The Friends of Bogardus Plaza has chosen two noted operators for the kiosk: Joey Bats Cafe, which serves wildly popular Portuguese pastéis de nata at three locations in the city, and El Sazón, which serves up Dominican smashburgers in Chinatown that get rave reviews from The Infatuation. It’s going to be super fun.

The plan is for a soft opening in March and a grand opening later this spring.

This is the third iteration for the kiosk, which was first delivered to the plaza in February 2022. Zucker’s took the first stab at it, and left after their one-year lease was up in June 2023. Benvenuto followed a similar path, and just ended its residency there, called Tribeca Plate, in early December.

Joey Batista first sold Portugal’s most popular pastry (he describes it as warm creme brulee wrapped in a croissant) at the Hester Street Fair in 2016 and opened his first cafe on the Lower East Side in 2019. His mother, a Portuguese immigrant, developed the recipe. His buddy has El Sazón on Baxter between Walker and Worth, and their fried queso adorns the smashburger as well as a sandwich that also includes fried salami, pickles and plantains.

“We’re so into this fried cheese that we’d order any dish that contains it — like the excellent El Sazón R.D. signature sandwich, which we actually like even more than the burger,” The Infatuation wrote. They also serve empanadas and loaded fries.

I was envisioning a grab-and-go situation for the kiosk, and that will be the Joey Bats model; the burgers take 5 to 7 minutes to cook. Not a bad idea if they devise a way to order in advance…

“These guys are kind of a thing,” said Tory Weil, who runs the Friends. “I’m really excited.”

Oh, and count on Portuguese coffee.