Lower East Side Latin Lair Rayuela Closed for Renovations, Sister Restaurant Melibea Dunzo

Rayuela, the bi-level Lower East Side Latin restaurant with a tree growing up through the middle of it, is currently closed for renovations. According to a tipster, it's been closed for the last three weeks. For the time being, an employee reached at the restaurant couldn't explain much more than that, saying she didn't know when the seven-year-old restaurant is expected to reopen, or whether it will be different in any significant way when it does.

It is worth noting that Melibea, the much newer West Village Mediterranean restaurant from Rayuela owner Hector Sanz, also closed recently. Sanz is currently working on replacing it with another outpost of his successful Houston Street tapas restaurant, Macondo. Is a similar shift in the works at Rayuela? Will that tree still be there when it reopens? Eater has reached out to the Rayuela team for more details, but for now only time will tell.