Archives: Union Square 1906

ByDon

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  • After Decades, Gotham Bar and Grill Gets New Chef

    ByDon
    Gotham Bar & Grill’s dining room in black and white

    It’s a new era for iconic Union Square American restaurant Gotham Bar & Grill: Influential chef Alfred Portale is stepping away from the kitchen, where he spent 34 years leading the restaurant to a Michelin star and several James Beard awards. Replacing him will be former Chumley’s chef Victoria Blamey, the Times reports

    Owners Jerome Kretchmer, Jeff Bliss, Robert Rathe, and Richard Rathe decided to switch things up when Portale announced earlier this year that he would be opening his own Italian restaurant in Chelsea. The search for a chef led them to Blamey, who last helmed the kitchen at Chumley’s in the West Village where she earned two stars in the Times.

    Blamey plans to add more multicultural flavors to the formerly American menu, such as Indian sauces and chiles. Though she’s been there for a few weeks, her new menu will debut in September after a brief closure for a slight redesign in August.

    It’s a big change for the restaurant that for 34 years Portale has kept about upscale seasonal American fare. In that time, he’s racked up awards for both himself and the restaurant, including a Michelin star since 2006, three James Beard Awards, and five three-star reviews in the Times between 1985 and 2011.

    Now, Portale will focus on his the fall opening for his new Italian restaurant in Chelsea, to be called Portale. Portale will not be a fine-dining restaurant, the chef told Food & Wine. Rather, he wants to open a “hip and fun” place for the neighborhood, with housemade pasta and seasonal Italian classics.

    The chef lived in Italy and has been cooking French-influenced American food for the last few decades, which will all make its way into the menu here. There will be a particular focus in the 130-seat space on the “light and casually healthy” food of the Italian riviera, supplied by his deep relationships at the Union Square farmers market nearby.

    Portale says he’s wanted to open his own restaurant “for many, many years.” This “informal type of experience” is a departure from his time at Gotham Bar & Grill, where he remains a partner.

  • Good Heavens…Walmart?

    ByDon

    The latest gossip from The Villager:

    While the fate of two prime-time storefronts on the south side of Union Square has yet to be determined, recent whispers have indicated that more big-box stores could be headed for the space currently occupied by a pair of retail behemoths.

    Electronics retailer Circuit City, which filed for bankruptcy late last year, will shutter its location on 14th St. at Fourth Ave. at the end of next month as part of plan to auction off all its properties and leases nationwide.

    A sales associate at the store said that Walmart was interested in the space, which is owned by developer The Related Companies, although a New York-based spokesperson for Walmart said the big-box chain currently has no announced projects in the city.

    Best Buy, which has a store less than a mile away on W. 23rd St., is another name that has been floated as a future tenant. A company spokesperson said the electronics-and-entertainment retailer does not currently have any plans for the site and could not speculate on potential deals.

    Rumors have also swirled for months over the possible departure of the adjacent Virgin Megastore, where Related — which owns a controlling interest of the Virgin stores — is also the landlord.

    “We’ve made no decision about that property,” Related spokesperson Joanna Rose told Mixed Use, echoing her statements to this paper from last May regarding Virgin’s long-speculated exit. However, Rose did confirm that brokerage Winick Realty Group continues to handle the leasing assignment for the nearly 60,000-square-foot property.

    A spokesperson for the Union Square Partnership did not have any information on who could open in either space, where brokers have pegged asking prices for the marquee addresses at upward of $300 to $350 per square foot.

  • New 14th St. Tech Hub Will Include a Food Hall

    ByDon

     

    from 6sqft:

    Pioneering food hall operator Urbanspace is opening its latest outpost at Union Square reports the NY Post. They’ve leased 10,000 square feet at Zero Irving, the contested tech hub on 14th Street that will serve as office space, a technology training center and incubator, co-working spaces, and an event space when it opens in the first half of 2021.

    Located at 124 East 14th Street, at the former site of the P.C. Richard & Son building, Zero Irving has faced opposition for years, as local preservationists and community groups felt that the rezoning required for the development should have included protections for the surrounding neighborhood, which is largely low-rise and residential.

    Nevertheless, the $200 million project has been under construction for the past year. Despite the thousands of small business closings around the city, UrbanSpace founder and president Eldon Scott is confident in what will be his company’s fifth food hall in New York City. “We have the ideal business model to help the New York culinary world recover,” he told the Post.

    UrbanSpace’s other locations are Urbanspace Vanderbilt near Grand Central (the first location, which opened in 2015), Lexington Avenue and 51st Street, 135 West 50th Street, and 152 West 52nd Street. They’re also behind the holiday markets in Grand Central, Union Square, Columbus Circle, and Bryant Park, as well as seasonal food market pop-ups like those at Madison Square and the Garment District.