Seen & Heard: The Restaurant Replacing Denny’s

••• Regen Projects’s gallery at 60 Lispenard doesn’t look like it has moved forward at all.

••• The TV show “Madame Secretary”  is shooting in southeast Tribeca (Reade/Church) on Monday.

••• Ideas Get Dressed opens today at SAPAR Contemporary: “This exhibition presents original preparatory works by designers Zac Posen, Manolo Blahnik, Roland Nivelais, Raquel Davidowicz, and Geova Rodrigues, visualizing the initial steps taken on the journey of the birth of an idea for a garment to its final execution. Each designer has employed an entirely personal technique on their creative journeys, which is manifested in the diverse range of works: draped mannequins, handmade dolls, elaborate illustrations, and quick sketches.” Below: “The Eternal Hepburn Look” by Manolo Blahnik.

••• Now that I don’t write up Unofficial Minutes for Community Board 1 meetings—because the committees were restructured—you’re going to get information from the meetings dribbled out here and there. And here, also from the Licensing Committee meeting last Wednesday:

—The Howard Hughes Corporation is considering putting an ice rink atop Pier 17 in the winter months. And besides the roof restaurant/bar (in the non-winter months), there will also be a bar on the “North Porch,” at ground level on the north side of the pier.

—Vegan fast-food chain By Chloe hasn’t even started building out its Seaport District restaurant yet. The owners are hoping to begin in May and be ready to open this summer. It’s going to have a bakery, too, that opens at 7 a.m.

—A restaurant called Sky 55 is opening on the third floor of the office building at 55 Water. Ninety percent of the clientele is expected to come from within the building, but it will be open to the public. The operator is the same as for Café 55 (also in the building) and the India House club.

The Collective Retreats luxury tent-camp hotel has a three-year deal with Governors Island. It’ll have a restaurant and bar open to non-guests.

—The restaurant coming to the former Denny’s space at 150 Nassau will be called Bread and Butter, and it’ll have a Caribbean-American menu. Proprietor Robert Cummings (sp?) faced a lot of objections from residents within the building, who are concerned there are too many bars and restaurants nearby (how times change—that was a dining desert two years ago) and who think the schoolkids at Spruce Street School might somehow be corrupted by having to pass by a bar and/or its garbage. (It was hard to imagine them being this upset if, say, Andrew Carmellini had taken the space.) Moreover, a rep from Pace University requested that the restaurant agree not to market happy-hour or other drink specials to its students. I’m sorry, but any college in the middle of a city is going to have bars and restaurants as neighbors, and the students can grow up and cope. UPDATE 3/17: “Wonder if this is Robert ‘Don Pooh’ Cummins?” asked Mruptight. “He owns a few IHOPs and was to open a restaurant in the Bronx last year. He is a former record executive.” I think it might be. I added a photo of him below. He certainly has the accessories of a successful record producer.

 

3 Comments

  1. Glad to see another vegan option (By Chloe) appearing in the neighborhood.

  2. Wonder if this is Robert “Don Pooh” Cummins? He owns a few IHOPs and was to open a restaurant in the Bronx last year. He is a former record executive.