Iconic Village Restaurant Reopens Under New Ownership

LOWER MANHATTAN, NY — At one point believed to be permanently closed, the Gotham Bar and Grill recently reopened in the Village at its same location under a slightly new name.

Now known as just Gotham, the restaurant welcomed customers for the first time this week in its redesigned space at 12 East 12th Street.

"First looks for a cause," wrote Gotham in an Instagram post on Nov. 2. "Tonight and tomorrow we reveal a restored Gotham and Chef Ron Paprocki's new menu to support two benefactors of our city, Wheeling Forward and GrownNYC. We can't wait to lift the curtain for one and all!"

The iconic Lower Manhattan restaurant unexpectedly announced it was closing permanently in March 2020 due to losses related to the coronavirus pandemic. Gotham Bar and Grill had served customers at the location since 1984.

A few months later, though, rumblings emerged that a former employee was reopening the Village restaurant with a slightly updated look.

In October 2020, Bret Csencsitz — the former general manager of the restaurant — filed an application with Community Board Two in Manhattan for a liquor license under the name Gotham Restaurants, LLC.

The liquor license application shows that the restaurant would have 47 tables, seat 156 patrons, and have an additional 18 bar seats.

The reopening was confirmed not long after.

The new dinner menu includes the following dishes: Arctic Char, Atlantic Halibut, Celeriac, Snowdance Chicken Breast, Elysian Fields Lamb, Berkshire Pork Belly, and a Niman Ranch Strip Steak.

You can check out all of Gotham's new menus on its website.

Here's what The New York Times had to say about Gotham's new space:

"The architect James Biber, who designed the original restaurant with its signature parachute light fixtures, was on the job again, this time introducing a somewhat more subdued palette with splashes of color from the art on the walls (all for sale). There is new lighting, by David Weeks, the owner of David Weeks Studio in Brooklyn, that soars across the room in a series of stretched pale fabric wings. There’s a bright little lounge area up front. Bret Csencsitz, Gotham Bar & Grill’s former manager, and his business partner, Kevin Conrad, an environmentalist, bought the restaurant after it closed during the pandemic, and took on the reboot."

Read More:

• Iconic Village Joint Named 'Most Anticipated' Amid Comeback
• Gotham Bar And Grill Continues Its Comeback To The Village