Burger Village coming to former Schnipper’s space

A fast-casual restaurant called Burger Village will take over the former Schnipper’s space at 120 Church and Murray. The restaurant will have seating for 100 and a robust delivery program. They are hoping to open in April.

(The community board told the owner that he could not deliver between midnight at 6a (!) as originally proposed.) Hours will be 11a to 10p.

Burger Village is a franchise with several locations around the city. Like Schnipper’s, the chain was created by burger-loving brothers, in this case four Long Islanders who each had experience in different parts of the restaurant industry. They opened the first location in 2013 in Great Neck, and the notion is organic everything and burgers from all sorts of animals: bison, turkeys, elk, salmon, sheep, chicken, ostrich and yes — cows. See more here.

Schnipper’s closed in May 2020, after enlivening that space for four years. They still have locations in Times Square and Midtown East, and when they closed, Andrew Schnipper promised to return someday to Tribeca: “One day we will be back, in a much better space.”

If you are wondering what this “temporary” license is all about, it’s a new thing from the State Liquor Authority designed to offer some relief to new businesses, since a regular liquor license takes five to six months to secure from the state. In that time businesses are often paying rent but can’t operate, so they can sell beer and wine only with this “temporary retail permit” while the full license is pending.

The temporary license comes with limited hours (midnight inside and 10p outside) and does not allow live music or dancing. It also does not require community board review, but the businesses will have to come back for their full license. These are subject to the 500-foot rule, and in those cases, they will have stricter regulations and have to go through a 500-foot rule hearing, which takes about three months. The temporary licenses come through in 30 to 60 days.

 

8 Comments

  1. Schnippers could not make it as there was not enough

    Customers walking the street. Anyone opening a Restaurant

    Business there today should be given a medal along with express

    License approvals. Business conditions in this area are extra

    hard. Proof is all the closed Restaurants and vacancies in lower

    Tribeca.

  2. I disagree. Pre-covid Schnipper’s was busy especially during lunch. Also, I remember from a previous article that Schnipper’s closed because the landlord wouldn’t extend their lease.

  3. Excited for this.. Though as pointed out in previous threads/articles, that’s a big space and has to be mighty expensive. Wishing them luck, they’re gonna need it in the post pandemic/endemic world with more and more people working from home (and not in FiDi)

  4. I used to work near there and I always had to wait at least 20 minutes for my takeout order. When I was in the area last year it was sad to not see them there. I hope they do open up again – there are plenty of empty spaces (sadly).

  5. Maybe I missed an article in the Citizen, but was sad to see that Woodrow’s closed too. The $10 burger/beer special was the best value around, and the staff were super nice.

  6. I am from Parkslope Brooklyn and Burger Village is the best of Parkslope and Downtown Brooklyn. I work near by and I am very excited for them.

  7. I’ll try out this place one Saturday morning when I’m in the area. They open at 11:00 AM which fits my craving for burgers perfectly.

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