In May, a reader emailed that he/she heard that the former Dean’s space at 349 Greenwich would be “a higher end restaurant called Wayfare (sp?).” When I posted that it must be an outpost of celebrity chef Tyler Florence’s Wayfare Tavern in San Francisco, a manager there named Tony categorically denied it. So I assumed the new restaurant must be related to The Wayfarer in Midtown.

Last weekend, the Seen & Heard post about how another reader saw stuff being cleared out of the space resulted in this email from K.: “I saw Tyler Florence last Friday sitting outside at Dahlia’s (or whatever it’s called these days) on his cell phone. So maybe the rumor is back on for the Dean’s location. He was in his chef ‘s whites.”

I ran the sighting by Tony at the Wayfare Tavern. Could it really be a coincidence that Florence was hanging out next door to the space that is rumored to be a restaurant called Wayfare? Tony said he was 99.9% sure that Florence isn’t opening a restaurant there. The chef had been in New York City for a month, shooting a Food Network show, and “he loves the area” (but then Tony mentioned Florence’s fondness for Balthazar, which is a different area, so I wouldn’t make too much of it).

I said that I understood that a celebrity chef would likely not choose a neighborhood blog, however esteemed, to announce a new restaurant. But I also said that, in a perfect world, Tony and I wouldn’t end up looking disingenuous and gullible, respectively. He said he’d ask Florence, and a few days later, I followed up with a text. It’s been a few more days, and I haven’t heard back. Personally, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the September agenda of the Community Board 1 Tribeca Committee includes it.