Setsun East Announces Closing

In the end, the tornado-pandemic punch was too much. As I reported last summer, chef Jason Zygmont cooked one perfect night with his popular pop-up restaurant at Vandyke Bed & Beverage. That night, unfortunately, was March 2, 2020. The tornado hit early the next morning, and the coronavirus pandemic the next week. Like many places across the city, Setsun’s doors closed temporarily.

Zygmont regrouped, and by June opened Setsun East in the liquor-themed boutique hotel. Later in the summer, Zygmont himself moved to Dallas because his girlfriend had an opportunity there. His team continued to serve Setsun’s spectacular food and he traveled back and forth. “They did a great job in my absence, but the financial burden is too much,” he says. “If there isn’t some kind of drastic support for restaurants, no one is going to be left.”

The restaurant’s last night is Saturday, Jan. 23. Zygmont plans to be in town to cook with his team. 

The restaurant was known for Zygmont’s signature agnolotti plus its tasting menus and wine dinners, first in a pop-up space at Sky Blue and then at Vandyke. Zygmont says the initial month after Setsun’s reopening was strong, and October and November were decent months, but with the continued effects of the pandemic, he can’t afford to continue. He wanted to stay open to continue to provide a place to work for his team — around seven people — until the economy recovered, in part because many of those people helped him get Setsun at Sky Blue started. Setsun was the restaurant he had dreamed of opening for much of his career, he says, and he rejoiced in its successes. 

“If I go too much further, I am not going to be able to dig myself out of the hole,” says Zygmont, who hasn’t been paying himself this year. “I feel for everyone who is still operating.” The plan to announce now and keep the restaurant open for two weeks is intended not to just allow you to get one last taste of the agnolotti, but also to help those staffers who will lose their jobs. “I’m not asking for charity. I’m not setting up a GoFundMe, but it would be lovely to have people come in and have them have a good two weeks so that they have a survival cushion.”

Vandyke is currently figuring out what its new food program will look like. Brad Webb and Eddie Badillo, members of Setsun’s team, have been offering a Mexican street food pop-up there on Tuesday nights, and that will continue.