Are Changes in Store for Radius?

Sources including members of the restaurant and real estate community say that chef Michael Schlow will not be renewing his lease for Radius, which ends this year. A representative for the Financial District restaurant, which was Schlow's first, opening in 1999, was unable to comment on the future of Radius, and the chef made no mention of any changes when asked during a recent interview with Eater. However other changes have been in store for Schlow, including his announcement earlier this week to close Happy's Bar + Kitchen, which opened in May 2012, and to revamp it as a Mexican restaurant.

Three months after Happy's opened, executive chef Joshua Smith left for a different project, and the restaurant failed to garner the kind of reviews Schlow has received at other points in his career, including awards from Gourmet, Esquire and winning the James Beard Foundation award for "Best Chef: Northeast" in 2000.

Meanwhile, a post on Chowhound speculates about what it means that Schlow's Back Bay restaurant Via Matta is up for a deal on LivingSoical ("$30 for $60 to spend on food and non-alcoholic drinks for dinner"). "Schlow's Happys was also on coupon special recently" notes one commenter. Of course that in and of itself means nothing, but taken with the other factors, it suggests that Schlow's world of restaurants - which also include Tico and Alta Strada locations in Wellesley and at Foxwoods - is undergoing changes. Maybe that spells the end for the upscale Radius, or maybe it means Schlow is just finding ways of coping with a difficult restaurant economy. Maybe Radius will close, or maybe, like Happy's, it will reinvent. Stay tuned for updates and share any of your own via the tipline.

· Michael Schlow bio [Official Site]
· Via Matta [LivingSocial]
· Via Matta discounted on LivingSocial [CH]
· All coverage of Michael Schlow on Eater [~EBOS~]