A former marketing manager at Eden South Beach has confirmed that the restaurant has closed. Rumors of trouble started as early as last spring, when Short Order reported the website was down and vendors were grumbling about payment disputes.

At the time, owner Larry Rizzo and executive chef Christopher Lee assured us that the place was doing well; this quashed the buzz the eatery was in jeopardy. They stayed in business throughout the lucrative South Beach winter season. We spotted it open just a few weeks ago.

Short Order received an email yesterday with a tip the restaurant had

closed. A call to Eden revealed the phone number was disconnected (as is

the number we have for chef Lee's publicist, coincidentally). We rummaged through our iPhone, called the above mentioned former marketing manager, who confirmed that the restaurant was

no longer open.

We have a call in to chef Christopher Lee, who currently helms Huntington Social in New York, but haven't heard back yet.

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• Closings