When it was announce in February of 2008 that Atlantis, the uber fine dining restaurant at the Renaissance Resort at SeaWorld would not reopen after it had been closed for renovations, I wrote an article that called into question the future of fine dining restaurants. We had already seen the closing of Maison et Jardin, Arthur’s 27, Black Swan, Delfino Riviera and La Coquina, which now uses its elegant dining room only for Sunday brunch. And of course since then we’ve seen Manuel’s on the 28th close, as well.

I was reminded by this because of a Reuters article that questions the future of fine dining in New York. Of the 500 New York restaurants that have closed this year (!) several have been upscale eateries, such as Chanterelle and Cafe des Artistes. Things have gotten so bad that Le Bernadin’s co-owner Eric Ripert has had to
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