Last week, Carol Joynt, the proprietor of Nathans restaurant, sent out an invitation asking her friends to join her at the Georgetown institution to celebrate her birthday this coming Sunday. But now, that occasion will be more bitter than sweet, as she’s announced that Sunday will be Nathans’ last day in business.
“After 40 years of serving millions of happy and loyal customers, and opening its doors 365 days of every year, Nathans will close at last call on Sunday, July 12,” Joynt wrote in an email to friends and supporters on Monday. “We hope over the next week you will find the time to come in and enjoy a last drink and meal with us. We wish we could give it away, but economic reality is that we need your dollars.”
Thus ends a saga that’s been playing out for years, since Joynt inherited the business from her late husband, Howard, whom she’s said also left her “a mountain of debt, an IRS fraud case and a really tough lease.” Last month, she renegotiated her lease, but in a blog post, she said she was still praying for miracles as she tries to make ends meet during the summer doldrums.
Joynt, a former TV journalist, merged her two careers with “The Q&A Café,” a regular talk show filmed during lunch at the restaurant. This Thursday, she hosts novelist Jane Stanton Hitchcock at the last such session at the restaurant. “I hope to resume the program somewhere else,” she told us Monday. “It has legs.”
Joynt also has a book deal with Crown Books. Called “Innocent Spouse,” the memoir of her last 12 years is set for an early 2011 release.
But for now, Georgetowners are mourning the end of an era.
Lobbyist and Georgetown denizen Thomas Quinn told us, “I was there at the beginning, at the opening. There were some wonderful times there, drinking until the sun came up. I guess everyone who’s anyone went through Nathans.”
