By Lisa Kava
La Pecora Bianca, the popular Italian restaurant chain, is opening its second Upper West Side location at 61 Columbus Avenue (at West 62nd Street), on October 19th, founder and CEO Mark Barak confirmed to West Side Rag in an email. La Pecora Bianca also has a location at 359 Columbus Avenue (at West 77th Street), along with restaurants in Nomad, Midtown, the Upper East Side, Soho, Bryant Park, and in the Theater District.
The newest location will be known as La Pecora Bianca Lincoln Square according to an Instagram post, and will feature “two floors, easy Amalfi vibes, and overflowing Spritzes and Rigationi.” It will be the largest of La Pecora Bianca’s locations, with 8,000 square feet of indoor space and seating for over 250 guests. There will be outdoor seating in the spring, Barak wrote to the Rag. The menu will feature fan favorite dishes such as rigatoni vodka, whipped ricotta toast, and chicken parmesan. It will also premier some new dishes exclusive to the Lincoln Square location such as mafaldine (pairing roasted butternut squash with brown butter and crispy sage), trecce (pasta served with braised short rib ragu and parmesan), local burrata paired with stone fruit agrodolce (a sweet-and-sour condiment), and autumn pizza, layered with delicata squash, speck, ricotta, fontina, and sage. “With Lincoln Square, we wanted to build on everything people love about La Pecora Bianca while creating an experience that feels entirely new,” Barak wrote in a press release. Rosa Mexicano, the Mexican restaurant which relocated in 2025, was previously in the space.
NYU Langone Radiology Upper West Side, a state of the art imaging center, opened at 1980 Broadway (at West 67th Street), on October 12th. It is a 28,000-square-foot facility which offers advanced imaging technologies to support a broad range of clinical needs, including breast, neurological, cardiovascular, and cancer care. The center offers integrated PET/MR, advanced cardiac CT, and 3D mammography enhanced by validated artificial intelligence tools, as well as a full range of other imaging services, according to a press release. ”Our goal is to provide patients with the highest level of diagnostic expertise and technology,” Dr. Michael P. Recht, chair of the Department of Radiology at NYU Langone, wrote in the press release.
“This new location advances our mission to deliver the best imaging care in the world to patients right in their own neighborhood,” Dr. Oren Cahlon, executive vice president and chief clinical officer at NYU Langone Health wrote. Gracious Home, which closed in 2016, in was the last full- time tenant in the space.
Edith’s Sandwich Counter, a sandwich shop specializing in Jewish comfort food, is coming to 186 Columbus Avenue (between West 68th and West 69th streets). The newly signed lease is listed in CBRE Manhattan Retail Report. Edith’s Sandwich Counter was founded in 2020 by Elyssa Heller, whose Great Aunt Edith ran a Brooklyn deli in the 1950s. Originally a pandemic pop-up operating out of a pizza place in Greenpoint, N.Y., Edith’s Sandwich Counter now has three locations in NYC (in Williamsburg, Tribeca, and in the West Village). The menu features a variety of sandwiches including classic deli sandwiches, breakfast sandwiches, and wraps. The Infatuation called Edith’s Sephardi Breakfast Wrap “one of the best breakfast sandwiches in New York.” The New York Times listed Edith’s bacon,egg and cheese on a bagel as “one of the 57 sandwiches that define New York City.” We will update when we have an expected opening date. Francesco’s Pizza, which closed in July, was previously in the space.
Mimi’s, an Australian frozen yogurt shop, is coming to 221 Columbus Avenue (at West 70th Street). The signed lease is listed in CBRE’s Manhattan Retail Report. The yogurt store was founded in August 2025 and has 3 other NYC locations: in Greenwich Village, Soho, and on the Upper East Side. Mimi’s uses Greek yogurt, kefir, cane sugar and locally sourced fruit in its yogurt. The existing locations are self-serve and are known for having long lines circling around the block. Mimi’s has not responded to West Side Rag’s continued outreach as of today, but we will update when we have more information and an expected opening date. (Thanks to Jacqui for the tip.)
Blank Street Coffee, a coffee chain, closed its location at 2345 Broadway (at West 86th Street), on October 10th. Signage on the door reads, “ We’re sorry to see this location go and are so appreciative of all the love you’ve shown it—apologies for the inconvenience.” Customers are directed to the nearest UWS locations, at 80th and Columbus and at Broadway and West 91st Street. (Thanks to Christopher for the tip.)
ICYMI:
Crunch Fitness, a fitness chain, is opening a location at 2182 Broadway ( at West 78th Street.) Read West Side Rag’s coverage of this news here.
The Openings & Closings column wouldn’t be possible without our many tipsters: thank you! Anyone can send tips about openings and closings in the neighborhood to info@westsiderag.com.
Thanks for the update. Unfortunately none of these openings are happening further north, though I don’t blame them given the current state of the streets. Thanks to our Mayor it’s a zombie apocalypse above 96th street.
If it’s a zombie apocalypse count me in. I live on 102nd and things are fine here. Well, maybe not perfect and I’d like it if more storefronts were rented, but I’d think the same if I lived in the 80s.
