Simon Oren Is Now Planning a Spanish Restaurant in the Old Gramercy SushiSamba

Simon Oren, the prolific restaurateur behind L'Express, Five Napkin Burger, Marseilles, and French Roast among other Manhattan restaurants, has taken over the space at 245 Park Avenue South that last housed the original outpost of Peruvian/Brazilian/Japanese fusion restaurant SushiSamba, which shuttered over the summer. He is planning to open a Spanish restaurant in its place. "We are still developing the concept,'' he says of the 90-seat project, which he hopes to unveil this spring.

Oren is also currently at work on a Mexican restaurant in the space that used to hold Upper West Side staple Citrus.