Barbara Lynch, a chef who has been a prominent fixture in Boston’s culinary scene for decades, is closing all her remaining restaurants as she seeks retirement, The Boston Globe reported.
The first of Lynch’s restaurants to close was The Rudder in Gloucester.
“After three years in this beautiful space on Rocky Neck, I have made the very personal decision to close The Rudder with immediate effect,” Lynch wrote in an Instagram post from the restaurant’s page on Wednesday, Oct. 9. “I would like to thank the community for all their support. Gloucester has always been and will remain dear to my heart.”
Lynch’s two remaining restaurants — No. 9 Park on Beacon Hill and B&G Oysters in the South End — are also expected to close as well.
“Barbara turned 60 earlier this year. She is looking at retirement, at a much healthier lifestyle,” Lorraine Tomlinson-Hall, chief operating officer of the Barbara Lynch Collective, told The Boston Globe. “She knew that she was not going to be back in the kitchens the way she always has been, and so made the decision it was in her best interest to sell the entities.”
No. 9 Park will close at the end of the year before a new concept swoops in, the Globe reported. B&G Oysters will continue business as usual until “an agreeable deal” is reached, Tomlinson-Hall told the outlet.
Lynch cited the financial struggles associated with running restaurants as another reason for deciding to close up shop.
“The harsh realities of the global pandemic and the many difficulties faced calls for significant investment, which neither myself nor my fellow shareholders are positioned to do,” Lynch wrote in a statement, according to the Globe. “We are working hard to finalize sales that will ensure those much-loved entities will carry on in some small way.”
All of Lynch’s previously existing concepts have closed, including The Butcher Shop, Drink, Menton and Sportello, which all shuttered at the start of the year, WCVB reported.
A three-time James Beard Award winner, Lynch is a world-renowned chef and considered a pioneer in Boston’s culinary scene.
The South Boston native got her first kitchen job at 13 and later worked several esteemed chefs before capturing Food & Wine‘s “Ten Best New Chefs in America” award by her early 20s, Lynch’s biography states.
In 1998, Lynch opened No. 9 Park, which was named one of the “Top 25 New Restaurants in America” by Bon Appétit and “Best New Restaurant” by Food & Wine. B&G Oysters followed in 2003 and Stir debuted in 2007. Drink and Menton followed suit in 2008.
Lynch has been named the “Best Chef in the Northeast” by The James Beard Foundation and “Best Chef” by Boston Magazine and is the only female in the United States to hold the title of Grand Chef Relais & Châteaux.
In 2011, she was named Distinguished Chef by Johnson and Wales University and was the recipient of the “Women Chefs & Restaurateurs (WCR) Barbara Tropp President’s Award.”
Lynch was inducted into the James Beard Foundation’s Who’s Who of Food and Beverage in America in 2013 and was included on Time Magazine’s annual list of the world’s most influential people in 2017.
The chef’s career has been tarnished by a drunken driving arrest in 2017 and accusations of creating toxic workplace culture in 2023.
