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New York--For the second time in as many weeks, a New York City landmark restaurant has closed its doors, this time the victim of union difficulties and what its owners considered high rent.
Mamma Leone's, the 90-year-old Italian restaurant that is among the crown jewels of revenue generators for diversified foodservice conglomerate Restaurant Associates, is closing to find new housing.
Bill Menzel, senior vice president of strategic marketing for Restaurant Associates, called the close temporary.
He said that higher operating costs, including labor and rent, and a "deterioration" in the company's partnership with the operators or the adjacent Milford Plaza hotel, where Restaurant Associates had run the hotel foodservice, precipitated the exit.
But Max Eisen, a hotel spokesman, said he was surprised when he read in newspapers that the rent was a reason for Mamma Leone's move He said the hotel had "substantially" reduced Mamma Leone's rent six to seven months ago to help alleviate some of the operation's overhead.
Eisen said the...