A new restaurant, Buddy & Son, is coming to Ian Schrager’s Public hotel on Chrystie Street in Manhattan. The team behind Buddy & Son includes Shelly Armistead, the former CEO of the Gjelina Group, and Chef Jake Epstein who was the executive chef at Gjelina when it opened on Bond Street in New York. Gjelina opened its first restaurant in Venice, California in 2008, and a few years later opened its New York outpost. Buddy & Son is a neighborhood brasserie serving French classics with a new American accent, and is named after Jake’s father, Buddy. Ian Schrager first opened Public nine years ago. Bernstein Redo & Savitsky, P.C. is proud to be part of the Public and Buddy & Son team.
Straker’s Opens on Grand Street
Chef Thomas Straker’s restaurant at 59 Grand Street in Soho opened this month in the space that was formerly Keith McNally’s Lucky Strike. Straker, known as a Tik Tok star and king of butter with over two million followers. The young American-born chef opened his first outpost in 2022 in the Notting Hill neighborhood of London. In 2024 he was named by Conde Nast as “the hottest chef on the planet.” He is also known for his series All Things Butter. The new restaurant has an open kitchen and has a menu built around exception produce and meals cooked over a wood fire. Bernstein Redo & Savitsky, P.C. is proud to be part of the Straker’s team.
Boucherie to Take Former Milling Room Space
The space at 446 Columbus Avenue, formerly The Milling Room for a dozen years, is being taken over by The Group which will open its fifth Boucherie in New York City. The Milling Room was evicted earlier this year for non-payment of rent. Boucherie, which operates restaurants in Manhattan, Chicago, Washington DC and Miami is a traditional French restaurant that celebrates good food and joie de vivre by combining a blend of a steakhousoe and a refined Parisian brasserie. Boucherie will also be taking over the former Starbucks space at 444 Columbus, and combining the two spaces to create a 283 restaurant, one of the largest on the Upper West Side. The space has been a restaurant since at least the 1990’s, when it was Main Street and then Callo Ocho. In addition to Boucherie, The Group also owns and operates Olio e Piu, an Italian trattoria with three locations in Manhattan, and outposts in Chicago and D.C. Bernstein Redo & Savitsky, P.C. assisted Boucherie with its lease and liquor license, and is proud to be part of the Boucherie team.
Marcel
Marcel is a new restaurant inside Sotheby’s headquarters at 945 Madison Avenue, in the iconic Breuer building (the restaurant is named for Marcel Breuer, who designed the building in 1966), former home of the Whitney Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Frick Collection. Sarabeth’s formerly operated the café there. Sotheby’s took over the building in 2024 and has partnered with the design team of Robin Standefer and Stephen Alesch of Roman and Williams, who own La Mercerie at 53 Howard Street. Included among their other design projects are Le Coucou, Upland, Lafayette, and The Dutch. Chef-partner Marie-Aude Rose designed a continental menu with a French emphasis. Marcel is set to open in mid-April. Bernstein Redo & Savitsky, P.C. is proud to be part of the Marcel team.
Moss – Manhattan’s Newest Members Club
Moss, the newest private members club in New York has arrived, covering five floors at 520 Fifth Avenue near Bryant Park. The club seeks to attract members in pursuit of “intelligent leisure and physical culture.” The space includes a restaurant with piano lounge, library bar, sports courts, a recording studio, and an aquatics center with a sauna and cold plunge, among other amenities. Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality will be its food and beverage partner. The building at 520 Fifth is a 1,000-foot tower with over twenty floors of office space and more than 30 floors of luxury condominium residences. Moss is operated by sisters Colleen and Hailey Brooks, and the building was developed by Rabina Properties. Bernstein Redo & Savitsky, P.C. is proud to be a part of the Moss and Rabina team.
