Olmsted Is Closing in Prospect Heights

Eater

3 days ago

is the lead editor of the Northeast region with more than 20 years of experience as a reporter, critic, editor, and cookbook author.
Chef Greg Baxtrom's standout Prospect Heights restaurant Olmsted will close August 17 after nearly a decade, he announced on Instagram. Olmsted, named for the famous landscape architect Fredrick Law Olmsted, who shaped the design of public spaces such as Prospect Park and Central Park in New York, opened to much fanfare in 2016. It was in the process of being saved, he said in his post, but efforts fell through.
The announcement comes weeks after Baxtrom shuttered nearby Patti Ann's, the midwestern-leaning restaurant and bakery named after his mother. His remaining restaurant, 5 Acres, continues to run at Rockefeller Center.
When it debuted, Olmsted 'was originally focused on steak-and-potatoes accessibility. But that isn't quite how it played out,' Eater wrote in sizing up how it became 'the hottest restaurant in Brooklyn' by 2017.
A native of Chicago, Baxtrom opened his first restaurant in New York after working at acclaimed restaurants like Mugaritz in Spain, Atera and Per Se in New York, and Blue Hill at Stone Barns in Tarrytown. He once described himself as the '18-year-old with braces' working in the kitchen at Chicago's Alinea — and his Prospect Heights restaurant recently hosted the Alinea pop-up in honor of its 20th anniversary.
Olmsted reflects Baxtrom's experiences, incorporating a working garden where diners could enjoy cocktails a stone's throw from live quail. His early menus featured dishes like watermelon sushi, the famous carrot crepe with clams, guinea hen two ways, and desserts like the frozen yogurt with whipped lavender honey. And while prices were more expensive than what had been in the neighborhood, he opened with prices that were 'low' compared to similar caliber restaurants, Pete Wells said in a two-star New York Times review.
Baxtrom outlines some of his reasons to close in his Instagram post. 'Deciding to close a restaurant is never based on a single decision, but rather on many factors.' First, he cites his decision to get sober five years ago, when 'it became clear that I needed to prioritize my mental health over the restaurants if I was going to continue living. However, I find it challenging to practice this in real life.'
In addition, the funding that would have kept the restaurant afloat fell through. 'If you are someone who appreciated what we created and would be interested in partnering with me to save Olmsted,' Baxtrom says on Instagram, 'please reach out.'
Baxtrom told Eater that their pre-COVID expansion had become 'a bit of dead weight,' he says. The plan was to revert the restaurant to its original size. 'It just required investment. Beyond my means.'
He also spoke of his hopes that Vanderbilt Avenue would have become more of a destination street, with Akhtar Nawab opening Alta Calidad in 2017, along with Joe Campanale and Erin Shambura opening nearby Fausto in the old Franny's space that same year. 'I hoped more big restaurateurs were going to follow.'
Today, 'Vanderbilt is surprisingly a very difficult neighborhood to navigate,' he says.
On his Instagram post, he says he has 'no desire to leave the industry I love; it brings me so much joy.' And over DM with Eater, Baxtrom says that perhaps he'd like to eventually open something in Chicago. 'My folks are getting older and I'd like to be there more.'
Baxtrom demonstrated through his businesses that he is close with his parents. Patti Ann's that shuttered in July wasn't just an homage in name. It referenced the food he grew up on in his family's suburban Illinois household and featured an interior that nodded to his mother's career as a teacher — complete with a map on the wall as decor, cubbies that his father helped him build, and a report card on the table's performance that came with the check.
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