Chris Viaud, a celebrity New Hampshire chef who gained national recognition for celebrating his Haitian heritage in the kitchen, is shutting down both of his restaurants.
Viaud announced Tuesday that Pavillion, his fine-dining restaurant in Wolfeboro, N.H., will close on Sept. 28. In a social media post, he cited the challenges of running a seasonal, high-end restaurant, which he described as “highly unstable and unsustainable.”
The news comes just weeks after the Aug. 30 closure of Greenleaf, his first restaurant that was based in Milford, N.H. New Hampshire.
A graduate of Johnson & Wales University in Providence, R.I., Viaud worked at Deuxave, a French restaurant on Commonwealth Avenue in Boston. Viaud also competed on the 18th season of Bravo’s “Top Chef.”
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After opening Greenleaf in 2018, he quickly gained acclaim, and was named a semifinalist for Emerging Chef of the Year by the James Beard Awards, which are often referred to as the Oscars of food. While he didn’t win the finalist spot, Viaud told the Globe at the time that it helped put him on the map.
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“That was a motivation for me to continue, to just push myself and keep grinding even though I knew that I didn’t get the finalist,” he said. “People are watching and people are realizing and I’m just going to keep going at it.”
In 2024, he was was named a finalist in the Awards’ Oustanding Restaurateur category.
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In announcing Greenleaf’s closure last month, Viaud reflected on the six years he was in business, and said he was proud to be part of “the positive change in the culinary landscape of southern New Hampshire.”
“The past several months have proven to be unsustainable in many ways, which led us to… conversations of the realistic survival of the restaurant,” said Viaud. “It became more and more prevalent that we could no longer sustain as a small business.”
Viaud is also the owner of Northern Comfort Hospitality Group, which operates Ansanm, a pop-up restaurant and catering company serving Haitian dishes. It’s unclear if Ansanm will continue; Viaud did not respond to the Globe’s request for comment.
“We will forever cherish our memories built in this building and continue to look forward to the staff,” wrote Viaud in a social media post about Pavilion on Tuesday. “Informing the staff was one of the toughest challenges but we are very much thankful to the staff, both past and present, for dedication over the years.”
Alexa Gagosz can be reached at alexa.gagosz@globe.com. Follow her @alexagagosz and on Instagram @AlexaGagosz.