"My tragedy".
Conforti/Ben Yoster
Topolopompo restaurant announced today (Tuesday) its planned closure after 11 years of active activity in Tel Aviv.
The restaurant, led by chef Avi Conforti, announced the move through a minimalist post (and uncharacteristic of its activity, of course), and softened the blow by marking the last day of activity in about four weeks, on February 29.
"Dear guests, our fire dragon Topolopompo spreads his wings, puffs and puffs and flies freely into the sky," reads a peaceful post in the picture of Conforti and his two partners, "just before we say goodbye we would like to thank you all for more than 11 years full of joyful hospitality experiences, with an explosive kitchen Borders and cultures".
"Free to the sky".
Topolopompo's farewell post
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Topolopompo started, continued and now ends as an unusual restaurant in the local culinary landscape.
Its shell - the same fire dragon - embraced a grandiose design of the huge space, an equally grandiose menu and above all a mindset whose feet may have been planted in East Tel Aviv, but whose head, and certainly the flames coming out of its mouth, aspired high-high up.
This package attracted many and deterred many no less.
The restaurant knew a very loyal audience of regular customers, and even diners who could only afford the experience once a year, at a certain celebration, made sure to come back again and again.
The restaurant tried to stabilize the middle point, the one between the devout fans and the haters, countless times, with a relatively modest degree of success.
Dragon House
The difficult days in the life of Avi Conforti
To the full article
"ups and downs".
Conforti/Ben Yoster
Conforti himself was interviewed at length by Walla!
Food only about six months ago, at the end of (another) stormy period that led to the temporary closure of the restaurant, following a diner's hospitalization after food poisoning.
"Regardless of this, we have seen a decrease, and we have reached a breaking point," he said at a time that did not take into account the current war, "People spend much less, and people have much less desire to go out, even people who have money spend less, some of them, those who can, are found much less in Israel ".
He spoke of "humiliation".
point.
Then he returned to "thinking about the customers", as he defined it.
"Our goal is just to give them experiences, stories and smiles, and for them to be safe. You don't wallow in self-pity, God forbid, we thought about how to continue telling the story in a better, safer way."
An exception in our places.
Topolompo/Dan Peretz
The interview with Conforti already felt like a summary stop, but he was careful to define it as only temporary, emphasizing that he was here to stay.
"I'm not smarter than others, just willing to do a lot more. Obviously you have to have some kind of talent, but I'm not a genius, and food always talked about me. When my mother's food got boring, I'd go next door."
Topolopompo, he clarified, is the only place where he is not calm.
"This is my tragedy."
According to him, "I get excited every day. Our pleasure is not linear, you have ups and downs. The money is an existential justification, and what we do here has no equal in the country, really. This was our opportunity to look at things once again, and prepare for the next decade."
More on the same topic:
Topolopompo
Avi Conforti