Barbara Lynch is closing all of her Boston-area restaurants

Last year we reported on a scandal involved revered Boston chef Barbara Lynch in which former employees recounted tales of alleged abuse and harassment at her restaurants. Lynch’s rags-to-riches story was chronicled in a 2017 memoir that recounted her rise from a hard-knocks South Boston childhood to culinary stardom. The James Beard Award-winning chef shuttered a handful of restaurants in the wake of the workplace abuse claims, and yesterday the COO of Lynch’s restaurant group announced the closure of all of her remaining restaurants.

In a statement, Lynch blamed the pandemic, along with unspecified “difficulties” besetting the restaurants, for the closures. “I am very proud of what I have achieved over three decades, creating these much-loved entities where so many of you chose to celebrate your special occasions,” she said. “The harsh realities of the global pandemic and the many difficulties faced calls for significant investment, which neither myself nor my fellow shareholders are positioned to do.”

One restaurant, The Rudder, is closed effective immediately, while others will close at the end of the year or later. Negotiations are ongoing with a potential buyer for No. 9 Park, Lynch’s flagship Beacon Hill restaurant that has been open for 26 years and set the bar for fine dining in the Boston area during the late 1990s. With the shuttering of these restaurants, Lynch leaves behind a complicated legacy of amazing success marred by allegations of inexcusable behavior.