Embattled Boston restaurateur Barbara Lynch to close three restaurants, sell two others

Only No. 9 Park, B&G Oysters, and The Rudder will remain open.

Barbara Lynch photographed inside of her South End restaurant, The Butcher Shop, in 2018.Jonathan Wiggs/Globe Staff

Famed Boston chef Barbara Lynch will scale back her fine-dining empire, closing three of her renowned restaurants and selling off two more, amid post-pandemic struggles and just months after allegations surfaced that she had fostered a toxic work environment.

The Barbara Lynch Collective said Friday that its three adjoining Fort Point restaurants — Menton, Sportello, and Drink — would close immediately, “costing the jobs of 100 staffers.” In the South End, the leases, licenses, and assets of two Lynch spots — The Butcher Shop and Stir — will be sold to “former proteges,” whom the company did not name.

Only No. 9 Park in Beacon Hill, Lynch’s first restaurant, B&G Oysters in the South End, and her newest endeavor that opened in April, The Rudder in Gloucester, will remain.

It’s a big setback for one of Boston’s best-known chefs, who famously climbed from the Old Colony housing project in South Boston to the highest echelons of the culinary world. In 1998, Lynch launched No. 9 Park to much acclaim and a decade later helped turn Fort Point — then a quiet warehouse district — into a premiere dining destination with Sportello, Menton, and Drink. Her up-from-the-bootstraps story and brash persona — along with her exquisite Italian cuisine — won her a devoted following among high-end diners.

But changes wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic proved tough for restaurateurs everywhere, and Lynch was no exception. She even converted Menton to takeout and for a time gave out toilet paper with meals. Yet even four years later, the costs of rent, food, and labor continue to soar. Dining patterns have shifted amid remote work and reduced business travel.

In a statement Friday, the Lynch Collective blamed the closures on high rents, uncooperative landlords, and “prior restaurant operational managers” who “had failed to respond to post-pandemic realities.” Lynch herself nodded to a dining and real estate economy that has changed markedly since she first emerged on the scene.

“Boston is no longer the same place where I opened seven restaurants over the last 25 years,” Lynch said in the statement. “Properties have been flipped and flipped, and the landlords just want the rents that only national chains can sustain.”

In a press conference Friday afternoon, chief operations officer Lorraine Tomlinson-Hall said she discovered the group’s tenuous financial situation shortly after beginning her role on Sept. 1. By then, the Fort Point restaurants were three months behind on rent to landlord Acadia Realty and had endured a series of problems with the building. And while Tomlinson-Hall crafted a recovery plan for 2024, it “fell on deaf ears with the Congress Street landlords.”

Acadia did not respond to a request for comment from the Globe. The Lynch Collective said it has not heard from Acadia since the announcement.

But Lynch’s challenges extended beyond real estate.

In April, both the Globe and New York Times published detailed reports of toxic behavior and high turnover in Lynch’s kitchens, particularly in the wake of the death of Menton’s executive chef and another staffer about one year ago.

Two former employees filed a lawsuit alleging Lynch shorted them on tips earlier in the pandemic — claims Lynch has denied. More workers spoke out with stories of how the chef repeatedly lashed out at staff and guests, touched employees inappropriately, and issued threats of violence. Some said she often abused alcohol on the job.

(In response, Lynch acknowledged being “a creature of the alcohol-steeped hospitality and restaurant industry.” The company later told WBUR that the media reports were “a coordinated attack by a group of individuals targeting Barbara and the brand she has built over decades.”)

Still, turnover continued. Several members from No. 9 Park left the kitchen early last year and the team at Menton rebuilt itself. One former employee said Friday that Drink saw four general managers in its final two years, compared to three managers over its first 13 years in operation.

Rumblings of financial difficulties at Lynch’s restaurants grew in August, when The Butcher Shop shuttered with little word. While the closure was framed as “temporary,” the restaurant has not reopened, and on Friday, its website indicated The Butcher Shop has locked up for good.

“It has been an incredible journey and we could not have done it without you all,” the notice reads. “Although we are closing this chapter of The Butcher Shop, we are uncertain of what the future holds.”

Meanwhile, starting Monday, some of Lynch’s Fort Point employees may move to work at the two remaining Boston restaurants, Tomlinson-Hall said. Most notably, Menton chef de cuisine Andrew Simonich will fill a similar vacant role at No. 9 Park.

Any future expansions, the company said, will focus on the North Shore, where Lynch lives and recently opened The Rudder.

Lynch herself did not attend the Friday press conference.

Globe correspondent Kara Baskin contributed to this report.