All Signs Point to a Buddha Bar Shutter

News broke yesterday that Buddha Bar had quite possibly shuttered its DC location. While the bar's management is still not saying anything, the restaurant's website seems to have been pulled and tipsters continue to write in with evidence of the shutter.

For starters, an Eater commenter notes that deal site Bloomspot sent out an email offering a refund to customers who had bought a deal for Buddha Bar. A rep for Bloomspot confirms, telling Eater that the company had received two calls reporting Buddha Bar's shutter, confirmed the closure for themselves, then issued the email which read: "You are receiving this email because you purchased the Buddha Bar offer from Bloomspot. Unfortunately, Buddha Bar has unexpectedly closed its doors. We apologize for this inconvenience."

More damning, an employee writes in to confirm the shutter and passes along the text of an email that the employee alleges was sent to the staff by Buddha Bar management acknowledging that "Buddha Bar Dc was officially closed forever on Sunday," and in part blaming the people of Washington for misunderstanding of the restaurant's concept. Here's the full text of the email.

It is with great sadness and a very heavy heart that I must inform everyone that Buddha Bar Dc was officially closed forever on Sunday 6/17/12.

I personally, and including the entire management team, Carlos, Anna, Luis, Chef Christopher, Chef Tetsuya want to thank all of you for the hard work, faith and perseverance in staying with us on the long bumpy road we've traveled together.

Unfortunately with the constant struggle of the DC cliental not understanding our concept and the reluctance from Paris to allow us to make changes, the owners have been investing additional money every month to keep the doors open. The owners were to receive from the landlord their cash deposit on May 15th 2012, which would have helped to keep the doors open. This didn't happen and the owners had to make a very hard decision which was to close down.

Your final paychecks which are direct deposit will be processed as usual all manual checks will be sent out in the mail. Please let me know right away if the address we have on file is not correct. In addition everyone is eligible to file for unemployment compensation immediately which can do done easily on line.

I unfortunately don't have everyones e-mail so if you are contacted by another team member that is not aware of the circumstance please share the information above.

Again I am very sorry.

I have enjoyed the time I had to get to know all of you!!!!!!!!!!

· Has Buddha Bar DC Closed Its Doors For Good? [-EDC-]
· All Previous Buddha Bar Coverage [-EDC-]

Buddha Bar [Photo: Amy McKeever/Eater.com]