Results tagged “florent”

After a few false starts, the former space of legendary Meatpacking District restaurant Florent is set to reopen with a new menu combining diner and bistro elements sometime in July, according to the Times. Partners David Graziano and Corey Lane, who operate West 13th Street club RDV, say that the as-yet-unnamed restaurant will be open 24 hours on Thursdays through Saturdays. Some reports last month suggested that one applicant for liquor license renewal at the space was connected to Chelsea restaurants Il Bastardo and Barbaresco. The restaurant's previous operator and namesake Florent Morellet called it quits last year, thanks to a rent hike from $6,180/month to $35,000/month. He had opened Florent in 1985 when the Meatpacking District was still a business center for butchers; by keeping his restaurant open 24/7, Morellet quickly became the Emma Lazarus to masses of prostitutes, junkies, trannies, artists, runaways, and pretty much any other marginalized group you could imagine. The Times adds that new operators Graziano and Lane will at least keep some of the old Florent interior, including its quilted stainless steel paneling.

This past year, both coal oven SoHo institution Vesuvio Bakery and greatly loved restaurant Florent closed, along with scores of other restaurants and cafes throughout the city. A number of Harlem establishments seemingly disappeared overnight. In terms of historic restaurant reboots, 2008 was equally bad: Gage and Tollner was set to re-open, but the new tenants just disappeared. Elsewhere, the return of the O.G. speakeasy was delayed: Chumley’s 2.0 is still planned for 2009, its reopening to coincide with the two-year anniversary of its original structural collapse.

“You could be a transgendered elephant walking in here and as long as you pay your check, you’re fine,” diner Lars Hoel told the Times yesterday during his last breakfast at Florent, the 24-hour French bistro that’s been a Meatpacking District institution for 23 years. The transgendered elephant refuge closed last night after the gay pride parade and a private party for staff and friends of owner Florent Morellet.

When we spoke with Florent Morellet on Monday, he assured us that his 23-year-old Meatpacking District bistro – scheduled to close this Sunday at 10 p.m. – would not be occupied by a Bank of America or some similar abomination. But the Parisian restaurateur stopped short of divulging the space’s fate – the landlord had been seeking $35,000 in monthly rent and it was naturally assumed that only the most crass retailers could manage a profit at that rate.

Back in 1985, when the meatpacking district nightlife was all about gay clubs like the Manhole and, as John Waters puts it, not getting mugged after a night of “watching men pay good money to get pissed on,” Frenchman Florent Morellet opened a bistro in an old greasy spoon called the R&L. Open 24/7, the place soon became a magnet for all sorts of soulful misfits drawn by the open-minded spirit cultivated by Florent himself. As the neighborhood grew increasingly obnoxious over the past decade, Florent became even more treasured as a sanctuary amidst what restaurant critic Frank Bruni called the “soul-crushing urban theme park” that is the meatpacking district. With the landlord now seeking $35,000 in monthly rent (up from the current $6,180), Florent will close Sunday, and one imagines the perimeter will be surrounded at once by velvet ropes. Or will it? When we spoke with Morellet earlier in the week he seemed guardedly optimistic.

The beloved 24-hour French diner Florent will be closing on Saturday with a big send-off, and lines have often been out the door as the end approaches. Today is no exception, as Eater reports, with the restaurant still packed despite the fact that the gas has been shut off. Reached today (his birthday) by phone at his lake house in New Jersey, owner Florent Morellet tells us that the gas was shut off over a week ago so his plumber could do some work, but attempts to get Con Ed to turn it back on have been fruitless. And he's unsure whether there will be gas before Saturday's closing, telling us that "Con Ed is a little bit like old Russia."

On behalf of the Village Voice, critic Robert Sietsema dines at chef Anita Lo’s newish Bar Q and deems the tuna-rib appetizer “mouth-worthy.” But then things go wrong, and Anita’s mom gets caught in the crossfire: “An appetizer of baby back ribs ($11) with ‘my mother's BBQ sauce’ tastes like it's been dumped out of a white carton from the local Chinese carry-out… The spicy pork wings remain flightless because they're heavily coated with cloying Korean ketchup.” Yet Bar Q “thrilled” the Post’s Steve Cuozzo on “all visits but one when Lo happened not to be in the house.”

Florent, the beloved Meatpacking District hangout set to close this summer after almost twenty three years in business, will at least be going out in style, according to Frank Bruni, who spoke with owner Florent Morellet yesterday. The bistro's long goodbye will last five weeks, with each week dedicated to one of the Kubler-Ross stages of grief. Week One, starting Monday, May 26, will be Denial, with the remaining four weeks themed as Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance.