The owners of The Grey Dog are inheriting some fine old New York in the space that was Ecco! and their plans as of now are to preserve as much of it as they can. That goes for the tin ceilings, the bar and booths, some of the tile flooring and the fixtures.

“We are largely keeping it as is,” said Dave Ethan, who with his brother, Pete Adrian, opened the first Grey Dog on Carmine Street nearly 25 years ago and named it after their pets. (I checked out the one in Chelsea, which indeed is also a preservation project. It’s a lively, friendly place where you order at the bar and waiters bring the food to your table by calling your name. They have expanded to new locations as their staff has grown older and needed bigger and better jobs.)

It’s no surprise that there are some renovations required. The entrance is not ADA compliant, there is no refrigeration behind the bar, and the walk in coolers downstairs are — just take a look at the wooden shelves below and you’ll get it — not up to code (though Dave wanted to keep that freezer the most). They will have to install new floors throughout and remove the ugly compressors hanging from the ceiling, which have not worked in a couple decades.

This iteration of the restaurant has a new investor as well, Johnny Hill, who hopes to open more — maybe 10ish total. And in each location, he said, they try to add some value to the neighborhood. They run a CSA out of the Chelsea location, a cork recycling program out of the Village, and in Soho they partner with Animal Haven to support one of the company’s four philanthropic pillars — food justice, the arts, animal rights and LGBTQ issues.

This is not the first time The Grey Dog had its eye on the neighborhood. “I’ve been doing a dance with Tribeca for a while,” said Dave. The brothers took the lease at the Liquor Store on White Street 14 years ago, but were then called to the Ear Inn for a meeting where they were “strongly advised” to drop it. They followed that advice. But now they have a bigger canvas of tin ceilings on Chambers. “We like the family side in Tribeca, and we are closer to the businesses that are fans of the Grey Dog. Ecco was a Wall Street place, and we are mostly media. It should be a good match here.”

They plan to open in June.