I was chasing down a tip in northeast Tribeca this morning when I noticed a sign on the door of 56 Walker, next to M1-5. It used to be an event space, but according to the sign, it will be opening on May 5 as a Mexican and South American restaurant called Epifaneo. The Tribeca Stage website doesn’t really clarify matters: It has info on renting the space, and the link to Epifaneo simply duplicates the sign. And the phone number didn’t work.

The only info about chef Laura Dardi that I could find online was this bio, from a website for The Gluten Free Chef: “Chef Laura Dardi specializes in organic vegan cuisine. She is a James Beard scholarship award recipient and former chef for Jon Bon Jovi and his family. Chef Dardi gets around even as far as Alaska to teach and create her vegan delights. She resides in Monmouth County with her husband and her two amazing sons.”

It’s hard to argue about a restaurant that’s vegetarian, organic, and “personal” (!), let alone one that has “tastings” and “samples” and live Latin jazz (as well as supporting local farmers), but having just sat through a community board meeting, I have to wonder whether a private space can legally function as an ongoing restaurant. Or maybe it can if it doesn’t serve alcohol?