The Cecil in Harlem will join the fate of many other New York City restaurants, closure. It happens to the best (and the worst) restaurants even when you have experienced restauranteurs involved, a PR machine behind it and a good chef like Chef Joseph Johnson.
The spinning “as to why” has begun in publications like Grub Street and Eater.
The cliff notes version of the articles is the backers of The Cecil have decided, as of now, to move everything into Minton’s, which was the jazz portion of the two establishments, and reopen a restaurant after the New Year.
“[Chef] Johnson envisions the “new” Minton’s, which will debut on January 6, as a hybrid of the two restaurants, and he’ll bring along some of his most-loved dishes at the Cecil: oxtail dumplings, the collard-greens salad, and a gumbo that represents how he celebrates the diverse foods of the African diaspora, with smoked chicken, Chinese-chicken sausage, gulf shrimp, and crab meat.”
