‘De Maria’ is Done After 2 Years on Kenmare Street [Updated]

Photo: Google Maps

De Maria is dead. The chic Kenmare Street cafe closed down last week after little more than two years in business.

Word on the street is that staff was allegedly informed that August 12 would be the last day for both De Maria and its basement “events space,” The Lo. An insider also alleges that sales had been stale ever since founding chef Camille Becerra left last January and Chopped champ Adriana Urbina stepped in. The latter chef wrote on Instagram, “Due to lack of transparency and professionalism from the owners at De Maria, I’m sad to announce that [August 10] was the last service.”

Due to lack of transparency and professionalism from the owners at @demarianyc I’m sad to announce that yesterday was the last service. I can’t thank enough to the team that hold it together through so much adversity. It was a short but intense journey and I learn so much from each one of you. I’m confident that this is just the beginning of amazing things to come for all of us. I will always persist and never give up on my dreams! Stay tuned for what is to come!!

A post shared by Adriana Urbina (@adrianaurbinap) on Aug 11, 2018 at 8:30am PDT

This enormous ground-level space at 19 Kenmare can’t seem to hold down a solid commercial tenant. It’s morphed into several different nightclubs over the years, including Travertine, Ken & Cook, and Lil Charlie’s. (The Lo never materialized thanks to neighbor outcry over the latter.) Maybe it’s also the rent.

UPDATE: Eater notes that Steph Bragg and Sowrabh “Sab” Sharma were the lease-holders on the space for the last ten years. Sharma plead guilty in February to visa fraud and tax crimes.

Before this last decade of nightlife, the space at 19 Kenmare housed Little Charlie’s Clam House.