You’d think that having the Kardashians, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Barack Obama as fans would protect a restaurant chain from bankruptcy, but in the unusual case of Il Mulino, sometimes success also attracts more problems. You may not have heard of Il Mulino, because even at its height it only had 17 locations. It occupies that strange, rarefied space of high-end chains with a handful of locations in major hotspots, often from name-brand chefs like Gordon Ramsay.
Originally opened in 1981 in Greenwich Village, for decades Il Mulino was considered one of New York City’s best Italian restaurants, and catered to an exclusive clientele. The restaurant featured dishes from the founder’s home region of Abruzzo in Italy, although it also had plenty of Italian-American classics like chicken fettuccine Alfredo and shrimp scampi. Il Mulino was also known for its mountains of complimentary antipasti including focaccia, pan-fried zucchini, and salumi, although the prices were so high that some free extra didn’t exactly make it a deal.
Most of all Il Mulino was a simple, old-school New York Italian restaurant that singled itself out through being an extremely exclusive spot where Wall Street executives and celebrities could score a table and a good Italian meal while the high-end prices and impossible-to-get reservations kept out the riff-raff. But like so many places these days, including fellow New York Italian spot Rao’s, the allure of its name was too much to resist and, eventually, the original founders sold Il Mulino to new owners who started expanding.
Il Mulino expanded in over a dozen locations before 2020
Il Mulino was purchased in 2001, adding locations in Long Island and Las Vegas before expanding into a larger Italian restaurant chain in the late 2010s. In 2018 alone, it added five locations and had started expanding its brand to create new concepts like Il Mulino Prime, an Italian steakhouse. Il Mulino even started partnering with big hospitality names to open locations in resorts owned by Hilton and Disney. It seemed like the New York Italian spot was on its way to becoming the next big name in luxury dining.
When the pandemic hit, what happened next was more confusing than simply a drop-off in sales due to lockdowns. In late July 2020, Il Mulino declared bankruptcy at seven of its branches, closing one. The brand’s manager claimed it was to avoid a takeover of the company by one of its creditors. The manager alleged that a company called BSP Agency had loaned the restaurant money and deliberately held back credit that it owed Il Mulino as a way to force the company to fail so it could take control. During this ordeal it also forced the installation of outside managers in place of longtime ownership. Lots of legal wrangling followed. It’s not clear exactly what happened behind the scenes, but Il Mulino managed to survive with a reduced footprint and one of the owners, Brian Galligan, still appears to be in control.
Il Mulino has carried on with a reduced footprint
Coming out of the legal saga around the bankruptcy Il Mulino has survived, although it is now down to nine locations. The original spot in Greenwich Village has thankfully stayed open, along with a few other spots in New York, and a handful in other cities like Miami, Nashville, and Boca Raton.
There are still several concepts of Il Mulino as well, with most being the classic “Il Mulino New York.” While the menu varies from location to location you can still expect many classic Italian and Italian-American dishes including veal parmesan, shrimp fra diavolo, prosciutto and melon, and the restaurant’s popular spaghetti and clams. One thing you can also expect are prices that make even New Yorkers used to high price tags gasp. Even the pasta dishes are almost all above $30 a pop, while you better be prepared to drop $40 or more if you want meat and seafood.
But Il Mulino isn’t just trying to be another restaurant, and there aren’t too many place you might spot George Clooney and Jada Pinkett Smith. With its quietly refined air, celebrity guests, and attentive old-school service, this is a restaurant that is trying to export the true feeling of eating in an exclusive New York Italian dining club. The kind of spot you’d be just as likely to spot an aging mobster as you would a Hollywood star. A legendary place even a tough bankruptcy battle couldn’t kill.
Dining and Cooking