The restaurant was opened by Jerry Kretchmer, Jeff Bliss, Rick and Robert Rathe and featured the American chef
Alfred Portale. Portale was influenced by the New American cuisine movement from California in the 1980s and 1990s, notably from Alice Waters and Jeremiah Tower of
Chez Panisse. In 2019 Portale left Gotham to found his eponymous restaurant on 18th Street. Victoria Blamey took over the kitchen, and the restaurant was awarded 3 Stars for her inventive cuisine. Chef Ron Paprocki reopened Gotham as Executive Chef in November 2021 with a renovated dining room and a new menu. Paprocki was formerly the restaurants Pastry Chef. Paprocki is now the restaurant's third chef after the arrival of Chef Portale in 1985. After Gotham's closing in March 2020,
TimeOut wrote about the restaurant that "it consistently garnered rave reviews, but it was a perhaps a confluence of factors—the trend toward more casual dining, a shift in ownership and the current crisis—that led to the restaurant’s demise." In June 2024, Gotham temporarily closed its doors again after being victimized in a $45,000 cyberscam, with plans to possibly reopen by the end of summer 2024. In July 2024, Gotham filed for
Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Gotham closed its doors permanently on November 22, 2024. ==Menu==