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Upscale Hudson Heights Eatery Rusty Mackerel Closes After Only a Year

 The Rusty Mackerel closed suddenly this week after a little over than a year in business.
The Rusty Mackerel closed suddenly this week after a little over than a year in business.
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DNAinfo/Lindsay Armstrong

HUDSON HEIGHTS — An upscale Hudson Heights restaurant closed abruptly this week after little more than a year in business.  

The Rusty Mackerel, which opened at 209 Pinehurst Ave. in June 2013 serving New American cuisine with a nod to Spain, was a collaboration between the owners of nearby Frank’s Market and Washington Heights-born chef James “Mac” Moran.

It was not clear why the owners had decided to shut down. They did not immediately return requests for comment.

“The closing of Rusty Mackerel has been an extremely difficult and exhausting process, but at the end of the day it needed to be done,” read a post on the restaurant’s Facebook page. “Thank you all for the unlimited support, we are truly grateful.”

In the little over a year that it was open, the restaurant earned a reputation as one of the best in the Heights. In February, it received a positive review in The New York Times, which praised the restaurant’s octopus with Romesco, sea salt potatoes and cauliflower steak with chimichurri sauce.

Doug Levy, a local foodie who reviewed the restaurant on his own blog, said that the Rusty Mackerel would be missed.

“I credit Mac and the people who worked there for trying to do something different,” Levy told DNAinfo New York. “They are local people who believe that people in Washington Heights deserve the same quality dining as the rest of Manhattan.”