Trump Plans Wall Street Food Hall Where Former One Failed
CARL GLASSMAN / TRIBECA TRIB
Donald Trump intends to open a food hall in his building at 40 Wall Street.
Trump, who owns the building at 40 Wall St. where the café was located, is planning to ditch the kosher theme and add a bar, but keep most other elements—including its chef and the majority of its staff—in place.
“We are trying to retain as many of the employees as possible,” said Steve Lafiosca, Trump’s director of commercial properties. “We’ve told everybody to try and hang in there, we’re going to try and open up as soon as we can.”
Community Board 1’s Financial District Committee voted unanimously on Wednesday to support a liquor license application for the space.
Milk Street Cafe opened in June and closed six months later, laying off nearly 70 employees. The café’s owner, Marc Epstein, told DNAinfo that he was closing because police barricades during Occupy Wall Street had hampered his ability to attract customers.
But while Epstein’s Milk Street Cafe in Boston has 31/2 stars (out of a possible 5) on Yelp, his New York outpost scored an average of 2 stars with reviewers during the short time it was open. Many of the reviews complained that the food tasted bad and was overpriced.
“This time it will not be kosher, which I think might have been part of the problem that Marc had,” Lafiosca told CB1. “He was committed to the whole kosher theme.”
Lafiosca said Trump intends to keep the restaurant as a food hall, which he calls “consistent with the neighborhood” with a salad station, rotisserie, grill and deli. “We are basically maintaining the structure as is,” he said.
The barricades are still in place on Wall Street, but they have been moved away from the front of the café. As a result, Lafiosca said, he didn’t think they would impede business.
“You can walk across the street now,” he said. “Before, if you were on the other side of the street, you missed us. Who was going to walk around [the barriers]?”
Trump’s liquor license application calls for the establishment to be open from 6:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., seven days a week, with the bar open from noon to 10 p.m. But Lafiosca said he isn’t sure yet if they will be open on the weekends.
“We are looking to cater to the business crowd, and then people who live in the neighborhood for the bar,” he said. Trump is pushing to open the establishment by Feb. 1.
“On Feb. 1 we will back in this room having the same meeting,” Committee Chair Ro Sheffe told him. “Maybe afterward we will drop by.”
By Jessica Terrell