Autumn Heavy Hitters Union Square Cafe and Loring Place to Open Next Week (Fingers Crossed)

Danny Meyer, Sam Lipp, Carmen Quagliata, and the rest of the Union Square Cafe team are putting the finishing touches on the new iteration of the restaurant on the corner of Park Avenue and East 19th Street. The team was targeting an opening date before Thanksgiving, but now it looks like the grand debut will be sometime next week — or possibly the week after. The extra time for the build-out is completely understandable when you consider the scope of this bad boy. Union Square Cafe 2.0 will inhabit a 10,000 square foot space (compared to the 6,000 square feet of the original). Expect seating for 90 guests in the dining room, plus two bars areas and three private spaces, including a PDR that will accommodate 20 to 40 guests (as pictured above). Union Square Cafe will also have a next-door sidekick called Daily Provisions, which will be open all day long. Here’s a peek at that cafe space:

[Daily Provisions]

The original Union Square Cafe closed last December, and now the space on East 16th Street is home to udon specialist TsuruTonTan. Just for kicks, here’s a photo of Danny Meyer right before the opening of his first restaurant:

[Union Square Cafe/Facebook]

In other fall mega-blockbuster opening news, work on Dan Kluger’s forever-delayed farm-to-table restaurant Loring Place is nearly complete. The restaurant at 21 West Eighth Street will serve new dishes from the former ABC Kitchen chef like charred broccoli with pistachios, and Brussels sprouts with avocado and sunflower seeds. Kluger recently told Tasting Table about his idea for the design of the space: "I wanted it to be simple, muted colors and then the food to be pops of color, the people to be the pops of color." Some of the tables will be made from old floorboards harvested from the building, and the food will be served on Jono Pandolfi plates. If the stars align correctly, Loring Place will also open next week.

All Coverage of Union Square Cafe [ENY]

All Coverage of Loring Place [ENY]