A new bistro from renowned restaurateur Daniel Boulud will rise out of the ashes of Keith McNally’s Augustine.
Boulud is set to open a French restaurant this spring at the Beekman Hotel in the Financial District, according to the New York Post. The outlet noted a liquor license application was posted in the window of the restaurant with the name Dinex, Boulud’s company.
A name and a chef for the restaurant have not been picked yet. The Post also reports terms of the lease have not been disclosed, although Augustine was on the hook for $500,000 in initial yearly rent when it first opened. Much of the 80-seat interior is expected to remain the same.
McNally’s Augustine had a four-year run at the Beekman before the pandemic forced its closure in July 2020. The French brasserie earned a reputation as a hot spot among Wall Street and media power players, counting famous faces like Anna Wintour among its customers.
While McNally couldn’t keep Augustine afloat, the restaurateur still has plenty of restaurants in the city, including Morandi, Minetta Tavern, Balthazar and Pastis.
Things are also good for Boulud elsewhere in Manhattan. Restaurant Daniel is back up and running and Bar Boulud and Boulud Sud are open again. Cafe Boulud on the Upper East Side was forced to shutter, but the Post reports Boulud is looking for a location to reopen.
Le Pavillon is also a hit. The restaurant at SL Green’s One Vanderbilt made Boulud one of the first retail tenants at the massive office tower.
The return of a restaurant at the Beekman is a major development for the Financial District, where restaurants and retailers were hit hard by the absence of in-office workers and tourists.
However, there are signs of hope one year after the city’s restaurants struggled to fill seats and pivot to outdoor dining or takeout. The Post reports that 27 cafes and restaurants closed in Manhattan in the third quarter, a year after Datassential showed the closure of 82 in the same period in 2020.
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