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Barbetta Closes After 120 Years With Final Curtain Call on Restaurant Row

The family honored owner Laura Maioglio’s wish to shut the Midtown institution following her death at 93.

Overview

  • The 1906-founded Italian restaurant served its last dinner on Friday in Manhattan’s Theatre District.
  • Barbetta was described as the district’s oldest Italian restaurant and the city’s oldest restaurant still in the founding family’s hands.
  • Laura Maioglio took over in 1962 and ran the house for decades before dying last month.
  • Longtime employees expressed grief as the doors closed, including private events manager Susana Gardijan and bartender Tito Garay, who spent 32 years there.
  • Coverage noted the museum-like interior and celebrity draw, from an antique cash register and a royal-family chandelier to diners like Shirley MacLaine and Andy Warhol.