Is Roxanne Closed for Good? Here’s What Chef Alexandra Holt Told Us

The entrance to Roxanne with what appears to be the city’s “Cease Operations” sign covered / Photograph by Kae Lani Palmisano

But she says it’s only closed for now.

“We’re not shutting down,” Holt told me when I talked to her over the weekend. This is a temporary thing, but it comes with a few complications, so let me explain…

Last week, folks over on r/PhiladelphiaEats shared a picture of a big, stripey CEASE OPERATIONS notice posted on Roxanne’s front door by the city and immediately started speculating. The notice says that Roxanne was shut down on April 6th for missing the “required food license.” And according to a search of the L&I website, Holt never actually obtained one.

The sign was covered with pink paper when we last checked on Tuesday evening (which is illegal) but records available online show issues with the restaurant dating back to February — some of which had been dealt with, some of which had not. A reinspection indicates that Roxanne was still in violation (and still didn’t have a license) as of March 27th.

But according to Holt, Roxanne was already closed at that point. “We closed after the last March service,” Holt explained. She was having some health issues that she needed to take care of and had been surprised by the order from the city.

It’s been an eventful journey for Holt who opened this new version of Roxanne in the winter of 2024 and was named a Michelin Recommended restaurant a little over a year later. It was a big step up for someone who started this project as a kind of supper-club-slash-one-woman-performance-art-piece about authorship, autonomy, and possibility in the modern restaurant scene told through cheese foam, chawanmushi, tater tots, escargot, and giant gummy bears.

And even though this version of Roxanne has the weight distributed across more shoulders than just her own, it is still very much a personal restaurant. She felt she needed to take a break, and without her in the kitchen, that meant the restaurant would need to close.

Still, none of this explains a lack of licensing from the start. And when I talked to her earlier in the week, Holt didn’t want to comment specifically on how this all went down.

“All I really feel like saying is that in my absence, I let things get overlooked” she explains. “So I’ve hired people to fix it for me and maintain that part of the business from now on.”

What’s shocking here is that it looks like Roxanne opened and was operating from the start without an inspection or the proper licenses. That’s just a basic, elemental part of opening any restaurant. A hassle, sure — as any dealings with the city can be — and sometimes complicated, but also necessary both legally and from a basic health and safety standpoint. According to the available L&I reports there were no serious health issues at Roxanne. The violations were about fire extinguishers and fire suppression (which appear to have been fixed between the February and March inspections), and a “Working space and clearance” issue, which had not been addressed. But operating without a license, and without a pre-opening inspection, is absolutely concerning.

Still, while we were texting back and forth, Holt also told me that the plan — at least right now — is to have Roxanne back up and running sometime in May. Essentially, whenever she has her issues with the city settled and, according to her, as soon as “I can be on my feet for that amount of time again.”

And of course, I’m hoping for a speedy recovery for Holt, and a swift, legal resolution to her licensing problem. But to be honest, those shut-down notices always make me worry, and considering the circumstances here, I’m not sure how this is all going to shake out.
Regardless, I’ll be keeping an eye on things, and as soon as I know more, you’ll know more.