David Blaine’s restaurant Central Food in Kendall Yards to close: ‘I feel like I am ready to do new things’

Months after temporarily closing in July, Central Food in Kendall Yards will not reopen, chef and owner David Blaine announced Monday.

The Spokane restaurant specialized in locally sourced new American fare. With the exception of some holiday bread sales, the eatery was closed since July 3 for safety and financial reasons amid the pandemic.

The decision to permanently close was not coronavirus-related, however, Blaine said in a Facebook post Monday.

“I feel like I am ready to do new things,” Blaine said in an email. “This seems like a good time to pivot my life toward new ideas to be fascinated by.”

Blaine said deciding to close Central Food, which first opened in November 2012, took “months of difficult introspection.” He said Central Food has been his life for 10 years; Blaine started working on the restaurant in May 2010.

Noting how he has worked in restaurants since 1985, Blaine said to The Spokesman-Review that he is ready to try new things. He does not yet know what that could entail, however, saying he felt he needed to “put this chapter behind me” before fully focusing on the future.

Blaine thanked Spokane in his Facebook post, lauding the Kendall Yards community as “a particularly wonderful, supportive group.”

“I am proud of what was accomplished,” Blaine wrote. “I am grateful for the people who I worked with, the vendors who were our partners, and I will always think fondly of the many, many customers who became friends. The restaurant’s success was because of you all, and I never lost the sense of awe and the humble appreciation at what was achieved.”