Popular UES Restaurant East Pole Plans New Seafood Restaurant

Another location of uber popular Upper East Side restaurant The East Pole will be opening a second location in the neighborhood, this time called The East Pole Fish Bar.

Brothers Tom and Anthony Martignetti, who also own Pizza Beach and EastField's, plan to open the new East Pole on October 26th. They are converting the space at 964 Lexington Avenue, between East 70th and East 71st Street, that housed the casual concept Cafe Americano into their new seafood restaurant. The duo opened Americano last fall and closed it over the summer, then expanded the restaurant's kitchen.

"This is the concept we initially wanted to do,” Anthony Martignetti says of Fish Bar, “but when we signed the lease we didn't know that it would take this long to get permission from Landmarks to put in a gas kitchen.”

Executive chef Joseph Capozzi, who will oversee both East Pole locations, is creating an an all seafood menu, except for a dry-aged burger, with the same culinary mandate that governs the flagship at 133 East 65th St.

When the first East Pole opened in August of 2013, it brought a downtown edge to the Upper East Side dining scene, with the partnership of the Martignetti brother’s Broome Street Hospitality and Fat Radish restaurateurs Ben Towill and Phil Winser. The latter two have since departed, but the throngs have stayed, crowding the bar and dining room with its sustainable and seasonal fare.