When the Hudson Yards project – the biggest commercial project in U.S. history – opens on New York’s West Side in 2018, one of the prime restaurants will be operated by noted Greek chef Costas Spiliadis.
He’s already a fixture in New York with his upscale Estiatorio Milos restaurant, a chain of Greek seafood-themed places with branches in Las Vegas, Miami, London, and Montreal, which have drawn rave reviews and features fare flown in from Greece, which makes it out of range for some customers or those who’ve eaten fish at family restaurants in Greece.
Not everyone’s a fan, though, and after chef Sean Bernal quit only two weeks after joining the Miami branch, Miami.com reported that the staff characterized Spiliadis as “repugnant” and said he had a slave-driving mentality, threatened the staff with “public humiliation” and that workers aren’t allowed to sit or rest even when the facility isn’t open yet or they are doing set-up work. He wouldn’t respond to the allegations.
The project will feature restaurants by famous chefs but in a more casual setting and less expensive than their branches.
Also a feature there will be famed Spanish-born chef Jose Andres, who’s well known for his Washington, DC facility, and Thomas Keller, a Michelin-starred chef who operates Per Se in New York’s Time Warner Center. His dishes can run you up to $400 or so per person but the target at Hudson Yards is for lower, relatively speaking, prices.
“We’ve already done our thing at the top,” said Himmel, referring to the Time Warner Center, which his Related Cos. firm also developed. “The idea here is to be much more engaging, much more affordable,” he told the Wall Street Journal.
He’ll open an American-style grill there and lunches at the restaurants in the complex could be as low as $20 per person in some places.
“People are looking for more casual but still premium experiences,” Bret Thorn, an editor with Nation’s Restaurant News, a trade journal told WSJ, an approach called “polished casual.”
Hudson Yards will also include 5,000 residential units, a hotel, a cultural center and a public school. The complex, currently under construction, is situated between West 30th and West 34th Streets and 10th and 11th Avenues.
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