Openings and Closings: Le Pain Quotidien opens, the Blue Seats closes … and more

From left: Le Pain Quotidien at the corner of Lexington Avenue and East 88th Street and the Blue Seats at 157 Ludlow Street

In Harlem, Chocolat Restaurant Lounge is opening soon at 2217 Frederick Douglass Boulevard. Le Pain Quotidien is coming to the Upper East Side, at the corner of Lexington Avenue and 88th Street, Life with Food and Drink reported. Hotel AKA Central Park has added a café, lounge and fitness center to its facilities at 42 West 58th Street, according to a press release (note: correction appended). The new Hilton Manhattan East has opened at the former Tudor Hotel at 304 East 42nd Street. Women’s shoe store Naturalizer has secured a lease at 1460 Broadway, between 41st and 42nd streets, for its second Manhattan location. A new restaurant called West Side Steakhouse appears to be taking the place of Gourmet Wok on 10th Avenue between 43rd and 44th streets.

An Eater tipster dished on a number of new Soho restaurant happenings: a new sandwich shop is coming to Sullivan Street between Prince and Houston streets, while Washington, D.C.-based SweetGreen was planning to Open On Spring Street until lease negotiations fell through. SweetGreen is once again hunting for space in the area, as is Panera Bread. Also in Soho, Australian swimwear retailer Zimmerman opened a spring and summer pop-up Shop On Greene Street, near Prince Street yesterday, according to Racked. The store will be open until June 30, after which it hopes to open in a full-time space. 

All-beef restaurant Takashi is soft-opening at 456 Hudson Street April 13. The vacant space at 66 Delancey Street, near Allen Street, will be filled by a Subway shop, Bowery Boogie reported. Mediterranean/Moroccan restaurant Zerza, currently at 308 East 6th Street, is relocating to the former Carne Vale space on Avenue B, near 4th Street.

On the border of Williamsburg and Bushwick in Brooklyn, Broadway is getting another Burger King, right near McDonald’s and Taco Bell. Bed-Stuy Blog reports that construction is coming along at the new Butternut Market at 307 Stuyvesant Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant, where the restaurant is opening in the former Solomon’s Porch space. Bueno, the 102 Sullivan Street restaurant on the corner of Smith and Pacific Streets has been closed for several weeks, and Brownstoner noted that construction has begun for a yet-to-be-determined new tenant. The owners of Zaytoons are opening a bagel shop across the street from their restaurant, at 603 Vanderbilt Avenue in Prospect Heights. A new pie shop, Four & Twenty Blackbirds, has opened on Third Avenue at 8th Street in Gowanus. From the owners of Gino’s pizzeria in Prospect-Lefferts Gardens comes a new sit-down restaurant next door, at 548 Flatbush, according to neighborhood blog Hawthorne Street. 

Sandros Latin Food is replacing Lava Café at 27-03 23rd Avenue in Astoria. 

Amid these openings there were some closings. Klurk, the Nolita boutique at 360 Broome Street, is closing at the end of the month, the owners told NYC the Blog. Southeast Asian food joint Medina Restaurant, on First Avenue between 11th and 12th streets, has closed for renovations. East Village sneaker shop Classic Kicks, on Elizabeth Street between Houston and Bleecker streets, has shuttered due to rent hikes and is looking for “a more suitable retail space,” according to EV Grieve. The Blue Seats sports bar at 157 Ludlow Street has become the latest New York City venue to use “closed for renovations” as a euphemism for “closed for good,” according to Eater.