By Scott Etkin and Lisa Kava
Haven, an American bistro and bar, is planning to open this fall at 226 West 79th Street (between Broadway and Amsterdam). This is the first restaurant from Brian Staub, an Upper West Sider since 1995. Staub went to culinary school in 2018, after a career in finance, to follow his passion for food and hospitality. “When I started to conceive of this idea, I knew that it had to be [on the Upper West Side]. Our kids have grown up here, gone to school here,” Staub said on a call with WSR. He plans to serve “upscale comfort and familiar dishes with a little bit of an elevated preparation,” and to work in the front of the house as the general manager once the restaurant opens. The space used to be Burke & Wills, an Australian restaurant, which closed in 2020.
Fairway Market plans to reopen the longtime café on the second floor of its Broadway and 74th Street location on September 20th, though the date has been a moving target. The café has been closed for the past few years and the space has instead been used for storage or for specialty displays, such as kosher food for Passover. When it reopens, it will serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Fun fact: in 2012 the café was used to film an episode of ‘Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee’ with Jerry Seinfeld and Alec Baldwin. (Thanks to Harry for the tip.)
The Wolfe bar and restaurant is planning to open this October at 425 Amsterdam (between 80th and 81st Street). Named after author Tom Wolfe (‘Bonfire of the Vanities’ and ‘The Right Stuff’), it will be “an elevated sports bar” with a full menu, including a bottomless brunch on Saturdays and Sundays, a representative told WSR. The Wolfe is part of the Stout Hospitality Group which operates 13 bars and restaurants in NYC, including Amity Hall Uptown at 982 Amsterdam Avenue. The space was previously Spaghetti Tavern, a Western-themed bar.
Agave, the Mexican restaurant and tequila bar on Columbus between 93rd and 94th Streets, has closed. The large indoor/outdoor space, which had seats for more than 200 people, opened in July 2022. Previously, the UWS space was the longtime Mexican restaurant Gabriela’s. Agave’s location in the West Village is still open. (Thanks to John Ratcliffe-Lee for the tip.)
A showroom for CCS Fabric Frame, which offers an advanced technology for printing large-format, custom displays, often for commercial spaces, is opening at 293 Amsterdam between 73rd and 74th Streets (replacing a dry cleaner). The opening is backed by Pro Image Photo, the printing shop next door that was founded by Manny Parks in 1996. On a call with WSR, Parks explained that there are just a few companies in North America that offer this type of printing technology, which is faster, cheaper and more sustainable (because the frame can be reused) than traditional printing methods. The actual printing will be done at a large facility in Germany that’s so big “you could play a baseball game [there],” he said. He expects the space to open by the end of next month.
The First Republic Bank on Broadway and 76th Street will close on September 19th. A sign in the window directs customers to the branch at 10 Columbus Circle. Earlier this year, regulators seized control of First Republic Bank and sold all of its deposits and most of its assets to JPMorgan Chase. (Thanks to Berkley for the tip.)
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Excited for Haven but that store front still looks like it needs a lot of work!
The Fairway Market cafe is coming back? The UWS is definitely on its way to recovery. Now, bring the Westside Market back to where it belongs – the now shuttered space where Harmon was at the Belleclaire hotel.
I hope the beautiful bar above haven will reopen. Formally known as the polo lounge?
Manhattan Cricket Club, one of my favs
The restaurant spaces on Columbus between 93rd and 94th have a lot of outdoor sidewalk space which seems ideal – puzzled why the various restaurants there seem to struggle.
The outdoor seating at Agave has been under scaffolding for at least a year, and it never looked very inviting!
Gabriela’s did well there for a long time until the pandemic. Agave just wasn’t a good restaurant and there’s now a lot more competition for Mexican food nearby.
They’ve had some dense scaffolding there since Agave opened, which really made the outdoor space quite dingy during its yearlong tenure. Gabriela’s was there for 27 years though!
No Under the Stairs was there for several of those 27. Was there for years before Gabriela
Agave was simply awful. Their nachos were terrible. Their guac tasteless. Margaritas just passable. And it was EXPENSIVE. No wonder it shut very quickly.