Is Pastis Taking Over the Gansevoort Market? Plus Ken Friedman Eyes the Circolo Space

In October, Keith McNally promised the Wall Street Journal (and all of us) that his Meatpacking District icon Pastis would return to the neighborhood, specifically to Gansevoort Street, "around the corner" from the original. But he never said exactly where. There were several possible options, but now, it looks like McNally won't be going with any of those, but may instead take over one of the street's newest residents, Gansevoort Market, which only debuted last fall around the time McNally gave that interview. A liquor license application with the Pastis name was submitted to the Community Board's SLA committee recently, but was withdrawn last minute without reason, reports DNAinfo. According to an in-the-know source, McNally is interested in the space: "There are on-and-off conversations...I wouldn't call them hardball negotiations, but there are conversations," adds the source.

Meanwhile, Spotted Pig restaurateur Ken Friedman's name also appears on CB2's April agenda for "An entity to be formed by The Sheetz Group and Ken Friedman, 45 Bond St." That's the old Circolo45 space, which has been sitting empty since last summer. Just last year, Friedman and partner April Bloomfield were trying to open a sandwich shop on Avenue A. Though that got shut down by the community board, perhaps they're reviving the effort here. The duo are also still rumored to be opening a burger spot Pod 51 in the Pod 51 Hotel.

Eater is reaching out to both teams.

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