It was just a few months ago that Bocca di Bacco on West 85th street held a party to celebrate its imminent opening. This week, the restaurant was mysteriously closed, no one was answering the phone, and a craigslist ad popped up listing the space for rent.
Bocca, an Italian restaurant with other locations in the city, replaced Arte Pasta, which is owned by the same company. Arte had been open for just a few months after replacing Dean’s Pizzeria.
One of our tipsters said the prices were simply too high.
“They made a huge mistake by raising the prices to midtown levels. It’s a cavernous space, and we were in there a couple of weeks ago on a Friday night and it was empty…
I think this, the closing of Corvo Bianco and the incredible success of the very moderately priced The Meatball Shop show that restauranteurs with delusion of grandeur (and $28 dishes of pasta) have completely misjudged the audience on the UWS….”
A Craigslist ad lists the business for sale, with a 14-year lease at $35,000 per month and $300,000 in key money. The broker wrote in an email that the restaurant was “not closing,” but did not elaborate. He said the restaurant had reduced the key money to $200,000.
I am surprised it lasted as long as it did… It was terrible and the service was awful!
I still miss Deans.
Deans was awesome. Even though they never held my keys, their square pie was phenomenal.
Ummm…$17 for something called “Gnocchi Alla Sorrentina”?
Must be some kinda “Gnocchi-Gnocchi” joke.
How much for the Gnocchi without the Sorrentina?
Was Bocca really charging $28 for pasta? Its online menu says otherwise: https://nycrg.com/bocca-di-bacco-uws/menus/dinner/
In any event, the UWS has plenty of really expensive Italian restaurant that are super-popular, so not sure prices are biggest issue. More likely, this restaurant’s demise stems from:
1) The square footage, which commands heftier rent and therefore means you need lots of business.
2) Location — a quiet east-west street where one would not expect to find a restaurant.
Yes…it was closer to $20..but for pasta..it may have well have been $40 a plate.
Isn’t pasta just flour, egg and oil? I’m sorry..but a plate of pasta with some nice sauce $8 at the most!
It was obvious the landlord is the greedy bastard in the neighborhood and the cause of a business not being able to do business. They are the next worse thing to the Republicons.
This is why supporting the “family” owned buisnesses that ALSO own the properties like the Zabar family is so crucial for survival in the “mentally” inflated idea that the UWS is trendy and Yuppie and that there is money just fuckin flying all over the palce. It is not. There are a lot of OLD, Middle-aged peopel that occupy all the 50-65% rent controlled and rent stabilized apartments in the area.
Look up at night…at the new condos and trump buildings. How many lights are on? 20-30% of the windows. Right….and how many people could NOT be commuting in if those prices matched a $28k-$45k income earning people that work in all those midtown and park avenues buildings..I’m talking the mail room, secretaries, assistants, middle management folk who earn unddr $50k. The government Fed and City takes about 20% of their paychecks. So what are you left with. Realistically, you cannot afford over $1100 a month in rent..NOT AT ALL..and cover all your other costs??? Don’t friggin make me laugh.
The reason Trader Joes is a godsend to the area is because Fairway and every korean local grocer had been ripping off people for years!!! That is why everyone goes to Trader Joes. They come over from the East Side too. For $60 I come out with 3 bags of groceries and all the supplies I need for over 2 weeks.
So..really..anyone disagree. I’ve been living here 24 years! I’ve seen the change. I earn 15% less than what I did 10 years ago. The Rent is NOT 15% less now is it?
Chains and banks pay no local taxes. They’re domiciles off shore or in other states. Bloomberg really did a number on NY. Dreadful.
All businesses in New York state pay some sort of tax. The big banks and retail chains are not immune to paying taxes. NYS requires all businesses doing business in NYS to file and document their tax status. NYS is considered to be least friendly to businesses as compared to other states when it comes to taxes. Some corporate income may be sheltered but taxes like real estate and employee tax obligations are not. Every business must pay unemployment, social security, workers compensation, commercial rent taxes, sales taxes and a host of other fees to do business. Many of these expenses are deductible at the federal level so little or no taxes are paid to the federal government. The government at many levels is well covered in collecting taxes and does really well when the economy is at its best.
Sassy…..more like Cranky…..
The website prices are outdated. We went to the restaurant a while ago expecting a moderately priced meal based on the website menu prices. The physical menu at Bocca Di Bacco was much higher in cost. Writing an email of complaint regarding the price differences to the holding company of the Bocca didn’t even yield a response from them. Perhaps that’s why service sucked. Starts at the top
Yes, it’s a quiet side street. But I walked by there at 9 last night, and Prime KO was packed – even on the sidewalk.
