It’s the kind of news that stops a neighborhood cold. Ilis, the ambitious Nordic-influenced tasting menu restaurant at 150 Green Street in Greenpoint, has announced it will close after service on May 28, 2026. The reason: the building was sold to a developer, and the restaurant — along with its fellow tenants — lost its lease. Chef Mads Refslund, a co-founder of the legendary Copenhagen restaurant Noma, told Eater New York that he and a group of investors tried to purchase the building but were outbid. The developer plans to tear it down and build condos.
If you haven’t been and you’ve been meaning to go, this week is your last chance. Ilis is now running dinner service Tuesday through Saturday through May 28.
What Made Ilis Special
Ilis opened in October 2023, occupying a striking former art gallery space that had previously housed the contemporary gallery Faurschou. From the start, it was unlike anything else in Brooklyn — a full tasting menu restaurant anchored by a wood-fired oven that turned out North American game, seasonal seafood, and plant-based dishes rooted in Refslund’s Nordic philosophy. The kitchen treated ingredients with the kind of careful obsession you’d expect from someone who helped build one of the most influential restaurants in the world.
The five-course menu changed with the seasons and leaned heavily on sustainable sourcing. The space itself was dramatic — high ceilings, gallery-style architecture, an open kitchen — and it attracted food lovers from across the city and beyond. In less than three years, Ilis became one of Greenpoint’s most talked-about tables.
This Isn’t the End — Just the End of This Chapter
Refslund and his team have been careful to frame the closure not as a farewell but as a transition. In an email to subscribers, Ilis wrote: “After more than a decade of work and two and a half years in Greenpoint, our connection to this space, and to everyone who filled our dining room as friends and family, will stay with us forever… We are already looking toward our next home and planning what comes next.”
Pop-ups are planned for the interim. Whether Ilis resurfaces in Greenpoint, elsewhere in Brooklyn, or somewhere entirely new remains to be seen — but the team is clearly not done.
The Larger Story: Brooklyn’s Lease Crisis
The Ilis closure is a painful but familiar story for Brooklyn’s independent restaurant community. Rising rents, building sales, and developers outbidding small business owners for neighborhood spaces have steadily eroded the fabric of what makes neighborhoods like Greenpoint worth living in. A restaurant that took years to build, that employed local workers and drew visitors to the community, disappears so that condos can go up in its place.
It’s a pattern that hits independently-owned restaurants especially hard. They can’t absorb the kind of rent increases that corporate chains shrug off, and they can’t match a developer’s offer for a building. The result is a creeping homogenization of the dining landscape — and another reason to support the restaurants in your neighborhood while they’re still here.
If You’re Going This Week
Ilis is open for dinner Tuesday through Saturday, with May 28 as the absolute final service. Reservations are available via their website at ilisnyc.com. Expect the dining room to be fully booked — this is the kind of goodbye that fills tables. If you can’t get a reservation, keep an eye on their Instagram for any last-minute availability or news about pop-ups.
For more Brooklyn dining news, check out our recent coverage: Brooklyn Openings & Closings: Dinosaur Bar-B-Que’s Final Day, Prince Street Pizza Arrives, and the Brooklyn Memorial Day parade roundup.
What You Need to Know
- Closing: Ilis, 150 Green Street, Greenpoint, Brooklyn — final service May 28, 2026
- Why it’s closing: Building sold to a developer; tenants lost their leases
- Chef: Mads Refslund, co-founder of Copenhagen’s Noma — one of the most decorated restaurants in the world
- Hours through closing: Dinner service Tuesday–Saturday
- Reservations: ilisnyc.com — book now if you want to go before May 28
- What’s next: Pop-ups are planned; the team is already searching for a new space
- The bigger picture: Another reminder to support your independent neighborhood restaurants while they’re still around
Source: Greenpointers, verified May 2026.