Oh, and btw, we have much better neighborhood restaurants
“zombie apocalypse???” – what on earth is that supposed to mean? I live in the neighborhood and walk around 96th & Broadway often and have not noticed any zombies!
If you hate Mamdani, who has only been in office for 10 months, just say so, no need to beat around the bush!
Projection, I guess, by a self-loathing zombie.
“I hate him.” There you go, BillyBob
(and it really is like a zombie apocalypse above 96th street at times, especially after dark- people begging for money, people doing drugs, loitering- it’s awful)
The mid 90s through the mid 100s is a bit of a no mans land. Too far south to be in the Columbia/Barnard bubble but too far north to capture the tourists who come to the neighborhood or visit Central Park.
Commercial real estate vacancies from 86th Street and above have been a “zombie apocalypse” long before Mamdani became the mayor.
He ain’t helping any. He couldn’t care less.
So the mayor is doing a great job in the 60s and 70s, but a terrible job in the 90s? Seems unlikely. Possibly it’s not actually his fault at all?
Of course it isn’t. Some folks just want to take NO responsibility for their own neighborhood.
Can you explain why the empty storefronts north of 96th are empty because of Mamdani? I think there were a lot of empty storefronts under Adams. What has Mamdani done in particular to cause this?
It wasn’t worse under Adams. It is bad and has been bad since before the pandemic
If they’re empty, no rent to landlord. No rent to landlord, no tax paid to city. City should foreclose on tax liens, take ownership and then resell or relet the space at lower rents. He ain’t doin’ that.
The individual storefronts are generally rentals in a larger building, so unless the building itself isn’t paying its taxes there’s nothing for the City to do.
You don’t know what you’re talking about.
The landlord is still subject to massive property taxes whether their space is occupied or not.
The landlord won’t be subject to corporate income tax as they will likely have a tax loss, ie zero revenue on empty space less expenses on this empty space.
But the city still collects generous property taxes from the landlord on empty space.
I’m talking about property tax, jerk, not income taxes. If the landlord doesn’t generate rent, he’s got no means to pay the property tax unless he uses funds from some other source, which doesn’t make economic sense.
Do you have any evidence that the landlords haven’t paid their property taxes?
How are they paying it without rent from the property.
Just to clarify, it’s Edith’s “bacon, egg, cheese & latke” sandwich that the NY Times singled out. The latke is what actually makes it unique.
It sounds delicious, but bacon as a Jewish comfort food?! Fortunately I’m not Kosher!
Jewish comfort food with bacon? I genuinely don’t get it
A Jewish comfort food restaurant serving bacon, egg, and cheese? My ancestors weren’t eating bacon in the shtetl…
Thanks, I couldn’t have said it better!!
It’s a little funny to hear that from a man named Carlos 🙂 altho I do get it.
Easy way around it – turkey bacon and Daiya cheese slices. Fully kosher! But it probably is just not a kosher restaurant.
I wish Pecora Bianca the best, but sad to see the Rosa Mexicana space really gone… as someone who grew up here, I had many great dinners there with my parents and their fun friends, something about the showpiece waterfall stairs just felt thrillingly adult and fabulous to me, and the pomegranate margaritas seemed so sophisticated. Sadly, we all agreed the quality of the food had declined before it closed, but it will live in my mind as a happy memory
They moved around the corner. Still exists
And they took the waterfall wall with them!
Rosa Mexicana moved around the corner on 63rd – the street entrance is just past the doors the Empire Hotel… though you can get in from within the Hotel as well. They retained part of the blue waterfall diving wall.
It’s still there. Right around the corner above the starbucks and PJ Clarkes.
Rosa Mexicano moved two doors down from their old location. It’s now in the Empire Hotel. It’s been open for a year now.
Wow — good news! Great to hear that an Italian restaurant, Jewish comfort food (which I take to include corned beef, pastrami, and blintzes) and a state-of-the-art, medical imagining facility (given the amount of cholesterol I’ll be ingesting) are all opening so close together in Lincoln Square! I’m looking forward to it all.
a blank street closed? oh nooo what ever will we do
The Blank Street coffee shop on the corner of 80th and Columbus leaves its on-the-street basement door open all day, with no real protection, which is against the law. There is a pre-K around the corner. Tried complaining to 311, which started a case. Perhaps if other people weighed in before a child or elderly person is injured.
They have a grate over it now, but I have also often wondered why they leave it open all the time.
Long lines down west 70th street is NOT a good thing.
Great to have the radiology center. After we all eat eat eat and drink drink drink and be be be merry merry merry, maybe someone will diagnose our ailments and we can be put back together again to repeat repeat rePEEEEET!
there’s plenty of good real estate available that’s *not* in the 60s, in case businesses weren’t aware that the upper west side extends beyond 72nd street.
So excited for Mimi’s. It will fill the void left by Pinkberry’s departure. Can’t wait.
The “sameification” continues. Same handful of places in every neighborhood. I was wondering when we would get the Tik Tok yogurt place.
The residents of the Euclid Hall above Blank Coffee hang out in the street and are a loud and a scary crew, Therefore people avoid the street if they like to relax with coffee.
Regarding Langone’s new radiology space on 67th & Broadway: Wasn’t there a Lowe’s, the home improvement store, after Gracious Home left.