One of the city’s most successful restaurateurs has laid claim to a giant space that was long run by another titan of the eatery business.
Shelly Fireman, creator of long-running, mid-priced Italian crowd-pleasers Trattoria Dell’Arte and Cafe Fiorello, among others, has taken over the huge, former Wildwood space at Orda Management’s 225 Park Avenue South. It will become a “new format” Italian place, Fireman said.
The location was operated by Stephen Hanson’s BR Guest for more than 20 years as Park Avalon, Barca 18 and most recently Wildwood. The barbecue Mecca closed last month, just days after Hanson left the restaurant empire he founded.
Fireman wasted no time swooping in on the 185-seat, 7,000 square-foot venue. His Fireman Hospitality Group expects to open by summer what is tentatively called Floriana.
Cushman & Wakefield’s Bradley Mendelson, who arranged the 15-year lease as he did for previous restaurants at the address, wouldn’t say how much rent Fireman was paying, but noted the Park Avenue South retail market for street-level space was “around $125 a square foot.”
Fireman Hospitality launched Trattoria Dell’Arte — famously identified by a giant, Milton Glaser-designed nose over Seventh Avenue — in 1989. The family-owned company also operates Bond 45, Redeye Grill, two Brooklyn Diner outposts (both in Manhattan) and places in Washington, DC, and Dubai.
An ebullient Fireman, reached while traveling in Tuscany, said he’s hired renowned Broadway and movie set designer David Korins to “help me” create the new venue, which will boast bronze sculptures by Fireman himself.
“The menu won’t be like our others,” Fireman said. The “format will be something new, which is why we’re schlepping around Italy.”
More restaurant news: superchef Andrew Carmellini and business partners Luke Ostrom and Josh Pickard have taken over 325 Bowery, formerly home to Peels. Last week, Eater.com cited the deal as a “rumor” which Pickard wouldn’t confirm.
On Saturday, Pickard e-mailed us the lease was “not done” and that others were still bidding on the space. We don’t know why he and Carmellini were being coy — the deal’s signed, sealed and delivered, and brokered on both sides by Robert K. Futterman, who declined to comment.
The new eatery, likely to be an Italian trattoria in some form, reflects the Carmellini-Pickard empire’s swift growth.
The chef also operate Manhattan hits Locanda Verde, The Dutch, Joe’s Pub, The Library at the Public, and the newest, Lafayette, booming since a 3-star Post review last June.