Danny Meyer’s Group Eyes East Village Space for New Restaurant, Martina

Hospitality titan Danny Meyer is vying for a space in the building at 55 Third Avenue for a new restaurant called Martina. A liquor license application (PDF) mentions plans for 13 tables indoors and four outside, with hours of operation listed as 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., daily. The plan does not indicate what type of food Martina will serve. EV Grieve notes that 55 Third is the recently-renovated building that houses wildly popular American restaurant The Smith, as well as Asian market M2M, which is moving to make way for the second location of Japanese chain Wagamama. The Grieve speculates that Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group could be planning to open Martina in a space on the 11th Street side of the building, which was previously used as the building’s lobby.

Later this month (or possibly early next month), Meyer and his crew will open the doors to the new iteration of Union Square Cafe on the corner of Park Avenue South and 19th Street. Over his 30 plus years in the business, Meyer has opened over a dozen restaurants across Manhattan, but he’s never operated a dining room in the East Village. Eater has reached out to Union Square Hospitality Group for more details.

Update: Sabato Sagaria, Chief Restaurant Officer at Union Square Hospitality Group, tells Eater, via a rep for the group: "Martina is indeed the working title for a restaurant that we'd like to open sometime next year. For now, all of our focus is on Union Square Cafe and Daily Provisions, which open later this month"

Danny Meyer's Union Square Hospitality Group planning Martina for 55 3rd Ave. [EV Grieve]

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