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Help Plan a Restaurant
A little bird told me that Dr. Michel Cohen (below) of Tribeca Pediatrics was planning a restaurant in the old Bangal Curry space at 65 W. Broadway, between Warren and Murray, but that he hadn’t decided what it should be like. (Indeed, I recalled a liquor-license application from February, but I had to miss that meeting.) So I emailed him, offering to solicit suggestions from readers. Here’s what he said:
“About 6 months ago I started the process of finding a space to open the restaurant in the neighborhood whith the mother of one of my patients, an established chef. We had a project to create a place where you could have great healthy food in a beautiful and warm environment. For some reasons, it did not work out and now I am finding myself with beautiful space on West Broadway and no chef. So I am in the process of finding a concept and someone to operate the buisness. The space has a ground floor and a charming upstairs with wraparound windows.” Who knew? “So I am thinking great lunch place/wine bar in the evening and more formal dining on the second floor, with an event room.”
He also said he’d love suggestions. So here’s your chance, Tribeca: What would you like to see in that space?
UPDATE: Besides the suggestions in the comments, there were these two ideas:
••• “Southern sandwiches – poboys!” —Erica Rose on Facebook
••• “How about a resto that sources its products from other Tribeca merchants like @franklywines, @GrandaisyBakery, etc?” —@icravenyc on Twitter
UPDATE #2: I had to turn off the comments because of spam. Feel free to email any thoughts to tribecacitizen@gmail.com and I’ll post them here.
17 Comments
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A place for families with young kids – I’m thinking Moomah but: a) with a greater focus on food and sit-down family meals, a la Ellyn Satter, queen of toddler feeding; b) a place for him to host Tribeca Parenting classes, in off-hours; c) because Moomah isn’t open on Sundays, and we need family places on the weekend!
I would love a good no great burger place in the area, like Mikey’s but with its own Tribeca vibe
A not so typical sports bar.
One that caters to the 30-something sports fan and not the drink-all-sunday sports fan.
One that offers healthy alternatives to typical sports bar food.
One that offers microbrews, wine, and a relaxed sports bar environment
It would be great to have an unpretentious place that was not full of itself with tasty, affordable food. Lets skip the seasonalism/ locavorism that brings us $20 salads. And let them not take pride in a signature cocktail.
I’m with Cami… can we have a more reasonably priced place please…
Somewhere new for lunch. I’ve eaten lunch everywhere in Tribeca, and would like somewhere new.
I dont think that seasonalism/locavorism is ‘pretentious’ as reader Cami above suggests. I think its smart. Good for our city, good for people who work hard to produce non-hyper-industrialized food, and most of all, good for ourselves and our children. What could be more fitting food from a neighborhood doctor?
Has Cami seen what amazing variety, and quality is available through the Tribeca and Union Square Greenmarket! I happily pay more for good quality ingredients. I feel we could do with more exciting vegetable oriented dishes, since most of our kids have no trouble eating candy and pizza, but need more simple creativity to eat what’s really good for our bodies- traditional, vegetable heavy cooking.
I would certainly be over-the-top happy with a family restaurant that gave us another family option beyond the other two great neighborhood places: Moomah, and Bubby’s.
As a New Yorker I go out to eat often, especially when I meet up with my friends after work. However, it is really hard to find a healthy place to eat dinner when meeting friends or a hip place to grap a drink that also has healthy snack. When I was in LA the city had done such a great job offering the people healthy yet fun places to eat, meet, socialize (and even watch sports games). Going to a vegan friendly or raw food friendly restaurant in LA isn’t only for the niche group of raw food or vegan individuals because the restaurants also cater to the masses with tasty more ‘main stream’ dishes.
This could be an idea for the restaurant and a great addition to the neighborhood. Recently the juice/yogurt bar Yorganics opened on Greenwich St and they appear to be doing really well. However, Yorganics doesn’t offer a lot of lunch or dinner food and they don’t have any where to sit down.
For the past two years I have been on a quest to find a great (healthy) salad in Tribeca and I am yet to find one. So sad that even with Seamless web I am yet to find a great salad I can order or pickup for dinner!!
May I ask why are you even thinking about opening a restaurant without even having a concept?This is not a good idea.
Organic, raw, vegan, vegetarian friendly. tribeca needs more healthy options.
A decent Chinese restaurant would make sense. …somewhat less upscale than Mr. Chows please
How about some really good Mexican food. MaryAnn’s just doesn’t do it for real Mexican food lovers. Kid-friendly options always a plus in Tribeca.
I am not opposed to seasonal/local fare, I just don’t want to pay $20 for a salad. There are plenty of places in Tribeca where one can get a pricey salad. I love the farmers market but feeding a family only on what is local/seasonal/organic is not financial feasible for everyone–even in Tribeca. Agreed with Heidi that MaryAnn’s doesn’t cut it for mexican.
I find it odd that Americans are willing to pay alot of money for all kinds of things that aren’t absolutely essential- real-estate, vacations, cell-phones, manicures, all kinds of services (including eating-out) and yet feel its some how ‘irresponsible’ to pay a fair price for food.
Even in a wealthy neighborhood in a weathier-than-the-rest-of-the-country city, the ‘normal way of eating’ is based on industrialized, monocultural, global, ingredients, where cheap prices are often at the expense of animal welfare and our environment which absorbs the extra diesel, the extra anti-biotics and so on.
My kid is a patient of Dr. Cohen, and I’ve found his practice to be excellent. I notice that so many of my friends (whose kids are also patients) are so enamored with Michel himself, with his French-ness and his European back-to-basics sensibility.
What could be more French than well grown, local food? The beauty of the ‘french way’ isn’t that they import their cheese from New Zealand. They work with whats available, and I understand why that sense of authenticity and care is so attractive. I think that a locavore, healthy, child-friendly restaurant would be so fitting from our very loved, local French doctor.
I would love to have something like ‘Diner’ & the ‘Marlowe & Sons’ empire of Williamsburg. Every once in a while I talk to Andrew Tarlow (Diner’s owner) and wonder when will they open up a restaurant here in TriBeCa? His main answer is that rent makes it prohibitive for them.
Personally, I find the food in TriBeCa quite bad.
I love the relaxed locavore trends you see coming mainly from Brooklyn. The idea that I am able to understand where my food comes from, that it relies on seasonal ingredients that are fresh and well prepared seems like a winning strategy to me.
I have been living in TriBeCa since 2006 and love it. I just wish the restaurant choices were healthier, and more in tune with ideas that seem to eminate from Blue Hill and StoneBarns, and the general farm-to-table movement.
Doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy a pineapple from time to time, btw.
I loooove a good curry joint!
Keep the funky name, whatever you do
For the love of Jesus and his mother, Mary, can we please give this a rest? Clearly, we all want a Mexican restaurant with hard-shelled beef tacos (not Mary Ann’s runny ground beef, but Taco Bell-esque ground beef).