A longtime hamburger joint in the West Village is looking to replicate itself with a restaurant on the East Side, records show.
The owner of Corner Bistro, which has been a staple at 331 W. Fourth St. for more than six decades, submitted plans with the city earlier this month to open a second location, at 94 Ave. A.
Elizabeth McGrath, whose parents opened the original location in 1961, took over the restaurant from her father in 2015. She applied for a liquor license in advance of opening the new establishment, which she indicated would take over the corner space of what was previously occupied by the sports bar Offside Tavern. The May 2 application was first reported on by local East Village blog EVGrieve.
The new outpost of the restaurant, known for its classic bistro burger for $16.75, would be located on the ground floor of a 5-story mixed-use building at the corner of East Sixth Street. The indoor dining room would hold 17 tables, according to the application, which does not yet indicate any plans for outdoor dining.
It’s not clear if McGrath has already signed a lease with the owner of the property, which includes residential apartments on the upper floors. Records show the owner is Midtown-based firm Penn South Capital; Parag Sawhney, its founder and managing partner, told Crain’s that he and his team are excited about welcoming Corner Bistro to the building after a difficult few years. Sawhney did not respond to further requests for comment about a lease agreement, but the asking rent for retail space in the East Village ranges from about $50 to $200 per square foot according to information from LoopNet.
“It has been a very tough merry-go-round since Covid, so we did not want to settle for anything less than a Corner Bistro,” Sawhney told Crain’s Tuesday.
McCrath declined to comment when reached by phone, and Michael Paleudis, a partner at the firm Korngut Paleudis, which is based in the Flatiron District and representing McCrath in her liquor license application, also declined to comment.
