Stacey Sosa might have been thinking her next move was to retire, or at least scale back from the energy it takes to run a restaurant in this town. But with the opening of North Bar she did the exact opposite, and I would say the neighborhood is richer for it.

The nugget of the idea dates back to 2013, when Stacey and her longtime manager at Estancia 460, Katie Leonard, incorporated Fish Tails, d/b/a North Bar. But as sometimes is the fate of good ideas, it languished while life moved on. Stacey moved to Argentina in 2016 for a couple years while Katie ran Estancia; then when Stacey returned Katie moved onto Lure Fishbar in Soho to spread her wings a bit and Stacey’s son Elias stepped in at Estancia.

Then came covid, and Katie reached out to resurrect the idea. By then The Greek had moved its operations to Greca, its sister restaurant on Washington, and the space just on the other side of the party wall was empty. Plus the hotel was nearing completion, and Stacey could imagine what would eventually happen at #458.

“This space would have become a Bobby Flay vehicle or something like that,” Stacey said. “I’d rather compete against myself and keep Estancia alive.”

It all came together quickly, thanks, she says, to the talented people she knows in the neighborhood. Her boyfriend, Paul Cleary, one of the partners in the bar, did the construction. Her friend of 21 years, Al Abayan, who has RE:AL on Laight, designed the space. Another pal, photographer and designer Julia Blaukopf, took old photos of the neighborhood and made the fabulous wallpaper (I want some). A long-time Estancia customer, Alex Spagnolo from Stone Gallery in Brooklyn, installed the microcement bar and walls and supplied the marble for the café tables.

“It was a Tribeca collaboration that made our dream come true,” Stacey said, “a labor of love.”

The space is already classic. Paul exposed the brick, and in doing so, discovered a steel door that connects North Bar with Estancia (it can’t be open legally, but it is still cool to see.) The bar is named for our stretch of the Hudson River — which is historically named the North River — so Al had the lights made out of sail cloth.

They created a snug — it’s an Irish thing, and therefore Paul’s idea — a cozy private room hidden behind a curtain. It’s named the Steinhardt Room for the first tenants of the building, who operated a whiskey distributor operation there starting in 1882. It’s the only space they will reserve; everything else is walk-ins.

The executive chef from Estancia, Alejandro Diaz, designed the menu, but the connections to the restaurant next door stop there. They want this to be a different experience — “there’s no Malbec on this list.” My friend loved the Road Too Far cocktail, and the deviled eggs (three flavors) and tuna tartare were a perfect late-night treat, which we called dinner. There will be no growing pains here — the bar already felt like it had been there for years.

It just feels local.

“We wanted it to be an homage to the neighborhood,” Stacey said. “It’s a love letter to the ‘hood.”

North Bar
458 Greenwich | Desbrosses & Watts
Tuesday to Thursday 5p to midnight
Friday and Saturday 5p to 1a
917.675.7772