From left: Red Rooster chef Marcus Samuelsson and the Lenox Lounge retail space (building credit: PropertyShark)
Marcus Samuelsson, the celebrity chef behind popular Harlem restaurant Red Rooster, has his eyes on the famed Lenox Lounge for his next project, according to DNAinfo.
The legendary space, located at 288 Lenox Avenue near 125th Street, once provided a stage for the likes of Billie Holiday and Miles Davis, and is now available for lease beginning February. The current tenant is not renewing on its below market-rate lease (the terms of which were not revealed), and the space is listed by Walker Malloy & Company, along with a vacant restaurant next door. The landlord, a firm named 286 Lenox Ave RealtyCP, is asking $29,125 per month for the combined 3,285 square feet.
But Samuelsson isn’t the only notable chef with interest in the space. Lawrence Page, owner of the Pink Tea Cup in the West Village and a forthcoming wine bar further south on Lenox Avenue, said he would like to open an establishment that competes against Samuelsson, whose Red Rooster is located at nearby 310 Malcom X Boulevard, at the Lenox Lounge site.
The Lenox Lounge’s vacancy has primarily attracted restaurant operators, a source told DNAinfo, which also quotes Prudential Douglas Elliman retail chairman Faith Hope Consolo saying the rent is reasonable considering the vacancy’s location and history. [DNAinfo]