Fitz & Starts in Queen Village, battered by the pandemic, to close March 20

Fitz & Starts emerged from a painful period in 2020 with a new business model that included fair wages for employees and greater sensitivity by management. Despite these changes, its last day will be March 20.

Owner Pat O’Malley announced the Queen Village restaurant’s impending closing on Instagram: “This was not an easy decision to make, but it was the clear one for me and my family as we move into the next part of our lives,” he wrote. “I know the work we started here remains unfinished but am comforted by the knowledge that every staff member who punched in here, and every patron who gave us a dime, was in some way supporting the movement of a vibrant, equitable, and sustainable restaurant industry that can be better than the one behind us.”

Fitz & Starts will continue to operate on its Thursday-to-Sunday, morning-through-brunch schedule until March 20.

A new restaurant tenant is said to be on the way for the building, at Fourth and Fitzwater Streets on Philadelphia’s Fabric Row. It opened in 2016 as the Hungry Pigeon.

O’Malley alluded to his struggles with staffing and the excessive demands of the business in a January interview with Inquirer critic Craig LaBan.

In a brief text exchange recently, O’Malley said he was not totally sure of his next step, only that he needs “some time to recuperate and spend some time with my family.”

“It’s just too hard for me to keep doing it,” he said. “I think I always hoped someone would join the team that would be able to take over the lion’s share, and we just never got there. I have a wife and a kid. I feel selfish giving myself more to the restaurant than them.”

O’Malley, a pastry chef who made a name at New York City’s Balthazar, and his then-partner, chef Scott Schroeder, renovated the former longtime fabric shop for their all-day cafe with a bar. Olivia Markowich, the then-3-year-old daughter of building owner Paul Markowich, had dubbed it “the pigeon building,” and the partners fashioned that into the restaurant’s name.

During the unrest following George Floyd’s murder, Schroeder wrote racist, anti-Black comments on social media that sparked outrage among the restaurant’s staff, customers, and neighbors. The Hungry Pigeon closed and the partnership dissolved.

O‘Malley’s reboot as a solo owner two weeks later, as Fitz & Starts, included a pledge to address systemic racism, while creating a healthier workplace and addressing inequalities in the food-service industry.