Chris Santos Seals the Deal on the Former General Space on the Bowery

The EMM Group only just left the Bowery shuttering its club Finale last week, and its adjoining clubstaurant the General last fall, but the space already has a taker. Chris Santos, the Chopped judge and executive chef/partner at The Stanton Social and Beauty & Essex, two of the Lower East Side's most successful monster nightclubs/restaurants, is planning a restaurant for the General space. Earlier this week Bowery Boogie reported the rumor that the Tao Group was taking over 199 Bowery and this would seem to confirm that — both Stanton Social and Beauty & Essex are Tao properties. The deal was just signed, according to a rep, so the name and the concept are still up in the air.