Owner Kar Vivekananthan Talks Tapestry

Yesterday, information came through the tipline that Tapestry in Queen Village was no more. Today, Eater got co-owner Kar Vivekananthan on the phone to clear up some of the details surrounding the shutter, and talk about the next steps for the restaurant and his involvement.

"The bottom line is that I am worn out dealing with the restaurant, and it's been a struggle since day one," Vivekananthan told Eater. "And not just with Tapestry, but Adsum, too. It's just been a bad situation for me for three years now. But, I am definitely out and moving on."

Vivekananthan said that he had a meeting with the other owners, Rob Nydick and Rich Rivera of Belvedere Restaurant Group (who stepped in after chef Matt Levin left), and they decided to go their separate ways. Rivera and Nydick plan to continue on with a restaurant at that location (Vivekananthan doesn't know if it will stay Tapestry), but there is the issue of the liquor license to work out before that can happen.

The license is in Vivekananthan's name, and he said the easiest option would be to work out a deal with Nydick and Rivera for them to purchase it from him, but that discussion has yet to happen.

The tipline produced some other interesting nuggets of info, one of which suggesting that Nydick and Rivera were going to transfer the liquor license from one of their unused restaurant spots to Tapestry. Rumor has it that the Belvedere Restaurant Group was working on an unnamed project in Manayunk that never came to be, and that would be the license they were going to transfer. Vivekananthan had no knowledge of that situation, and said he hoped they could work the license issue amongst themselves.

"We've all sunken a lot of money into this project, and that would be the quickest way to get this done, and all of us on to the next phase in our lives," Vivekananthan said. "And that's what I hope gets done. I am in a happy place right now, and this is the one situation that's keeping me up at night. So, I have to be done with this."

Drama or not, Tapestry was becoming a solid neighborhood spot with a serious beer list at friendly prices. Hopefully everything gets worked out quickly with the parties involved, so everyone can get back to drinking sooner than later.

· All Tapestry Coverage [~EPHI~]
· Tapestry [Official]