David Bouley Will Close Bouley Bakery and Market, Return to Cooking at Bouley

By Rebecca Marx Wed., Apr. 14 2010 at 10:54 AM

Categories: Marx, Restaurant News and Notes

Bouley's going back to Bouley.

David Bouley's recent travails have been of the epic, convoluted, and painfully public variety. Now it looks as though the Tribeca chef has done a bit of soul-searching, and found some measure of salvation through a return to simpler, less expansive times.

Diner's Journal reports that Bouley will close his popular Bouley Bakery and Market on April 14, and has abandoned plans for both a commissary and market and Brushstroke, his fabled, endlessly delayed Japanese kaiseki restaurant.

Instead, the chef, who told Diner's Journal that he's closing the bakery because "[i]t takes too much of my time and energy for marginal profit," will devote much of his time and energy to making his Bouley flagship restaurant "the highest culinary experience." Meaning he'll actually be in the kitchen, just like in the good old days, before the lawsuits, the alleged foreclosure, the angry co-op board, and the stop-work orders. And although Brushstroke may be gone, there's still Japanese food in Bouley's future -- he and Yoshiki Tsuji, with whom he planned to open Brushstroke, will open a Japanese restaurant called Boji in the former Secession/Danube space this fall.

Have a tip or restaurant-related news? Send it to fork@villagevoice.com.