They’re breaking out the Chardonnay and cocktail sauce on the Upper West Side.
The Mermaid Inn, which made a splash on Amsterdam Avenue for 15 years before it closed last yr, is taking the plunge again nearby.
The brand new Mermaid will reopen later this yr at 335 Columbus Ave. at West 76th Street, a former Chase bank branch. Danny Abrams, who owns the favored seafood-driven Mermaid mini-empire with Cindy Smith, said it would have a powerful 6,500 square feet.
“The lease took longer than we expected, but we got a extremely good deal” from landlord Olshan Properties, Abrams said. Talks for the vacant space began last June, but Abrams declined to debate terms.
The Amsterdam Avenue Mermaid was long one among the world’s favorite restaurants. The owners made what Smith called the “super sad” decision to shut it last fall on account of uncertainty over the owner’s plans for the constructing.
Diners on the Mermaid Inn before it closed last yr.James Keivom
She said they were already trying to find a latest location — which sometimes prove to be empty words after any popular place closes.
The reopening marks a lift for the limping Columbus Avenue and Upper West Side retail scenes where many storefronts have fallen vacant.
Neighborhood resident Linda Alexander, who’s a member of Community Board 7, called the Mermaid return “awesome. They’ve at all times been a few of one of the best restaurant operators we now have.”
Meanwhile, the primary phase of Adams’ and Smith’s jumbo Mermaid Oyster Bar at 127 W. forty third St., a collaboration with Alicart Restaurant Group CEO Jeffrey Bank, has been “taking off” as more people flock to Broadway theaters and Times Square, Abrams said.
The venue’s second half will open in just a few months, he said.
