CHELSEA — Tenth Avenue's classic French restaurant La Lunchonette will be saying adieu when it closes at the end of 2015, according to its Facebook page.
"We all thank you for supporting La Lunchonette over the past 28 years (and some of you longer back to the original restaurant on Essex Street). Even though the end is drawing near our team will continue to make their best beef bourguignon and tarte tatin. I am so grateful to all of them for working with me. Their dedication and hard work has both inspired me and made me proud," owner Melva Max wrote on Facebook.
Max added that the restaurant is currently open, adding that the "landlord asked for us to be out December 1, 2015," but "generously" agreed to let them stay through the end of the year.
Max warned last year that the restaurant would be forced out due to rising rents in the now-tourist-swamped area next to the High Line.
"The High Line will be the cause of my demise," she told Vanishing New York's Jeremiah Moss.
The restaurant's West 18th Street corner had become an irresistibly expensive sell, she said.
“My landlord’s not a bad guy," she told Vanishing New York, "but how you can you say no to offers of $30 million?”
