Restaurateur Gabriel Stulman is now eyeing the currently empty Great Jones Cafe space for an undisclosed new venture.
An EVG tipster pointed out this item on the Community Board 2's March 13 meeting agenda:
Apps. to the SLA for New License for Full Liquor On-Premise (OP): Corp. to be formed by Gabriel Stulman, d/b/a TBD, 54 Great Jones St. 10012 (OP – Restaurant with sidewalk cafe)
Last fall, a group of applicants — Anthony C. Marano (who owns the building at 54 Great Jones St.), Scott Marano, Jonathan Kavourakis and Avi Burn — were OK'd for a new liquor license on their second try for the restaurant between the Bowery and Lafayette.
During the September 2018 CB2 meeting, Kavourakis, a former chef at The Stanton Social and Vandal, described the menu for the new venture as "modern American." Burn, an owner of Pinks on 10th Street and Pinks Cantina in the Bowery Market, expounded on that later last fall in an email: "The idea was really to keep as much of the spirit of place as possible. We will clean up, make some cosmetic changes, re-do the food and drink menu while keeping some classics and aim to offer a great update to a classic neighborhood restaurant."
No word yet what Stulman has planned for the space. (He's been part of the fauxstalgia wave.)
Stulman, under his Happy Cooking Hospitality, operates a handful of West Village establishments, including Joseph Leonard, Jeffrey's Grocery, Fedora, Fairfax and Bar Sardine.
It will be interesting to see how this one plays out. The liquor-license approval last fall wasn't without debate, mostly over hours of operation and the current kitchen's venting system. (This past September, both the applicants and CB2 agreed to a layover on the application for exploration of the above topics.) The previous applicants had agreed to move the kitchen vent from the front facade. Nearby residents had complained about the noise and smell from the vent in recent years.
Great Jones Cafe never reopened after Jim Moffett, the longtime owner, died last July at age 59. The Cafe first arrived in 1983.
Previously on EV Grieve:
RIP Jim Moffett, owner of the Great Jones Cafe
New owners vying for the Great Jones Cafe space
[Updated] The future of the former Great Jones Cafe
CB2 SLA committee OKs license for new ownership of Great Jones Cafe
6 comments:
Kitchen venting is an unacknowledged problem all over the city - especially these old wood and brick buildings were never designed to hold up heavy industrial constantly vibrating machines. Its not just fumes and noise but vibration and low frequency sound pressure. It is an environmental disaster.
Just another food group that serves industrial food. What we need is a one-off Mom and Pop restaurant... I know... I know... Good luck with that.
This guy opens upscale, lavish, boutique restaurants with pricey menus for the corporate foodie crowd. Just look at Simon and the Whale on 23rd St for a flavor of what is to come. Anyone hoping for a return to the old Great Jones Cafe might as well just give up and go apply for an Amex black card right now.
It's amazing that people will sign a one or two year lease for an apartment above a place like Great Jones - which had been there for 35 years and always had a late night bar crowd and music - and then they complain there is noise. Why choose to lease that apartment? Amazing arrogance. Maybe the firehouse should also be relocated?
Have any of you been to Great Jones St lately? It's not exactly a budget-conscious restaurant destination. Everything on the street seems to be upscale. Simon and the Whale is a hotel restaurant. Very different from his others. Fedora, Joseph Leonard, and Perla (before it moved from Minetta Lane) were all well run, had great service, excellent food and catered to LOCALS, not the business suit crowd. I'm hoping for more of the same here, I'm happy he's finally found a spot in the EV
He won't be satisfied with one restaurant--before you know it he'll have five more in the surrounding blocks, and will think of the neighborhood as his personal property, meaning that when it comes to following his SLA stipulations . . . he won't. Blocking the sidewalks and never closing the doors/windows (plus loud music) are his specialties. "Little Wisco East" is unwelcome here!
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