The Real Reason Britney Spears' Restaurant Nyla Flopped
Britney Spears simply radiates talent having shown us over and over again her skills as a singer, dancer, actress, and talent judge. She has also ventured into retail endeavors, such as launching her own cosmetics line in 2004 (via EW). But while we still can't stop talking about the Circus singer's commercial successes — you can't win 'em all. Just take Spears' restaurant Nyla, which was launched back in 2002.
Nyla was a mashup of Spears' influences at the time drawn from New York (NY) and Louisiana (LA) (via E Online). The restaurant opened out of the Dylan Hotel in Manhattan, NY in 2002, the same year it also closed down. If you remember, 2002 was part of the Spears/Justin Timberlake power couple time period, and also the year they broke up — breaking the hearts of fans everywhere (via InStyle). We can imagine that during a time of such emotional upheaval, this ill-fated restaurant may not have been a top priority.
Insiders say, however, that Nyla was doomed from the start.
Oops, don't do Nyla again
Opening night started out with a rain storm, and then apparently a drought of customers followed. Nyla's original manager Bobby Ochs claimed that the place was $350,000 over budget on opening day, yet he had been told that Nyla did only $1,900 in business (via New York Mag). Second chef Brad Gates complained of different problems, "There's no one coming into the restaurant now," Gates said. "It's been hard to buy food because they're not giving me any money." Other sources note health code violations as well as a highly questionable choice to switch from Cajun cuisine to Italian (via Vanity Fair). What we do know for sure is that Spears had no interest in this kind of chaos, and left the project herself prior to the restaurant's closure.
While she displayed class in wishing the remaining crew well, her team released a public statement shared by E! saying, "Britney Spears has severed all involvement with the Manhattan restaurant Nyla and the company which operates Nyla. Spears believes that she has been let no alternative other than to terminate her relationship with Nyla as a result of management's failure to keep her fully apprised of information relating to the restaurant and its operations."
But don't think this failure scared Spears off from the restaurant biz forever — in 2013, she bought into the Planet Hollywood venture Meatball (via Eater).