Time Out Food Hall Sets Opening Date

Life in Union Square is about to get a little tastier. The Real Deal reports that Dylan’s Candy Bar signed a long-term lease for 3,300 square feet at 33 Union Square West between Blue Water Grill and Heartland Brewery. Loosen you belts, because sweet addition joins Breads Bakery on the west side of Union Square, which has already become a neighborhood hit with its sweet baked goods.

Comfort food joint Chat ‘n Chew shut its doors this week after 22 years in the neighborhood, but the owner plans to reopen it as an Italian restaurant.

The diner-style eatery at 10 E. 16th St. near Fifth Avenue will relaunch in two weeks as Little Sal’s, said Ethan Silverman, son of owner Andrew Silverman.

“[Chat ‘n Chew] lost some of it’s energy, and now we’re getting it back,” Ethan Silverman said. “It’s going to be a Chat ‘n Chew on steroids. It’ll have traditional Italian food like chicken parm, eggplant parm and pastas.”

Silverman compared the concept of Little Sal’s to New York City restaurants like Sauce and Parm, where it’s “casual and family oriented — selling wine by the glass and not the bottle,” he said.

Andrew Silverman also co-owns Flatiron’s City Crab and Barbounia restaurants.

Little Sal’s will open as a pop-up in two weeks for a test run, and may remain open permanently depending on how well it does, Silverman said.

As for Chat ‘n Chew’s abrupt closure, Silverman said the team had known that they would be closing for a while, but hadn’t made it public.

“If people took a look at the place recently, they’d see that the staff was slowly kind of diminishing,” Silverman said.

“We’ve been in Union Square for a while, and we’re going to come back with energy,” he continued. “But [the concept] will be [in] keeping with the people who work and live in the neighborhood.”

From YIMBY:

Permits have been filed for an 11-story mixed-use building at 31 East 17th Street in Union Square, Manhattan. Located between Broadway and Park Avenue South, the through lot is steps from the 14th Street-Union Square subway hub, serviced by the 4, 5, 6, L, N, Q, R, and W trains. Ken Rosenblum under the Four Roses LLC is listed as the owner behind the applications.

The proposed 168-foot-tall development will yield 39,669 square feet, with 26,023 square feet designated for commercial space and 12,240 square feet for community facility space. The concrete-based structure will also have a cellar.

David Kubik of BKSK Architects is listed as the architect of record. The architectural firm is also responsible for the glass dome addition atop the neighboring 44 Union Square.

Stop by Sephora on the north end of the Square on September 10 to take part in Fashion’s Night Out. The event runs from 7 to 10 PM.

This is the 2 week look ahead for the New School’s University Center. Next week (August 5 to August 9), material and equipment deliveries and installation work will continue on all floors inside the building.

The following week (August 12 to August 16), material and equipment deliveries and installation work will continue on all floors.

This weekend the site will be open on Saturday, August 3rd for interior, and sidewalk activities between the work hours of 7AM and 5PM as permitted by the City. Additionally we will be paving along 13th st.

Just a note to those who have made inquiry, the wall board panels are temporary and will be replaced when the final entrances are installed.

Just what the neighborhood didn’t need: another place to spend $6 on coffee. Joe and the Juice will open a new location at the corner of University and 13th St., the site formerly occupied by the defunct Nutella Cafe.