A Restaurant Forced Off Second Avenue Is Coming Back to the Upper East Side This Fall

When demolition plans cleared out a stretch of Second Avenue, six small businesses went with them. One of those is on its way back to the neighborhood this fall, taking over a York Avenue space that just went dark after 14 years.

Advertisement

Kamel Moumeni is bringing Jean Claude to 1481 York Avenue (between 78th and 79th streets), the longtime home of Greek restaurant Yefsi Estiatorio, which closed earlier this year. Longtime Upper East Siders know Moumeni’s bistro as Jean Claude II, which sat at 1343 Second Ave. between East 70th and 71st streets until demolition permits were filed for five buildings on the block. He relocated south to 1076 First Ave. at East 59th Street, where the restaurant has been since, and confirmed the York Avenue plans to East Side Feed. The opening was first reported by What Now.

The restaurant traces back to SoHo, where the original Jean Claude opened at 137 Sullivan St. in 1991. Moumeni started there as a waiter that same year and took over the business in 1995. He brought the name uptown in 2012, tacking on the II, and it ran on Second Avenue until the block was slated for a teardown.

Jean Claude II was one of several tenants pushed out by the redevelopment. Italian restaurant Il Divo closed, and Afghan Kebab House moved up to 1448 First Ave.

Moumeni said the York Avenue interior is being stripped down and rebuilt from scratch, and that the finished room will look brand new and somewhat different from the First Avenue space.

Advertisement

The menu is not changing. Brunch and lunch cover eggs Benedict, Gruyère omelets, French toast and pancakes, plus a croque monsieur, a croque madame topped with a fried egg, and a pan bagnat. Dinner runs to roast chicken, steak frites, and steak au poivre in a peppercorn cream sauce, with mussels steamed in white wine, seared scallops, branzino, and salmon with spinach on the seafood side.

He is aiming to open just after Labor Day, and said the back-to-school timing is deliberate given how many schools sit in the surrounding blocks.

Have a news tip? Send it to us here!