825 Eighth Avenue
Finally, some comfort food for the landlord at Worldwide Plaza.
George Comfort & Sons has had no easy time plugging the holes at the former Macklowe megalith. But surely the best way to drown one’s sorrows is with a bacon & brie baguette topped off with a chocolate peanut butter cupcake.
Not to mention the addition of a high-end retailer. “The new ownership is looking to come in and enhance the retail face of the building,” ZE Realty‘s Joshua Roth told The Commercial Observer. “They wanted something that’s upscale enough to appeal to a law firm or a hedge fund.”
The semi-healthy organic eats of Blue Dog seem just the thing to woo some of the building’s newer tenants, such as WebMD and the public television types at WNET. Indeed, it’s likely to appeal to anyone who has ever been forced to explore the culinary alternatives on Eighth Avenue.
“Everything is fresh, local, made with organic ingredients,” Mr. Roth said. “They constantly change the menu. The greens are locally sourced, and they have fresh-pressed juices, which is different than fresh-squeezed. There’s value and people are willing to pay for it.”
Or, as one Yelp commenter put it, “This place is all sorts of delicious.”
Blue Dog will fill 1,334 square feet of ground-floor space at the base of the tower, with an entrance on 50th Street. The cafe will open in early 2011, and if the snow ever melts, it’s also conveniently close to the outdoor plaza. The asking rent was around $85 a square foot.
The organic foodies are eying three additional locations around the city, according to Mr. Roth. “There’s not going to be a Blue Dog on every corner,” he conceded. But we can dream.
Mr. Roth and Scott Edlitz, both of ZE Realty Group, represented the tenant.
lkusisto@observer.com