Ryan Bartlow’s Bartolo
Chef Ryan Bartlow, owner of Ernesto’s on East Broadway with its Basque style cuisine, has brought his hearty Spanish cooking to East 4th Street with the opening this summer of Bartolo. He co-owns Bartolo with his wife Davitta Niakani, and her sister Alexandra Niakani in what feels like a secret hideout with a cozy front bar and two intimate dining areas. Chef Bartlow has created delectable dishes such Anchoa y Mantequilla, Bacalao Rebozado, and Chuletilla de Cordero. They also offer specialty cocktails like Butano Afortunado, Refresco Julieta. The décor is heartwarming and the Niakani sisters are welcoming in this new West Village gem. Bernstein Redo & Savitsky, P.C. is proud to be part of the Bartolo team!
Swiss Butter Signs Lease in New York
Calling themselves your “friendly neighborhood steakhouse,” Swiss Butter just signed a lease for a 3,500 square foot store at 241 West 52nd Street in Manhattan, its first outpost in the U.S. Its menu is based on simplicity, offering steak, chicken or salmon drenched in its secret butter-based sauce made with 33 carefully guarded ingredients. Founded by restauranteur Eddy Massaad in 2017 in Beruit, Swiss Butter now has restaurants in Dubai, Riyadh and other cities in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Madrid and London, for a total of 15 locations. None are franchised. The West 52nd Street location is expected to be just the first in New York with a plan to expand to other cities in the U.S. as well. Bernstein Redo & Savitsky, P.C. assisted with the lease transaction and is proud to be part of the Swiss Butter team.
Babbo Acquired by Starr Restaurant Group
Babbo, one of New York’s most iconic Italian restaurants at 110 Waverly Place, has been acquired by Stephen Starr and Starr Restaurant Group. Michelin-starred Del Posto’s former chef Mark Ladner has been hired to run the kitchen. Babbo made a splash when it was opened in 1998 by Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich. Batali left the business in 2017. Starr Restaurant Group’s New York restaurants include Buddakan, Upland, Pastis, Le Coucou and others. Bernstein Redo & Savitsky, P.C. is proud to be a part of the Babbo and Starr Restaurant Group team.
New York High Court Ruling on Good Guy Guarantee
The New York Court of Appeals issued a long-awaited decision today in a case that has significant implications for commercial lease good guy guaranties. Typically, a good guy guaranty provides for a release of the guarantor upon surrender of the premises – often after a notice period – and payment of all rent and additional rent up through the surrender date. The problem arose when a lease required any surrender to be in writing and signed and accepted by the landlord. Lower court decisions incorporated that lease provision into the guaranty and as a result if the landlord did not accept the surrender, the guarantor was not released and remained liable under the guaranty. That all changed by the decision issued today in 1995 CAM LLC v. West Side Advisors, LLC, 2025 NY Slip Op 05782, with an opinion written by Court of Appeals Chief Judge Rowan D. Wilson. The court ruled that tethering the guarantor’s liability to the landlord’s acceptance of surrender “would rent most of the language in the guaranty superfluous.” All of the language in the guaranty, including the notice provision, demonstrated that the parties’ intended the surrender to be unilateral and not dependent upon landlord acceptance. Thus, so long as the guarantor complied with the obligations for release as written in the guaranty, the guarantor would be released without a signed or accepted surrender. Note that if the guaranty on its face does specifically require a written or signed surrender, that will still be enforced.
Kith Ivy
Kith Ivy at 120 Leroy Street in Manhattan is opening its members only club featuring a restaurant, Café Mogador, three rooftop full-sized padel courts, the first Erewhon tonic bar location outside of Los Angeles, a Giorgio Armani designed full-service spa, and a 1,500 square foot gym. The spa will include a jacuzzi, hammam, sauna, steam rooms and cold plunge. Kith CEO Ronnie Fieg has partnered with Midtown Equities and the Cayre family in launching the club. The project faced stiff opposition by Manhattan Community Board 2 and local residents but was approved for a liquor license in August. Bernstein, Redo & Savitsky, P.C. is proud to be part of the Kith Ivy team.