New York recently said goodbye to a 30-year restaurant facing Carnegie Hall. Now, a Cambodian pioneer, an 89-year-old Italian pastry shop and a beloved Brooklyn ramen destination have joined the city’s rapidly growing list of losses.
Bayon in Manhattan
Bayon closed August 3, ending an important chapter in New York’s Cambodian dining history.
Chef Minh Truong and his wife, Mandy, originally opened Angkor Cambodian Bistro at 408 East 64th Street in 2015. It became one of the city’s very few full-service Cambodian restaurants before closing during the pandemic in 2020. When the space became available again, the landlord reached out to the couple directly.
They returned at the start of 2024 with Bayon, named for the famous Cambodian temple. The new restaurant earned a Michelin Bib Gourmand that same year and held it again in 2025.
Customers came for fried chive dumplings, Khmer noodles, curries, roast duck and traditional Cambodian flavors that remained difficult to find elsewhere in Manhattan.
Bayon’s run sounds short, but the restaurant represented a much longer family story. Before Angkor, the Truongs spent roughly two decades running Royal Siam, a Thai restaurant in Chelsea.
His retirement brought Bayon to an end. The closure therefore feels less like the failure of a young restaurant and more like the conclusion of a lifetime spent introducing New Yorkers to Southeast Asian food.
La Guli in Queens
La Guli closed in early August after serving Astoria since 1937.
The third-generation Italian pastry shop became famous for cannoli, tricolor cookies, cakes, Italian ices and elaborate gingerbread houses displayed during the holidays. It was founded by Paolo Notaro, who emigrated from Palermo in 1920.
La Guli also had an unusual connection to the Vatican. The bakery created commemorative cookies for Pope Francis during his 2015 visit to New York, brought them back in 2024 to distribute to inmates at Rikers Island, and later produced a vanilla shortbread tribute topped with an edible image of Pope Leo XIV.
Those novelties attracted attention, but ordinary neighborhood traditions built La Guli’s reputation. Families ordered birthday cakes there, stopped for pastries after dinner and returned during the holidays for treats they remembered from childhood.
Owner Maria Notaro initially described the shutdown as temporary and related to family matters. But the shop’s aged wood, terrazzo floor and glass display cases have since been stripped out, and city records show the building’s title was transferred in June to a trust controlled by Maria—both signs pointing toward a permanent closure.
An 89-year-old bakery accumulates memories that cannot be measured solely through recipes. La Guli connected several generations of Astoria residents to the same display cases, holiday rituals and familiar Italian sweets.
Chuko in Brooklyn
Chuko has closed its Prospect Heights ramen shop after 15 years.
The restaurant was founded in 2011 by Morimoto veterans David Koon and Jamison Blankenship. They used that fine-dining experience to create a relaxed neighborhood ramen shop where the food remained serious but the atmosphere did not.
Chuko developed a loyal following for rich broths, steamed buns, kale salad and bonito tater tots. Its menu accommodated vegetarians without treating meat-free ramen as an afterthought.
The end had a visible runway. Blankenship spoke publicly last year about how brutal New York summers are for ramen restaurants, describing one of the worst stretches in nearly 15 years alongside rising rent and costs. This July, Chuko announced it would go dark for the season rather than operate at a deeper loss, absorbing rent until a possible September return. The Vanderbilt Avenue restaurant has since closed for good.
Chuko’s owners have hinted that something else may eventually follow, but no replacement can recreate the original restaurant’s 15-year relationship with Prospect Heights.
Bayon, La Guli and Chuko represented three very different versions of New York dining.
One introduced customers to Cambodian traditions. One preserved old-school Italian baking. One helped make serious ramen feel like everyday Brooklyn neighborhood food.
Their closures remove more than three places to eat. They erase three distinct pieces of the city’s culinary personality.
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