Frank

I typically do not post negative reviews, but I would highly discourage doing business with or supporting Chef Frank M in any way due to his disrespect for consumers and unethical business practices. In short, Frank accepted $500 for a gift card, closed his restaurant, didn't notify me of the closure despite having my contact information, and is now refusing to reimburse me. Details below.
In June 2018, I purchased a $500 gift card from his other restaurant, ***, as a wedding gift for my friends who are planning to move back to the US later this year - it was meant to be a special/luxurious meal to look forward to upon their return. Since *** had been an institution in Boston for ~40 years (and gift cards are lawfully valid for 7 years in MA) I thought this would be a safe gift. I even mentioned to the employee that I was purchasing the card as a wedding gift for friends to use once they return to the US from living abroad. However, it came to my attention in February that *** closed less than 6 months after I purchased the gift card!
Despite the fact that I filled out a form with my contact info and purchased using a credit card, no effort was made to reimburse me or alert me to the closure.
When I reached out to Frank in March, I was ignored (twice) and then was offered a gift card for half the value to his new fast casual restaurant, FRANK.
I live in downtown Boston and don't drive/own a car, and the gift I purchased was for people who will also be living in downtown Boston, so a gift card to a fast casual restaurant in Beverly for half the value I paid doesn't fit the bill (especially as it is not a fine dining restaurant - recall that this was a wedding gift for a luxury meal that the couple wouldn't normally have treated themselves to!)
I explained this and was met with continued lack of accountability and no reimbursement.
I later found articles that clearly indicate Frank's knowledge/intention to close *** months before his December 2018 public announcement - yet, he happily accepted my $500 for a gift card he knew would be worthless 5-6 months later. It must have been nice to add $500 to his bottom line with no expectation of providing any products or services.
Frank's staff's response to me argues that because it's been 1.5 years and I didn't demand reimbursement right away, he shouldn't be responsible for reimbursing me. Surely, it can’t be the responsibility of a gift card purchaser to check every few months to make sure a restaurant is open in order to be ready to proactively demand reimbursement immediately - while I'd love to consider myself a foodie, I am definitely not THAT on top of restaurant news. Per the law, gift cards are good at least 7 years and *** had 2 records of the transaction, so could easily have gotten in touch to refund me.
Not only is the gift card now worthless, but as it was a wedding gift, this puts me in the unpleasant position of having to explain the situation to my friends AND purchase a new gift.
In summary, Frank was happy to sell me a $500 gift card just months before closing his restaurant, had a record of my information and made zero effort to offer a refund proactively and, now that I've raised the issue, is completely unwilling to do the right thing. It is wildly disingenuous to say it's been too long when he made no effort to notify me of the closure!
Posting here to shed light on Frank's unethical business practices / disregard for consumers and warn others thinking of buying gift cards from his restaurants.