Playa, the restaurant owned by the folks that brought you Barrio on Seventh Avenue, located in the doomed restaurant spot that is the corner of President and Fifth Avenue, is now CLOSED.
Another one bites the dust on that corner.
Definition: A doomed restaurant spot is a location that has seen repeated restaurant failures. But the curse can be reversed when a successful restaurant goes in. For instance, Yamato Sushi broke the curse on their location on Seventh Avenue near 1st Street. For years, a restaurant couldn't last in there for more than a year.
Sometimes the curse is broken when a completely different kind of business goes in. The storefront that houses Dashing Diva on Seventh Avenue was a doomed restaurant spot for years. Its final food-related incarnation was as Maggie Moo's.
Who can forget Maggie Moo's?
I thought Playa was a attractive place with its paper lanterns and bright yellow color scheme. I think it served pan-South American food and maybe the identity wasn't that clear. But I enjoyed my two visits there and thought the food was tasty. There were usually a decent number of people in there.
I walked by on Saturday night and it was closed. The tables and chairs were stacked. It said closed to me big time.
I wondered if they were just making changes to the place or if it was closed for good. Maybe a Barrio, Playa's Seventh Avenue sister, will open in that space, I wondered.
Previous restaurants in that spot were: Night and Day, Bisquit and Lookout Hill. According to one OTBKB reader: "Brownstoner didn’t mention Bebe–my favorite of the restaurants in the doomed restaurant spot. Bebe appeared in the brief time slot between Ralph’s Cleaners and Night and Day. The bar was great, the staff was great, the food was great—4 duck dishes! The story is that they were closed because they were operating without the appropriate licenses. Playa did have a bit of an identity problem. That certainly wasn’t their fault; the beach theme was pretty clear. But more than once, I overheard passers-by saying, “Look! PLAY-uh!” and chuckling about what they thought was a shady name."
A source close to the
restaurant gives the following account of Playa's shuttering: The guy
who ran the three businesses before Playa was brought in as a partner
on the new venture because he owned the space's liquor license.
However, he's now in a legal dispute with the landlord and pulled out
of his partnership in Playa, taking the liquor license with him. Playa
couldn't turn a profit without the booze license, hence the closing.
I think the building is owned by Robin Hirsch, who owns the Cornelia Street Cafe, a very successful restaurant and cultural space in the West Village in Manhattan. He opened Night and Day and was a partner in Bisquit BBQ.
BiBi is probably correct. I might be visualizing the sign as BeBe because of the clothing store. I can’t visualize the BiBi sign at all–just the American Flag, the 1950s chandelier, and the great food. I was really shocked when all of that disappeared in a matter of months.
Was Bebe’s this space’s first incarnation as a restaurant? I feel like I remember something either before or after Bebe’s. Because I was already thinking of that space as a doomed location by the time N&D opened there. Or maybe it was that Bebe’s closed briefly for remodeling? I do seem to remember that there was a sort of long recessed lighting element on the back wall that originally was just a solid color. After the remodeling they put in a plastic U.S. flag in the recessed area.
So of not, the timeline has been Ralph’s Cleaners > Bebe’s > Night & Day > Biscuit > Lookout Hill > Playa? Jeesh.
Could it be that with the additional patio area out back there’s just too much rent to cover to stay afloat? I just don’t understand how nothing seems to stay afloat here. It’s seemingly a great location.
Also: How did Star of India last next door FOR YEARS with, like, two tables a night while the corner space’s restaurants at least did _some_ business?
“Bibi”, no?
Brownstoner didn’t mention Bebe–my favorite of the restaurants in the doomed restaurant spot. Bebe appeared in the brief time slot between Ralph’s Cleaners and Night and Day. The bar was great, the staff was great, the food was great—4 duck dishes! The story is that they were closed because they were operating without the appropriate licenses.
Playa did have a bit of an identity problem. That certainly wasn’t their fault; the beach theme was pretty clear. But more than once, I overheard passers-by saying, “Look! PLAY-uh!” and chuckling about what they thought was a shady name.