A chef who led a campaign to prepare 600,000 hot meals for relief workers at Ground Zero a decade ago has been selected by the Parks Department to operate a new restaurant opening next year in Union Square Park.
Chef Don Pintabona’s O-V Hospitality Group LLC won the competition to take over the space at the northern end of the popular park that had been occupied from 1994 to 2007 by the Luna Cafe.
The city spent $20 million renovating the north and west plazas near the old Luna and they now feature a new 15,000-square foot playground, new public restrooms, enhanced landscaping and more than 50 extra trees.
“It’s a dream come true for a chef to operate a restaurant steps away from the Union Square Greenmarket,” said Pintabona, who had served as the first chef at Robert DeNiro’s Tribeca Grill a few blocks from the World Trade Center.
After the terrorists struck on 9/11, Pintabona led the “Operation Chefs with Spirit” campaign to feed relief workers, an effort that won him plaudits in Newsweek magazine.
Pintabona’s group agreed to pay the Parks Department a minimum of $400,000 in the first year of a 15-year deal or 18 percent of gross revenues, whichever is greater. Officials said they’d also have to investment a minimum of $1.1 million to build the new restaurant, called City Farm Cafe, in time for a Spring 2012 opening.
The design will “integrate historic elements of Union Square,” according to a Parks press release, and will include a wine bar, large communal table and outdoor dining on the north plaza