Teshigotoya, the Japanese restaurant at 432 E. 13th St. between Avenue A and First Avenue, quietly closed earlier this year.
The space is on the market. The listing shows an asking rent of $10,500 a month for the 800-square-feet of space. (There's also a $30,000 fixture fee.)
This spot has been a tough sell in the past few years. Masak, the well-regard Singapore-influenced restaurant, closed in April 2013. Then came Sembrado’s Tacos al Pastor, the Mexican restaurant from Danny Mena, the chef and co-founder of Hecho en Dumbo. And, I'm told, Teshigotoya went through an ownership change at some point after its early 2015 opening.
In previous posts about openings and closings at this address, commenters have said this is a tough block for foot traffic. Will the arrival of condos at the Thirteen East + West development ... or the 8-story residential building going up across the street at the former post office help make something work here?
4 comments:
Not so lucky 13th street is not only a rental transient block but a revolving door of retail for many years. I assumed the view of the old post office, a large loading dock as part of reason I as well as others skip this block when heading either east or west. Mid-blocks retail has always been a hard to impossible, I know I had a retail store and changed over to online business to stay afloat. I know nothing about the cafe / restaurant business but from watching so many come and go these past several years I assume the rent this landlord is asking will doom anyone looking to open a place here on 13th Street.
The construction had to have ruined it all for them.
I used to manage the restaurant that occupied this space three incarnations ago, in 2011-2013. It's a lousy address for a restaurant, all right. Besides the former rear-end of the USPS and a salon or two, the only non-residential features of this particular block are/were bars with fairly niche clientele (Phoenix; the space formerly known as Mug Lounge; Keybar); the resulting low foot traffic probably has something to do with why it's been four different restaurants in six years. It's smack in the middle of the block so even adding some visible signage (awning, chalkboard) it's unlikely to be notice by the throngs of people on the avenues not 300 feet in either direction. It's not just the construction that makes this a tough location, but it can't have helped matters any. Prospective chef/owners beware.
Masak was really cool. When the dust settles from the two (three if you count the one is "two buildings) construction I think this place will finally come of age.
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