In the crazy, cutthroat, unpredictable world of New York City restaurants, I suppose no restaurant’s closing should come as a shock. Restaurants die every day, and they die hastily and sometimes acrimoniously, and many of them deserve lives much longer and happier than the ones they got.

But I was stunned at the news that the Indian restaurant Devi has closed. I loved Survir Suran's recipes, and had wanted his book.  I thought he was a shinning star in his interuptation of Indian cuisine.  Was I so wrong?

Devi opened in late 2004 and earned admiring reviews from the media. Devi was touted to be the most ambitious and refined Indian restaurant in New York.  Considering most of the Indian restaurants in Manhattan had been around a long time and most had become dusty and tired afterall NYC isn' London.

With limited competition, Devi seemed to have a lock on longevity. What’s more, it was one of those restaurants about which I was regularly receiving happy reports.

 Devi as a rare New York restaurant to which you could take vegetarian, feel that you’d given that person complete consideration, and yet, as a meat lover, not feel slighted yourself.  I really looking forward to a trip to NYC soon and at the top of my must tries was Devi.

It is reported the owner, Rakesh Aggarwal, said he shut the doors mainly because he had “not made a dime in the last three years.'’  “The restaurant was popular but the overhead costs and payroll were too high,’’ he said.

Yet Suvir Saran, the chef most closely associated with Devi, is said to have explained it diferrently saying he left because of tensions surrounding litigation by the staff.   Staff members have accused Devi and Mr. Aggarwal of paying substandard wages and skimming tips. Referring to the litigation, Mr. Saran said he and his co-chef Hemant Mathur, “could not allow their differences to compromise our standards around service and cuisine.'’

Mr. Saran’s publicist later acknowledged that her client didn’t leave the restaurant until it had already closed.

Yet I read a few weeks back  with the news of Devi’s closing, describes Mr. Saran as “the genuine article, humble and extremely talented,” and that certainly fits with portraits of him that I’ve seen elsewhere over time.

And Devi’s closing is framed in terms of Mr. Saran’s “numerous outside projects,” including, “an ‘Indian Olive Garden’ chain called American Masala, after Suran’s book, and an Indian restaurant in the Epcot Center.”

Ah the politics of the culinary scene.  Sad I missed dining at Devi!