The pioneering Theater District restaurant B. Smith’s, the hot spot that helped revive the once-blighted neighborhood, is being forced out by its landlord — the very stagehands union that saw its membership soar as tourists returned to the area.
Barbara Smith, a groundbreaking African-American model and lifestyle entrepreneur, in 1986 opened her eponymous, Southern-inspired eatery on a forlorn stretch of West 47th Street known for junkies and hookers, and turned it into a pre- and after-theater destination.
“What Barbara Smith accomplished on the Avenue of Lost Souls is nothing short of remarkable,” said Dan Gasby, her business partner and husband.
It fast became a mecca for the theater community and for black Americans in particular.
“At B. Smith, there wasn’t an us and a them — it was just everyone coming together and having a good time,” Gasby said.
B. Smith’s was where Denzel Washington read the script for the 1992 film “Malcom X,” and where Robert De Niro held the opening party for his 1993 movie “A Bronx Tale.”
Regular diners included August Wilson, Danny Glover, Sidney Poitier, Luther Vandross, Aretha Franklin, Angela Bassett and Liza Minnelli.
Smith, an actress herself who in 1976 was the first African-American to grace the cover of Mademoiselle magazine, was herself a draw for her charm and wit.
After years on West 47th, B. Smith’s moved 11 years ago to Restaurant Row, at 240 West 46th Street — the building run by Local 1 of the stagehands.
Now with the llease expiring in February, the union wants to increase the rent 350 percent — from around $13,500 a month to about $50,000, going up to $60,000 a month within five years.
“The very nature of the money they are asking says they don’t want us here,” Smith said. “Our attitude is that we survived 11 years and gave the building and Restaurant Row more value than it had previously.”
The union didn’t return calls for comment.
In addition to her flagship Manhattan restaurant, Smith has outposts in the Hamptons and Washington, DC, her own line of home products from Bed, Bath & Beyond, and a furniture line — leading some to dub her “the black Martha Stewart.”
The family is very proud of the Washington location.
That Union Station restaurant’s dining room, a national landmark, was designated as the Presidential Suite, where US presidents would wait for their trains before the advent of Air Force One.
“When we opened that restaurant, Barbara’s father was crying,” Gasby recalled. “I thought it was because the restaurant was so successful, but he was remembering coming back from fighting in World War II. He was a veteran, and yet he wasn’t allowed to eat in the station after the war because he was black.”