Gino on the Upper East Side Will Close by the End of the Month

Alas: another old-timer is passing into the great beyond. Gino, the storied Italian restaurant on Lexington Avenue near Bloomingdale’s, is closing. The Post quotes the restaurant’s co-owner, Salvatore Doria, as saying that the 65-year-old red-sauce shrine will close up its kitchen. A call to the restaurant confirms the closure, which, according to a staff member, will most likely happen by the end of the month.

Gino gained a loyal and devoted following during over the years, luring in customers like Sinatra and Streisand more with the promise of a good and relaxed time than the food itself. Distinguished by its red zebra wallpaper and old-school waiters, many of whom had worked there for decades, Gino was unchanged by time and fashion, and cherished for precisely that reason. Unfortunately, it wasn’t cherished quite enough: in February, the Times reported that business had been down 70 percent over the past two years. “We tried,” said the restaurant staffer we spoke with. “Customers don’t like it, we don’t like it. Hey, that’s life.”

[Via Eater]