Top of the Hub, Boston’s Decades-Old Restaurant With a View, Is Closing in April

A decades-old Boston restaurant with the best views in town will close in April. Top of the Hub, which is located on the 52nd floor of Back Bay’s Prudential Tower, has been offering diners panoramic views of Greater Boston — along with expensive steaks and a menu that could have come from the pages of The Bonfire of the Vanities — since its inception in 1965.

Boston Properties, which is the company that owns the building, didn’t renew the restaurant’s lease despite its apparent profitability.

Top of the Hub is operated by Select Restaurants, Inc., which owns restaurants in six other states. Its chairman, John Quagliata, released a statement about the Top of the Hub’s imminent closure, which read in part:

“Despite continued sales growth, a commitment to once again invest millions of dollars in the restaurant, and our heartfelt desire to operate the restaurant as we have for decades, Boston Properties chose not to extend our lease.”

The Skywalk Observatory — which is located on the building’s 50th floor — is also closing.

Boston Properties executive vice president Bryan Koop told the Boston Globe that the company is “planning an exciting new design for an observatory at [the] Prudential Center,” but stopped short of indicating whether those plans include another restaurant with sky-high views and prices to match.

• Prudential Tower’s Top of the Hub, Skywalk to Close in April [BG]