Empellón al Pastor wants to add sidewalk seating on Avenue A and St. Mark's Place

[EVG photo from last October]

Empellón al Pastor, the third restaurant from Alex Stupak (Empellón Cocina, Empellón Taqueria), opened last October on Avenue A at St. Mark's Place.

There's now a online petition to drum up support for sidewalk seating for the bar-taqueria.

Per Change.org:

We are asking for your help with expanding our venue. We would love to offer you outdoor seating during the summer and need your support when presenting this idea to the Community Board. If you would like to see this expansion as much as we do, please sign ...

At last look, the petition, launched yesterday, has 23 signatures, including someone from Canyon Lake, Texas.

Community Board 3 approved the liquor license (a PDF of the minutes is here) for the address back in January 2014. According to one of the notarized stipulations for the approval, the applicants "will not commercially operate any outdoor areas."

Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] Chef Alex Stupak vying for former Sushi Lounge space on Avenue A and St. Mark's Place

As the for rent signs turn on Avenue A

Here are a few scant details about chef Alex Stupak's new venture on St. Mark's Place

CB3 OKs liquor license for Alex Stupak's new restaurant on St. Mark's Place

More about Empellón al Pastor, opening this fall on Avenue A and St. Mark's Place

Empellón al Pastor is now open on Avenue A and St. Mark's Place (39 comments)

Empellón al Pastor is now open on Avenue A and St. Mark's Place

Empellón al Pastor, the third restaurant from Alex (Empellón Cocina, Empellón Taqueria), is now open.

The doors opened at 12:30… or at least that's what the signs promised… that and football...



Here's a look at the menu… four of the five menu panels are devoted to alcohol …





There's also delivery via Caviar.

And Stupak said this about the space to WWD:

His choice of venue drives home the point: in the Eighties, it was a punk dive bar called Alcatraz. Stupak tapped several artist friends to re-create graffiti on the inside to look weathered.

“At the end of the day, I wanted it to feel like a quirky dive bar that someone happened to inject a taqueria into,” he says.

Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] Chef Alex Stupak vying for former Sushi Lounge space on Avenue A and St. Mark's Place

As the for rent signs turn on Avenue A

Here are a few scant details about chef Alex Stupak's new venture on St. Mark's Place

CB3 OKs liquor license for Alex Stupak's new restaurant on St. Mark's Place

More about Empellón al Pastor, opening this fall on Avenue A and St. Mark's Place

[Updated] At Empellón al Pastor, with graffiti on the outside and Charles Bukowski on the inside

[Photo Sunday by Richard Kopperdahl]

Work continues on the exterior of Empellón al Pastor, the bar meets tortilleria opening soon on Avenue A and St. Mark's Place.

Not sure exactly what's going on out here… a graffiti tribute of sorts…





Meanwhile, as Eater pointed out yesterday, the interior includes a wall adorned with a Charles Bukowski quote …


[Via Instagram]

The third restaurant from Alex (Empellón Cocina, Empellón Taqueria) Stupak is expected to open soonish.

Updated 10-8

Workers installed the new awning yesterday...





Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] Chef Alex Stupak vying for former Sushi Lounge space on Avenue A and St. Mark's Place

As the for rent signs turn on Avenue A

Here are a few scant details about chef Alex Stupak's new venture on St. Mark's Place

CB3 OKs liquor license for Alex Stupak's new restaurant on St. Mark's Place

More about Empellón al Pastor, opening this fall on Avenue A and St. Mark's Place

Here is the new entry step for Empellón al Pastor

Lots of activity at the former Sushi Lounge space, where Alex (Empellón Cocina, Empellón Taqueria) Stupak is opening Empellón al Pastor (bar meets tortilleria!) this fall here on Avenue A and St. Mark's Place.

Given that it is apparently the most anticipated restaurant opening on Avenue A and St. Mark's Place this fall, here's a progress report on the entrance. Specifically the entry step...

June!



Now!



Tomorrow, we hope to have an exclusive look at the door handle.

Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] Chef Alex Stupak vying for former Sushi Lounge space on Avenue A and St. Mark's Place

As the for rent signs turn on Avenue A

Here are a few scant details about chef Alex Stupak's new venture on St. Mark's Place

CB3 OKs liquor license for Alex Stupak's new restaurant on St. Mark's Place

More about Empellón al Pastor, opening this fall on Avenue A and St. Mark's Place

More about Empellón al Pastor, opening this fall on Avenue A and St. Mark's Place

Work continues at the former Sushi Lounge space, where Alex (Empellón Cocina, Empellón Taqueria) Stupak is opening a restaurant this fall here on Avenue A and St. Mark's Place.

New York magazine has a preview of the new place:

Empellón al Pastor [is] Stupak’s most casual place to date (he calls it a bar and tortilleria), hard by the western entrance of Tompkins Square Park and situated in the corner space that once housed the punk-rock dive Alcatraz. It’s a lot of firsts for Stupak: open kitchen, no reservations, paper plates, disposable cutlery, five micheladas (including one devised by Wylie Dufresne), and no desserts. The idea is to strip everything down to the bare minimum, both to keep costs low and to remove all potential obstacles between taco and customer.

Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] Chef Alex Stupak vying for former Sushi Lounge space on Avenue A and St. Mark's Place

As the for rent signs turn on Avenue A

Here are a few scant details about chef Alex Stupak's new venture on St. Mark's Place

CB3 OKs liquor license for Alex Stupak's new restaurant on St. Mark's Place

1st signs of activity at Alex Stupak's incoming restaurant on Avenue A and St. Mark's Place

Several readers noticed workers inside the former Sushi Lounge space on Friday … not much activity according to EVG reader Russ, but the first sign of life for the new restaurant that Alex (Empellón Cocina, Empellón Taqueria) Stupak plans to open here on Avenue A and St. Mark's Place …

Otherwise, the corner remains the same this summer.


[EVG photo from yesterday]

Stupak told Eater in March that he plans on having a small facility here at 132 St. Mark's Place to make tortillas for his restaurants.

Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] Chef Alex Stupak vying for former Sushi Lounge space on Avenue A and St. Mark's Place

As the for rent signs turn on Avenue A

Here are a few scant details about chef Alex Stupak's new venture on St. Mark's Place

CB3 OKs liquor license for Alex Stupak's new restaurant on St. Mark's Place

Report: Alex Stupak's new restuarant on St. Mark's Place will have its own tortilleria

As you know, Alex Stupak, who operates Empellón Cocina and Empellón Taqueria, is opening a restaurant at 132 St. Mark's Place at Avenue A, where the Sushi Lounge closed at the end of October.

Stupak told Eater yesterday that the place will house more than just another Mexican restaurant. The space will also be home to a tortilleria, which will supply this restaurant and his two others with tortillas.

Per Eater:

We are building a bar and restaurant around a small facility dedicated to the process ... Our new place will go from kernel of corn, to nixtamal, to masa, to tortilla at 132 St. Marks ...

The still-unnamed restaurant looks to open in September.

Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] Chef Alex Stupak vying for former Sushi Lounge space on Avenue A and St. Mark's Place

As the for rent signs turn on Avenue A

Here are a few scant details about chef Alex Stupak's new venture on St. Mark's Place

For rent signs come down at former Sushi Lounge

An EVG reader happened to walk by this morning at the moment a broker (or somebody) removed the for rent signs at the former Sushi Lounge on Avenue A and St. Mark's Place.



Alex Stupak, the chef at Empellón Cocina and Empellón Taqueria, plans to open his third restaurant here. CB3 OK'd his liquor license last month.

The Sushi Lounge closed at the end of October ... and eventually relocated a block and a half to the west on St. Mark's Place.

We haven't spotted any new work permits just yet for the address.

Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] Chef Alex Stupak vying for former Sushi Lounge space on Avenue A and St. Mark's Place

Here are a few scant details about chef Alex Stupak's new venture on St. Mark's Place

CB3 OKs liquor license for Alex Stupak's new restaurant on St. Mark's Place

Alex Stupak, who runs the well-regarded Empellón Cocina and Empellón Taqueria, plans to open his third restaurant at 132 St. Mark's Place at Avenue A, where the Sushi Lounge closed at the end of October.

On Monday night, CB3's SLA committee granted him a liquor license for the space.

Okay! I have a liquor license at 132 St. Marks now. I guess I'd better build a restaurant now.

— alex stupak (@alexstupak) January 14, 2014

Stupak told Eater on Dec. 23 that he hasn't decided on the concept for the space just yet.

Ahead of the meeting, some neighbors had concerns about another full liquor license and a 2 a.m. closing time in an area already saturated with liquor licenses.

Neighbors apparently met with Stupak last week. We heard that the meeting went well…



However, as we understand it, there was still some opposition to another liquor license. One EVG confidant at the meeting said that there were CB3 stipulations that the restaurant will only serve mescal, not a complete bar; that the initial operating hours would be restricted, subject to later expansion. (The proposed hours were 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. daily. We didn't hear what the agreed-upon new hours will be.)

Regardless, there was a lot of enthusiastic support for Stupak — including from a sitting member of the CB3/SLA committee.

Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] Chef Alex Stupak vying for former Sushi Lounge space on Avenue A and St. Mark's Place

As the for rent signs turn on Avenue A

Here are a few scant details about chef Alex Stupak's new venture on St. Mark's Place

Here are a few scant details about chef Alex Stupak's new venture on St. Mark's Place

If you are looking for more details about chef Alex Stupak's new restaurant at the former Sushi Lounge space, then you will be mildly disappointed in the paperwork filed ahead of this month's CB3/SLA meeting. There aren't too many clues about what's coming here, other than the number of tables, etc.

Stupak, who runs the well-regarded Empellón Cocina and Empellón Taqueria, plans to open his third restaurant here at 132 St. Mark's Place at Avenue A, where the Sushi Lounge closed at the end of October.

According to the documents on file (PDF!) on the CB3 website, the unnamed new restaurant has proposed hours of 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. daily… there are 18 tables with 48 seats, one bar with eight seats … plus an "open kitchen with dining counter."

And here is a sketch of the interior layout that accompanied the CB3 materials…



Stupak told Eater on Dec. 23 that he hasn't decided on the concept for the space just yet.

The CB3/SLA committee meeting takes place next Monday night at 6:30.

Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] Chef Alex Stupak vying for former Sushi Lounge space on Avenue A and St. Mark's Place

As the for rent signs turn on Avenue A