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
Good, because I don't like obstacles between me and tacos. I mean testicles. Nope, I mean tentacles. Whatever, all good.
ReplyDeleteThe bodies sprawled in front of the space will pose an obstacle between taco and customer.
ReplyDeleteBut are they going to sell tortillas?
ReplyDeleteOf course, the only obstacles between customer and taco are a few hard-hitting drinks to convince the diners that they are in a bar and not a restaurant.
ReplyDeleteWe need more tacos in the hood like a cronut needs a hole in it. Did I see the word bar in there somewhere?
ReplyDeleteHALF PRICED SUSHI. NO JUSTICE NO PEACE. HALF PRICED SUSHI. NP JUSTICE NO PEACE.
ReplyDeleteMore like a bar-eia or pub-eria. "remove all potential obstacles between taco and customer", one obstacle they won't be removing is the price. That should be revised as "remove all potential obstacles between taco and moneyed customer".
ReplyDeleteThis belongs in Alcatraz. Then again, the douchebros and their douchebrohos will eat and drink this up. Just look at their nearby neighbors Yuca and Miss Lily's. Self-illusion of selectivity.
Haha, obstacles. Let's just reduce most of the dining industry to "obstacles". Maybe that's why I hesitate to go to a lot of restaurants these days. Obstacles! Who needs em. By this rationale the best restaurants should just shovel food into your open waiting mouth--anything else could be considered an obstacle.
ReplyDeleteNow THERE'S a REAL "experienced foodie with a renegade spirit"!!! (Insert snort of derision here.) The only obstacle there might be between Stupak's tacos and my ability to eat them would be my unwillingness to even patronize the place - and no matter how he cheaps it down, I doubt that will change.
ReplyDelete@pinhead, your answer made me laugh out loud. Thanks.
@ Gojira- Snort inserted. Also a guffaw for good measure.
ReplyDeleteWill there ever be a new restaurant in the EV that does not have an open facade? Woo
ReplyDeleteBring back the Automat! Where the only obstacle between you and your food was a dime and a little door.
ReplyDeleteSO sick of these open facades. They are basically admitting that this place wants to be a bar, and they are building open facades - oh community board, do you exist? The noise and crowds are unbearable.
ReplyDeleteI hope the prices are low and the stripped-downness serves the community well, but I am worried about it.
And I can't believe another spot is doing the weathered wood look. Ha.
Oh dear, (or is it dearery or deareria), another douchery for the wolves and female-wolves of EV streets, and the bourgees. This will be the next Pranna in no time.
ReplyDelete"..space that once housed the punk-rock dive Alcatraz."
ReplyDeleteAlcatraz was really more of a metal place.
^ Yeah. Lamest place on Earth, too.
ReplyDeleteNYHC was were it was at 1985-90.
Shoilent green costs money!
ReplyDelete