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Bar-and-Grill Chain Opening in Brookfield Place
Yesterday, I emailed True Food Kitchen, wondering whether it was still opening on the Vesey side of Brookfield Place—there’s been no sign of work, and the location didn’t show up on the company’s “coming soon” page. The answer is in today’s New York Post: The Del Frisco’s Grille chain has taken the “two-level, 7,566-square-foot indoor/outdoor space.” Based in Texas, the brand has at least 21 other locations across the country, and the menu is straightforward bar-and-grille, including items such as Cheesesteak Egg Rolls, Lollipop Chicken Wings, and a Wagyu Patty Melt. (Pictured below: “mushroom shallot crusted prime steak laid atop a savory peppercorn sauce and served with a crave-inducing jalapeño-bacon twice stuffed potato skin.”) According to the company’s website, “Each menu includes regional favorites using locally sourced ingredients and features the finest local flavors.” The restaurant is hoping to open next summer.
By leasing space to a direct competitor, Brookfield Place would seem to be sending a message to P.J. Clarke’s. Although, from what I recall during the contretemps of 2014, P.J. Clarke’s has a decent number of years left on its lease.
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It’s more casual than a full blown steakhouse but it’s more upscale than a pj clarke’s so I wouldn’t say they’re exactly direct competitors.
Major bummer. Do we really need another steakhouse in BPC/Tribeca/FiDi?
With another outpost at Rockefeller Center, this sounds like exactly the sort of eatery hordes of tourists will want to dine at–its better than Steak and Ale, because Waygu…
Also, are we getting naked cowboys and costumed characters next week?
Does anyone else feel like our quiet little neighborhood is becoming the new Midtown/Times Square? With more tourists, office workers (and residents) then ever, Tribeca/Battery Park is seeming more like a crowded business district than the heavily residential oasis it used to be.
Battery park /brookfield i never go to as i live in tribeca east however ive noticed my area has become almost unlivable. The noise level from construction on every corner ( plus now construction on worth)and more with the demolition trucks, the truck and commuter bus traffic on church plus the multitudes of tourists heading downtown plus the “new” residents waiting in line say at two hands the double wide baby carriages galore people that look like they came from greenwich i dont recognize the neighbirhood i loved anymore its pretty much gone. There is no serenity in tribeca anymore thats what i miss. Neighborhood destroyed by developers. And please no comments about how nyc is always changing etc ive heard it ad nauseum. This is a destruction of a once great neighborhood.
It’s MPD South
Change is inevitable, and there are certainly positives, but once again developers took full advantage of the area post 9/11, not just to rebuild the neighborhood, but also to turn it into a tourist mecca. Tour buses violate traffic rules daily (including idling next to schools and parks), hot dog stands have multiplied ( I know, people need to make a living), hawkers abound, cabs and car service vehicles clog streets and also violate traffic rules, and then there are the crowds. Its NYC and tourists are a part of life here as they should be, but when you bring hundreds of thousands of people into a small space, you bring with it a host of challenges that locals pay the price for. Corporations that run all the businesses in Brookfield and Westfield don’t care about neighborhoods, they care about profits. Their goal is to bring as many people as physically possible into this space, and to that end, they build roads, walkways and driveways to encourage that movement. We benefit from some of that development, but we pay a price, those businesses don’t. The closer the neighborhood gets to Times Square visitor density, the better for them.
I’m in the minority here but I don’t think it’s as horrible as some people are making it out to be. The truth is that tourists come down to the area for the world trade center, nothing else. Nobody is going out of their way to come downtown so they can “shop” at the 5 stores in Brookfield.
Sure, these stores are possibly keeping the tourists here for a longer period of time but they’re not contributing to a horde of new traffic like how some people seem to portray.
Perhaps when the Westfield mall opens up there will be some more congestion, but that’s also in an area which has always been commercial to begin with.
I seemed to have left out the purpose of my rant, which was to say that a new X opening up in Brookfield or BPC isn’t ruining the neighborhood.
I agree. And it’s not correct that these developments are not paying a price — the building owners (and condo owners) pay real estate taxes and the stores pay sales tax. So to suggest that they are somehow getting a free ride at the neighborhood’s expense is misleading.
Tribeca is relatively unscathed as pedestrian traffic is diverted intentionally to Battery Park. I have seen buses idling and parking illegally along West Street, but that largely doesn’t impact Tribeca. There are buses that park in front of Washington Market Park–may times they idle there, but that is about it. And lowphat, I agree that a new opening isn’t changing anything in BP in and of itself, but it feels a bit like “death by a thousand paper cuts.”
BPC now has various spontaneous bus depots on Liberty Street and along South End Ave–if you find a spot, sometimes at the curb, sometimes not, you let your passengers off. I’ve seen buses drop off passengers and then just keep circling the neighborhood until it is pick up time. No one enforces the traffic rules that are being broken constantly. Car service traffic has doubled on South End Ave in the past year or two. Tens of thousands of people come streaming across West Street into Battery Park on weekends. Hot dog vendors jostle for space on Liberty street and every weekend for the past month, we have been serenaded by ice cream truck jingles for hours on end.
Tourists on your street is a part of NY life, but the effort to bring the foot traffic from the WTC to Brookfield has been wildly successful and not always to the benefit of residents. There is much to be thankful about in terms of the development in the past few years, but also much to be frustrated over. I’m really hoping that Westfield is even more successful than Brookfield in pulling visitors and more people will chose to avoid crossing West Street.
I do agree it’s a double edged sword and you have to be willing to take the good with the bad. Most of the problems that you mentioned, however, are things that could be resolved or alleviated if the authorities in charge actually did the jobs they’re paid to do. If the cops enforced the traffic, parking and idling laws it would solve much of the issues with the buses and liveries. They should be enforcing the laws regardless of whether there are 2 buses or 20 buses which makes the fact that there’s an increase in traffic irrelevant.
Yes, I totally agree and residents have made repeated efforts at attempting to get enforcement. Sometimes there is a dip in violations, and I think everything is good, and then everything is back to business as usual. I have NEVER, EVER seen ticketing of parked or idling buses, which might serve as a real deterrent if the fines were high enough.
I have seen plenty of ticketing of Fresh Direct trucks, Fed Ex trucks etc. Do tour operators grease the palms of people in charge? Does Brookfield encourage lax enforcement to bring as many people as possible here? It sounds crazy, but its incomprehensible to me that vehicles that serve local businesses and residents are visibly ticketed and tour buses are not.
+1 for everything cami said. And I tried for years to get the tour buses stopped, documenting the problems with specifics and photos to the community board and DOT, and got nowhere. What will be the incentive for them to use the parking garage when they can park wherever they want? I’m also rooting for Westfield over Brookfield.