Thursday, May 26, 2011

Octavia's Porch closes after 6 months


The "Global Jewish" restaurant from "Top Chef" alum Nikki Cascone at 40 Avenue B barely lasted six months, and it was rocky from the start. Early on some residents questioned the name — which paid homage to the passageway in Rome's former Jewish ghetto.

Perhaps this is currently a jinxed spot... Chabela's and Russo's have been in and out of here in fairly quick succession in recent years.

Previously.

[Props to Dave on 7th for the photo]

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Buh bye !

Anonymous said...

Ah yes - goodbye to a restaurant that didn't cause problems with the neighbors, was quiet and well run. Here's hoping a new sports bar/irish pub moves in!! yayyy!

Anonymous said...

this should have never been approved for a full liquor license in a resolution area. The prior businesses had a beer and wine only. Now they will be able to sell the liquor license for around $250 thousand. Dominic Pisciotta wanted to give his cousin an asset.

Morgan Tsvangirai said...

Serves them right for using Papyrus font all over the windows.

bowery boy said...

Can there be a better example as to why liquor licenses should not be transferable? 6 months of a crappy restaurant, and in no time at all the neigbors are stuck with another license on their block. The game is rigged against the community by the very people who are supposed to be looking out for them.

Anonymous said...

David Mcwater and Dominic Pisciotta are driving the train in land use and liquor licensing. They are like Cheyney and Bush. McWater is pro business at any cost and Pisciotta wants his Seward Park property value to go up and to Yuppify the neighborhood. Now thay are making matters worse by pushing for later hours for restaurants. The standard is now 4am seven days a week.

Troy said...

Had dinner there a couple weeks ago. Immediately became our fac. place and went back 2 more times. Sad to see it go.

Ken from Ken's Kitchen said...

If I were a chef like Cascone, I'd avoid this waaaaay overpriced neighborhood like the plague. It made sense to open a restaurant like O's Porch back in the days when EV/LES rents were still cheap. Prune opened back in 2000 and WD-50 in 2003. But those days are gone, at least for now. Better to get backers with deeper pockets or whatever Harold Dieterle from Top Chef did when he opened his successful small place in the WV.

Anonymous said...

@Morgan Tsvangirai...

Haha!

~evilsugar25 said...

are you kidding me?? my sis and i went there at least half-dozen times. LOVED the red quinoa, the turkey salad, the...

DAMMIT.

Anonymous said...

@Ken are you a chef, do you own a restaurant?

first of all this place should not have received a full liquor. it's a huge space and they were trying to rent it out for parties and what not. restaurants right from the start need that liquor license to help pay the rent and to acquire an asset. it's too big of a space with a stupid name-i think it was backed by a corporation, i guess not a good enough one though. Not our problem. Like people said this would close fast, but six months.

Anonymous said...

hahaha is all I can say. I think her fame was long over after she was voted off Top Chef. Maybe she will learn a valuable lesson from this.