A group of restaurant operators and consultants have taken the least at 124 Chambers — Ecco! — for a seafood restaurant (think oysters and other local catch) yet to be named. Ecco! closed in December 2019, well before covid, though the owners are still running a restaurant in Greenwich, CT.

Brendan Spiro has been a restaurant consultant for 14 years, operated a restaurant in 2009 in the East Village, and now has a seafood place on the North Fork in Northport. Paul Italia has The Stand NYC comedy club in Union Square.

They plan to keep much of the classic parts of the interior, but it could use some sprucing up as I recall from the tour I took with the folks from the Grey Dog, who took the lease just before covid began but they gave it up. Somehow I think that wood freezer can’t be up to code. “It’s quite a job — the place was neglected for years,” Spiro said.