As D.C. restaurants continue to suffer as a result of the coronavirus crisis, David Chang’s Momofuku CCDC announced Wednesday that it has closed for good. Momofuku Group CEO Marguerite Zabar Marisca revealed the news in a letter posted to the company’s website.
Marisca said that they would close both CCDC and the Italian eatery Momoufuku Nishi in New York.The company will also move its East Village shop, Ssäm Bar, to its Wayō location at the South Street Seaport and combine both teams. She said as the crisis worsened, the financial outlook for the company grew increasingly dire.
“We investigated every scenario to make the math work—negotiating with our landlords, changing the service model, and more—but with increased investments in health and safety, huge reopening expenses, and the lack of rent relief, the financial picture of these wholly-owned restaurants no longer made sense,” she said in the letter.
The restaurant’s team also posted an announcement on its Instagram account on Wednesday, writing that they were “heartbroken.”
“To our team, thank you for the hard work you have put in over the past 5 years to make this restaurant what it was,” they wrote. “To our guests, thank you for supporting us along the way.”
Neither Marisca’s letter nor the restaurant’s instagram post said whether the closure would have an impact on the City Center location of Momofuku’s sister bakery, Milk Bar. A representative for the restaurant did not immediately respond to DCist’s request for comment.
When Momofuku CCDC opened in 2015, it was the largest location in the chain and was highly anticipated, largely lauded as a sign that D.C. had made it as a player in the national food scene. Along with its famous ramen, steamed buns, and seasonal Asian fare, it brought a location of Christina Tosi’s Milk Bar, which attracted obscenely long lines for its acclaimed cereal milk ice cream, compost cookies, and other desserts.
Marisca said in the letter that the company hopes to hire Nishi’s employees at other Momofuku locations in New York, and is looking into other options to ease the blow for CCDC staff. Momofuku will continue to cover COBRA healthcare costs for employees from both restaurants for “as long as financially possible. They will also provide staff with access to counseling services and both staffs will still be able to receive funds through the Momofuku Bluetape Fund, which gives financial assistance to the Momofuku employees.
Chang previously said in a March interview with the New York Times Magazine that he wasn’t sure the restaurant business would survive the pandemic without significant government help. “I’m not being hyperbolic in any way,” he said. “Without government intervention, there will be no service industry.”
