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Kitchenette Appears to Be Closing
“I understand Kitchenette at 156 Chambers is going out of business, looking to move out at the end of June,” said the anonymous tipster in a voicemail message. “You can take this as a reliable tip.”
About 15 minutes later—so it could be the same person, for all I know—Anthony posted this comment: “I saw what looked like brokers with a floor plan looking around the kitchen at Kitchenette on Chambers St. the other day. Are they going out of business?”
Kitchenette moved from W. Broadway to Chambers Street in 2006, and we know by now that businesses with a 10-year lease up for renewal are facing big rent increases. I stopped by the restaurant to ask, and the man behind the counter said I’d have to talk to owners Ann Nickinson and Lisa Hall next week, because that’s when they’d be back. So I called the sister restaurant in High Falls, thinking maybe they’d be there; the woman who answered took a message and chastised me for explaining why I was calling. (Talking to staffers about whether their employer is closing is something that does give me pause, but if I didn’t say why I was calling, the owners would probably assume I was trying to sell them something and ignore me.)
That’s where we were at when I asked someone in commercial real estate. “It was put on the market six days ago,” was the response.
UPDATE: A reader points out in the comments that when Kitchenette was founded in 1994, it was on the east side of W. Broadway between Warren and Murray; then it moved to the west side (at Warren, where West Broadway Cleaners is now); then to Chambers.
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Kitchenette actually had two locations (not simultaneously) on west Broadway- the original location was on the east side of the street between warren and Murray.
This is really sad news
i’m almost embarrassed t tell people where i spent the last 10 years of my life. what a bloody cliche this place has become.
I might have my story a little off because it has been years, but when Kitchenette moved from the east side of the street to the west, they helped their cooks to open The Little Place in the same space. They kept making crepes but added some Mexican food. Later they expanded to the space they have now. Well, had. The tragic fate of 2 of Tribeca’s much loved restaurants.
When will NYC start supporting small businesses. The rents are just outrageous forcing out businesses like Kitchenette and Little Place. Basements now go for $14,000 a month.. Soon Tribeca will be the land of the rich with only high end and chain stores and restaurants just like any mall across the USA. It is a travesty that anything with charm or human scale is being pushed out of Manhattan in favor of places where only a few can afford to shop or eat such as has happened in Brookfield Place.
Kichenette was a pioneer and helped make this a once great neighborhood. They did start in the smaller of the two Manges Avec Moi spaces then moved to Warren. They generously helped their cooks create the wonderful Little Bigger Place which is now having to move so that some developer can tear down the building and build another gigantic building which will probably have a Chipotle and a Gap. So much for the flavor of Tribeca.
There is a bill in City Council right now that hopes to create some help when leases come up. Councilmember Chin discussed it at our last Downtown Progress Dem Club meeting in April. But I’ve heard nothing since even though MBP Gale Brewer supports it. Frankly, without some kind of commercial rent protections like lease arbitration Small businesses cannot survive. Businesses need a window of time to try to negotiate a fair increase and right now it’s your time’s up pay up or get out.
We have to work to change that somehow or this city will lose whatever unique local vibrancy it once had.
Jean Grillo, District Leader 66th AD, Downtown resident since 1972
Rents rise when expenses rise. How about reducing the real estate taxes that have risen exponentially. Before punishing landlords, who will just turn around and offer shorter lease terms ,maybe the neighborhood that claims to be starved of goods and services should actually start shopping in their own neighborhood. Not Amazon or freshdirect. A business making money is going to be able to pay its rent.