[ Image via Forgotten New York]Extra Place has been a fairly popular topic here through the years... about six to be exact.
We first heard of the plans the developers of Avalon Bowery Place had for the former alley that ran behind CBGB six-plus years ago ... Extra Place would become "a slice of the Left Bank, a pedestrian mall lined with interesting boutiques and cafes."
Sure!
To date, nothing has really worked. The latest casualties appear to be sister restaurants Extra Place and Heidi. And across East First Street Veselka Bowery was never a good fit. Other businesses have come and gone. It didn't help that it took four years to finally replace the roadway with a sidewalk and to add lights to Extra Place.
It was still Extra Place though.
Now some big names will give it a whirl. The Times reported that Momofuku Ko will move from First Avenue to Extra Place. And Eater heard that restaurateur John McDonald has signed a lease for a steakhouse/oyster place in the former Veselka Bowery. (Grub Street confirmed it.)
Add this two places to the seemingly popular Blue Ribbon Fried Chicken and L'Apicio nearby in Avalon Bowery Place... an instant upscale dining destination?
As we've asked before about new places coming to Extra Place: Is this all enough to ward off the ghosts of the Bowery's past?
Previously on EV Grieve:
With new restaurant opening, will Extra Place finally become a dining destination?
Extra Place now officially a Dead End
Extra Place and Heidi currently 'closed for renovation' in Extra Place
They'll all fail. That quadrant is indeed a ghost town. The fault lies, I would guess, with the huge new buildings dwarfing that spot.
ReplyDeleteIf Extra Place were renovated with typical five and six story buildings around, it may have been an attraction.
But as it is now, it's a grain of rice surrounded by waffles.
Wherever Momofuku Ko goes, people will follow I think. I've had the privilege of eating there a few years ago (judge me if you will) and it's fantastic. Many of these restaurants are hipster joints, cooking up fancy food that really isn't all that great, but David Chang's restaurants in my experience are the real deal.
ReplyDeleteThat said, while I think Ko will do fine wherever they put it, I'm not sure if it'll be enough to make Extra Place a thing.
Privilege -- a special right, advantage, or immunity granted or available only to a particular person or group of people.
ReplyDelete"privilege of eating there". Sums up the type of establishment that is, and what EV has become.
It's not the location, it's the price point. So far, it's just been Extraspensive, esp' Vesleka and that Swedish disaster.
ReplyDeletebummed to hear ko is moving. i think it's perfect where it is now.
ReplyDeleteGreat idea, EV! Extra Special Place has a nice ring to it.
ReplyDeleteExtra Place is a cul-de-sac; it's not even an alley. People would walk down it if it went somewhere, but it doesn't. No one goes out of their way to walk down a cul-de-sac.
ReplyDeleteMaybe because of the fact that the block on which all this characterless/soulless glass and stainless towers of inaneness hoopla looks like Cincinatti or some other midwest city is a DEAD zone to ANY place of substance. The "Left Bank"? Who the fuck are they kidding? How delusional are the people that come up with this bunch of bollocks - on a scale of 1 to 10 they're pegging the meter at 1,000. Maybe if these "developers" came up with something, say, ORIGINAL - it may just stand a ghost of a chance. Cookie cutter crap - nope. Get your brains together people and come up with something that isn't garbage. Please - we're gettin' sick of this shit here...
ReplyDeleteI agree with the others here- the Avalon complex is so utterly devoid of character and soul that it has the feeling of a suburban strip mall that is trying to be "hip and urban".
ReplyDeleteI do like one of the lone holdouts- Oaxaca- a good little Mexican place with reasonable prices- the only reason I walk to that cultural dead zone.
I think I liked extra place better when I used to smoke weed or take a pee there back in the day- at least then it was useful!
L.A. Strip Mall!
ReplyDeleteGood. An extra place to corral those sheeps and their clones.
ReplyDelete