Monday, June 25, 2012

[UPDATED] With new restaurant opening this week, will Extra Place finally become a dining destination?

Late last week, workers installed new planters in Extra Place...




[Top two photos by Bobby Williams]

They are part of the sidewalk cafe for a new restaurant called Heidi that is apparently opening some time later this week... that's according to one of the workers at the space this past weekend...

UPDATED 2 p.m.

Heard from the folks helping to open the restaurant. Important clarification here:

"While this week was the original opening timeframe, some construction delays have set the restaurants back. We don’t have an exact date yet, but it’s coming up – just not this week.

"The restaurant at 8 Extra Place will be called Extra Place, and it’s Mediterranean; the one at 6 Extra Place will be called Heidi, and will serve Swiss cuisine. They’re under the same ownership."







We don't know much about what's coming here... well, it looks nice anyway. The proprietors were on April's CB3/SLA agenda. According to documents on file with CB3, the restaurant will serve Swiss and Mediterranean fare... with 16 table and 46 seats... featuring a beer and wine license with a sidewalk cafe...

Anyway, we're sure that one of the excellent restaurant-nightlife sites will have a preview offering more details about the restaurant. We're a little more curious if the new restaurant, which looks to open at 10 a.m., will be the thing to finally help transform Extra Place into some kind of destination...

About five-plus years ago, we first heard of the plans the developers of Avalon Bowery Place had for the former shit-strewn alley that ran behind CBGB — "a slice of the Left Bank, a pedestrian mall lined with interesting boutiques and cafes."


It hasn't been easy. Businesses have come and gone. It took four years to finally replace the roadway with a sidewalk and add lights.

So Extra Place will have two restaurants (the other being Oaxaca Taqueria) with sidewalk cafes... plus, there's the high-end eatery taking over the former Bowery Wine Co. space across East First Street... (And not sure where the promised commissary from DBGBer Daniel Boulud fits into all this... UPDATED: See comments for more on this.) Is this all enough to ward off the ghosts of the Bowery's past?

[Extra Place, one day some years back]

Previously on EV Grieve:
Extra Place now officially a Dead End

Meanwhile, Extra Place continues to maintain its proud heritage

Looking at Extra Place

9 comments:

VH McKenzie said...

It's hard to complain about huge boxes of hydrangeas.

Ken from Ken's Kitchen said...

No.

Spike said...

I wish them well, but think any place on 1st Street/Extra Place is doomed. Veselka, which is visible at least and has a positive reputation in the community is pretty much empty everytime I walk by it. I go to Oaxaca every now and then, mainly due to all the Groupons I've bought for half price tacos (which are ok, but nothing special). But there is absolutely nothing inviting about that entire block, except maybe the free coffee at Chase!

Anonymous said...

The DBGB commissary is already there, they utilize a side door to the extreme left of Oaxaca Tacos, I think its in the cellar of the building. I see what looks like bakers, workers from DBGB walk in & out all the time

THE NOTORIOUS L.I.B.E.R.A.T.I.O.N. said...

Does DGBCGBGBDEFG have their outdoor seating setup yet???

esquared™ said...

...in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock. ~ Harry lime, The Third Man

So long Extra Place and East Village. Good day.

Anonymous said...

there are no sidewalk cafes allowed on this street. All seating on extra place is open to public.

Anonymous said...

It's cute in a outdoor mall sort of way. Which is to say it will fit right in with the New New York.

THE NOTORIOUS L.I.B.E.R.A.T.I.O.N. said...

I've always wondered what dining in the Gaza Strip would be like! Car bombs and rocket attacks aways make for an enchanting dining experience.