Possibly New York is lifeless in spite of everything. Keens, the long-lasting steakhouse identified for the well-known mutton chop you discuss ordering earlier than getting steak as a substitute, has been offered for a cool $30 million to Tilman Fertitta, the billionaire proprietor of Landry’s restaurant group, Crain’s experiences. By way of Landry’s, Fertitta owns chains such because the illustrious Bubba Gump Shrimp; a portfolio of steakhouse manufacturers together with Morton’s, Strip Home, and one thing known as Declare Jumper; and is a companion within the Catch restaurant group. Most lately, he’s been within the information as one of many homeowners of the Nook Retailer (maybe you’ve heard of it). It’s all sufficient to make an individual surprise about his firm’s plans for the storied steakhouse: Will it stay enterprise as standard, or is Keens about so as to add a bunch of TikTok bait to its menu within the run-up to a Dallas enlargement?
Opened in 1885 by Albert Eager, the restaurant got here out of New York’s heart-attack-inducing beefsteak period and stays a favourite of people who find themselves tremendous enthusiastic about residing right here. (Once I requested my buddy, a Keens lifer, how she was taking the information, she wrote again, “Each week is a brand new model of hell.”) Extra lately, as within the Seventies, it was purchased by George Schwarz, who owned it till his dying in 2016. Since then, the restaurant has been owned below Schwarz’s property and run by common supervisor Bonnie Jenkins. Landry’s supplied an announcement to Crain’s, attributed to Jenkins, promising to protect “the legacy of our historic model” and “function and handle” the steakhouse because it has been for the final 140 years.
However can we belief these Texans? Landry’s owns numerous different heritage American manufacturers, together with the Rainforest Cafe, in addition to one other New York establishment generally known as the Palm. (Landry’s purchased the steakhouse chain in 2020, a couple of years after the unique location with all these well-known caricatures shuttered. Technically, this isn’t Fertitta’s fault, however somebody must take the blame.)
Look, we don’t count on the Texans to show Keens into some flagship for the Catch model, or to begin doing “collab dinners” with Nook Retailer. However for all its fame, Keens has by no means felt like an unique place. No, it isn’t low cost, and reservations have gotten harder, nevertheless it’s all the time been common in its method. Already, buddies are sharing their fears of a extra unique, company Keens, with a vibe that’s extra Meatpacking than mutton.
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