Outdoor Dining In The Area

Burlington Coat Factory, a leading national off-price retail chain, has announced today that it will open a new flagship store in the space formerly occupied by Filene’s. Burlington offers brand name merchandise for the entire family and home with up to 65% off department store prices every day. The new location will feature the latest trends in ladies’ dresses, suits, sportswear, juniors, accessories, menswear, family footwear and children’s clothing. It will also include a broad assortment of furniture and accessories for baby at Baby Depot, home decor and gifts, along with the largest selection of coats in the nation.

You’ve surely noticed the water main repairs happening along 13th St. This will lead to water shutoffs at 830AM for up to five hours on Tuesday the 12th and Thursday the 14th, and perhaps other times.

On October 26, the owners of the upcoming Reyna restaurant, which is taking over the Le Midi space on 13th St., held an introductory Zoom call. Attendance was sparse, but it was interesting to hear their plans and to have the chance to voice concerns pre-emptively.

The restaurant will likely be open until 11 on weekdays and midnight on weekends. It is meant to be an upscale drinking/dining experience, not a noisy bar. They will also be using the Karaoke Cave space as a site for “French Karaoke” as well as sort of a holding space for people who may be waiting for a table (a problem Le Midi certainly never had).

They also plan to build a street-side dining shed, most of which will occupy the space now being used by Corkbuzz.

In general, they seemed quite eager to hear about any issues that nervous neighbors like us might have ahead of time, rather than deal with our anger later. They hope to open in the March/April time frame.

You can get an idea of what Reyna will be like by visiting the Web site for their two locations in Toronto:  www.barreyna.com 
If you have any questions, you can contact them directly:

Nicki at nicki@barreyna.com
Etienne at 646-421-4242.

The food hall inside the Zero Irving building and 14th St. and Irving Place didn’t last long, but now it will bounce back as a *different* food hall, this time sponsored by TimeOut, which has a winning example in Dumbo.

Here’s the rundown of vendors that will arrive next month.

Sad to see that Patisserie Fouet on 13th St. is no more. It closed suddenly and without much explanation. Perhaps an end-of-year lease situation. They do have another location at 776 9th Ave at 52nd St.

Curbed reports: The curvy low-rise building at 61 Fifth Avenue, devastated by fire in 2006, has been marked for death ever since the structure—a former Scrafft’s luncheonette (see photo at top left circa 1940)—was sold to a developer in early 2008. An architect was quickly enlisted to draw up plans for a 10-story building with apartments and ground-floor retail, and it was made clear that the current 61 Fifth Avenue was too far gone to be preserved in any manner. Has the economy put a pause on those plans? Perhaps, but broker-blogger Andrew Fine reports that demolition permit was issued for the property in December, so the wrecking ball could come calling any day now.