Community Board 8 held its Street Life Committee meeting on Tuesday evening. Restaurant owners and their reps attended via Zoom in order to further their liquor license applications, and we learned about several new spots opening on the Upper East Side.
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Massimo Lusardi is planning to open an American restaurant at 1496 Second Avenue on the corner of East 78th Street, which was until very recently home to Quality Eats. Lusardi is the owner of several establishments on Second Avenue between 77th and 78th streets: Uva, Uva Next Door and Key & Heels. His father, Mauro Lusardi, opened up their eponymous restaurant on the very same block in 1982.
“I grew up on the block, this is literally next door to my father’s first restaurant. He was born and raised in Italy,” said Massimo.
Expected hours at the currently unnamed restaurant will be 8 a.m. to 4 a.m. daily, and the space will come with 108 table seats and 22 bar seats, with a ground floor and cellar bar.
“Like my other places on the block, it will straddle the line between casual and elegant,” said Massimo.
READ MORE: Four New Businesses Open on the UES; A Fifth is Coming Soon
Houston-born Cedric Sanders is planning to open a southern comfort restaurant at 1712 First Avenue, between 88th and 89th streets. There’s already an Instagram page for Hollybrook Lane, describing the future spot as “A neighborhood restaurant on the Upper East Side immersed in community, genuine hospitality, southern food & curated music.”
Sanders, who lives in the neighborhood says the restaurant will be moderately upscale, with the 1,400 square foot space accommodating a maximum of sixty-five people.
“I’ve been in the restaurant industry for a very long time working with some great chefs… It’s just time for me to do something.”
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Emir Mkulik, an ‘experienced operator,’ is planning to open a steak and seafood restaurant at 1600 Third Avenue at the corner of 90th Street – a long-vacant space which was formerly home to Parlor Steak and Fish. The name of the new spot will be Catch n Chop, and Emir says they’ll be doing an extensive renovation “and it’s going to be beautiful.” The space will come with 31 tables and the expected hours are 11 a.m. to 2 a.m.
Artan Hidric is planning to open a small bar and cafe at 1378 Lexington Avenue, between 90th and 91st streets – formerly home to Juliano’s Espresso Bar, which operated at the space for over thirty years. The space is expected to come with 15 tables and 40 total seats. Hours will be 7 a.m. to midnight daily, with morning and afternoon items including pastries, paninis and typical cafe foods, according to the forthcoming establishment’s legal representative. According to his LinkedIN profile, Hidric is currently the director of operations at L’angolo Ristorante in Tribeca.
Don’t know why “extensive renovations” are necessary for a new steakhouse to occupy the old Parlor space. Does any of the discarded interior get recycled?
We moved to this neighborhood BECAUSE there was a brewery in that space! Seems a pity that the new owner cannot utilise the mid-floor space to re-create a micro-brewery. But as to the ‘discarded’ interior, it seems the location suffers from such GLS that during the 5 year empty period, the light flooding in through the windows caused much of the furniture to decay & the coverings to shrivel up?