Major Food Group Will Plant a Tiki Bar and Parm Near Times Square

The love-em-or-hate-em crew at Major Food Group is expanding its empire yet again, this time with a new tiki bar and a location of Parm at a hotel near Times Square.

The restaurant group signed a partnership with the Pod Hotels, the company with micro-rooms that has three other locations in New York City. The latest outpost is a 28-story building at 400 West 42nd Street near Ninth Avenue, the largest Pod hotel yet. It’s slated to open this fall, with eating and drinking options from Rich Torrisi, Mario Carbone, and Jeff Zalaznick.

Torrisi and company will be serving tropical drinks at a third-floor lobby bar, which will come with “generous outdoor space” overlooking Times Square, according to a statement from the hotel. A fifth location of Parm — the group’s casual Italian American restaurant with parm sandwiches — will be located on the ground floor.

Pod notes that it’s MFG’s first tiki bar, but the group’s downtown seafood restaurant ZZ’s arguably serves very tiki-esque drinks. This announcement also comes shortly after the group confirmed they will close the Williamsburg location of Parm, which had a three year build-out and a five month lifespan.

This new relationship is not the first time Pod has plucked name-brand food world chefs to be in its hotels. April Bloomfield and Ken Friedman’s Salvation restaurants have been in Pod properties, although Salvation Burger closed last month. Salvation Taco remains open at Pod 39 in Midtown East, and a planned Pod BK in Williamsburg is expected to have a Bloomfield restaurant, too.

Eater has reached out to MFG for more information on what its Pod bar and restaurants will look like. Stay tuned.