is a girl.