Nine years after Commerce Restaurant in the West Village was forced to shutter, Chef Harold Moore has announced that he’ll be opening a second incarnation on the Upper East Side, Cafe Commerce.
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“This isn’t just a move; it’s an evolution of everything you loved about Commerce, now crafted into something even more special,” Moore wrote this week of the forthcoming eatery at 964 Lexington Avenue (between 70th and 71st streets). The space was previously home to East Pole Fish.
At a November 2023 Community Board 8 meeting, Moore described the new venture as “essentially American, but [with] a French soul,” adding that he expects the space to accommodate 55-60 seats.
The original Commerce opened in 2008 and quickly became a neighborhood go-to. However, Eater reported in 2015 that a multi-year legal battle with a landlord coupled with a “missed filing” related to certain renovations in the building resulted in the restaurant closing.
After Commerce closed, Moore opened Harold’s Meat + Three in 2016, which he described on his website as “the first traditional Southern dining of its kind in the five boroughs.” Two years later, however, the eatery dropped the “meat + three” approach—in which diners had a choice of a meat entree and three side dishes—and rebranded itself as simply Harold’s. The new version included food options from all around the U.S., and featured an all-day menu with healthier choices.
“People seemed to like it, so we’re moving the restaurant more in that direction,” Moore told Eater in reference to Harold’s less Southern fried options, adding that revised breakfast, lunch and dinner menus would be more “in line with what people are looking for in [the West Village] today.”
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The same year, in 2018, Moore opened a French-inspired restaurant called Bistro Pierre Lapin in the West Village, which combined “French classics and nouveau creations touched with New York sensibilities,” according to Moore’s website.
Moore was also involved with another West Village restaurant, Greenwich Grille, which shut its doors a mere two months after it first opened.
As it stands now, Cafe Commerce will begin accepting reservations in September, according to the Instagram post, though there is no word yet on when the space will actually be opening for customers.
East Side Feed has reached out to Chef Moore about his new venture; we’ll provide updates as we learn more.
