Dean & DeLuca Aims for an NYC Comeback by Filing for Bankruptcy

Embattled fancy grocery store Dean & DeLuca is apparently trying to reopen in New York.

More than six months after closing its iconic flagship store in Soho, the longtime gourmet grocer has filed for bankruptcy protection, Bloomberg reports, and the paperwork, filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan, reveals that the company is looking to reopen stores in New York in the near future.

For now though, the grocer — which is owned by a subsidiary of the Thai company Pace Development Corp. — owes $275 million to its creditors. Part of its debt includes unpaid rent like at its Trump Building location in the Financial District; the Trump organization sued the chain for more than $16 million in damages last year. But the company is still hoping for a comeback.

Dean & DeLuca has been in free fall in recent years as debts have piled up and the grocer slowing began closings its locations across the country. The post-apocalyptic of largely empty shelves mostly lined with some soda bottles at the Soho flagship last August foretold its eventual doom.

But the brand played a critical role in New York’s food scene for decades. Dean & DeLuca opened in Soho in 1977 and was long one of the only places in the city to get gourmet products. It put many small, independent food companies on the map and remained a destination for high quality packaged goods for most of its tenure. The company eventually expanded to locations around the world, and an outpost in the Bangkok airport still bears its name.

• Dean & DeLuca Files for Bankruptcy, Still Hopes to Reopen Stores [Bloomberg]