After five abysmal years in the tourist-run mini city known as Times Square, Guy Fieri's Guy's American Kitchen and Bar is finally closing its doors on Dec. 31, and with it, a piece of Flavortown will be gone forever. Employees confirmed its shuttering to Eater NY.
The restaurant isn't known for being a particularly good one. The New York Timesinfamously honored the restaurant with a culinary death penalty in 2012 when food critic Pete Wells awarded it a zero-star review that is widely considered the worst in the paper's long history. Your local fast food spot can probably at least pull half star on a good day.
Peppered into the panning were such amazing questions raised to Fieri by Wells like, "Why is one of the few things on your menu that can be eaten without fear or regret — a lunch-only sandwich of chopped soy-glazed pork with coleslaw and cucumbers — called a Roasted Pork Bahn Mi, when it resembles that item about as much as you resemble Emily Dickinson?" and "Hey, did you try that blue drink, the one that glows like nuclear waste? The watermelon margarita? Any idea why it tastes like some combination of radiator fluid and formaldehyde?"
The review was so bad that the frosty-tipped enigma even had to publicly defend himself on the Today Show following its publication. For better or for worse, the restaurant lived on for five years as a fairly popular location despite the review, packing tourists into the 500-seat establishment to serve them delicacies like the Motley Que Ribs and Dragon Chili Cheese Fries. Why? Because at the end of the day, Fieri has a cult-like following and almost nothing would prevent his fans from eating off a menu curated by the man himself.
Fieri fans fear not, the celebrity chef still has dozens of eateries he is affiliated with sprinkled throughout the country to fulfill your dining needs.