I agree that the space is cavernous (the old hotel ballroom), and it was very uncomfortable to sit in the back. It didn’t help that the service was terrible and the food was overpriced. That space needs some serious rethinking for the rent they’re asking.
Good point, I also walked by last night and saw the crowd at Prime Ko, which really is expensive. Maybe the tipster was right in the sense that Meatball Shop (and Polpette) are right around the corner offering lower-priced Italian fare.
Please correct me if I’m wrong, but I thought that building used to be a hotel, and that the restaurant space is its former ballroom.
Any budding UWS historians care to weigh in?
It is hard to justify going here when Celeste has far, far better food, and is much less expensive only a block away. Same goes for Gennaro on Amsterdam, and the new Meat Ball shop, which incidentally always seems jammed. Maybe they will bring back Dean’s…I miss their pizza.
Patsy’s, 61 W 74, is run by the same family and has much the same menu. We find their pizza just about as good as was Dean’s. Their delivery is also pretty quick even though they are farther from us than was Dean’s.
Just to weigh in on this, Dean’s was the best, most accommodating and most predictable experience. Dean’s had a brick oven and used either coal or wood to fire it, they made large, exceptional pizzas. Arte Pasta, Bocca Bacco and whatever else has operated there since Dean’s has been using some kind of retrofitted brick oven, i dont believe they are wood or coal burning and the result is they can only make small pizzas that take forever to cook.
Yep! When they doubled the price…no one showed up. Who do they think lives in the UWS – Saudi Princes? If they did they would only come to NYC once a year!!!
These landlords and businesses NEVER LEARN…the UWS is still 65% RENT CONTROLLED and RENT STABILIZED. They are not moving. These people are paycheck to paycheck and on fixed incomes. A few nice new condos open..and everyone thinks there is money floating around.
Get Real!
Walk down towards Lincoln Center. There’s money there.
a lot of the fancy condos are either sitting vacant (owned as second homes and pied a terres) or are rented out to “market rate tenants” — many of whom are young people living paycheck to paycheck.
A lot of homes at the shore and the Hamptons sit empty most of the year and are owned by New Yorkers who live in rent stabilized and rent controlled apartments.
So basically the NYC taxpayer subsidies their vacation home.
TWO SIDES TO EVERY COIN.
Great! Then can we all stop complaining about how only the rich live here now????
It was best when it was Deans!!!!
The RIGHT PRICE for the area.
I am not surprised – I went there several times with a friend for drinks at the bar or brunch, and there were never many people. I have to stick up for it, though, in that I found the service good, the staff friendly (except for a snooty hostess who squabbled with the bartender), and the food quite good if a little pricey (never had an entree), in fact better than their theater district counterparts. It’s a beautiful space and was a pleasant brunch alternative simply because it was so quiet (ahem). But something is very wrong when there are lines for nearby French Roast and more staff than customers at Bocca. If re-thought, the space could definitely work – it’s very attractive, and a rare authentic century-old interior in these parts. Did DEAN’S inhabit the entire space?
I never went to any of the incarnations that ended with Bocca, but Dean’s had what looked like the entire dining room space in back.
And often filled it, too.
I live in a building that is owned/managed by these people. They don’t keep up their properties, apparently the restaurant is no exception either.
They’ve made their killing. Now they can forget about the building.. Anyone noticed how many new buildings have scaffolding around them a couple of years later.
There is NO accountability in this city. So sad.
Given the trend for chains to replace local stores, I only hope they don’t open a Buca di Beppo in place of Bocca di Bacco.
🙂
HUGE SPACE FOR 35,000 per month. How about renting space for small shops – tailor, shoemaker, and other mom and pop owned businesses.
Big space? Hey, be good for a chain or a Duane Read!
Upper Westside landlords don’t want mom and pops they want cabins who will pay the exorbitant rents and they don’t care if the space if empty for a couple of years. The neighborhood isn’t of any interest to the landlords or to the city. NYC gives 100s of millions to developers and then tops that off with big tax abatements but nothing to maintain small businesses and the jobs and services they provide. The next time you talk to your council member as why humans take a back seat to developers every time.
Right on!!
I had lunch there a couple of months ago, and the food was so-so. Prices were high, although the lunch special was a good deal. It was a pretty space but I think UWS’ers want more moderately priced places to return to the area. (although Cibo Y Vino is packing them in even though their prices are on the high side. Maybe al fresco location is key?). This neighborhood is still filled with middle-class families who don’t want to spend $18 for eggplant parmesian.
They must have heard there are rich people here. Well perhaps there are, but they mostly order in.
More and more NYers realize that spending $200++ for dinner, and feeling not well in even the finest NY restaurants will bring expensive restaurant eating habit to an end soon. The expensive restaurants are just a waste of money.