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Mickey Mantle's restaurant to close after 24-year run
Photo credit: Mickey Mantle, 1953
Mickey Mantle's, the Central Park South eatery that was once part owned by the Yankee slugger and looked last month to be digging itself out of debt, is closing after 24 years.
"It's a very sad and difficult decision," owner-operator Christopher Villano told the Daily News after a bankruptcy court judge denied the restaurant's petition for bankruptcy. Villano, who has been in charge since 2002, blamed the closure on "increasing food prices, shifting city regulations and landlord interference."
The restaurant was reportedly $400,000 behind in its rent obligations. A message left with the building's landlord, ATCO, was not returned and no one picked up the phone at the restaurant.
The restaurant opened in 1988 with the Yankee slugger as part owner, grossing $3.9 million its first year. Before checking into the Betty Ford Clinic in 1994, Mantle was frequently seen his memorabilia-decorated namesake, drinking and schmoozing with fans. He died the next year, leaving the boîte in the hands of his partners.
Recently, the restaurant was lambasted in social media reviews as a tourist trap with mediocre food and often inattentive bartenders.
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