Black Tap Craft Burgers & Beer Bringing Its Instagram-Worthy Milkshakes to LES
By Lauren Elkies Schram February 10, 2017 12:30 pm
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It may be wintertime, but Black Tap Craft Burgers & Beer—known for its elaborate and beautiful Instagram-viral $15 milkshakes—has inked a deal for a new location on the Lower East Side, Commercial Observer has learned. The Ludlow Street eatery is slated to open in roughly 90 days.
Known for its celebrity clientele including singer Rihanna and model Gigi Hadid, the burger joint has signed a 10-year deal for 4,000 square feet (2,000 at grade and 2,000 square feet below grade for kitchen support and offices) at SMA Equities’ 177 Ludlow Street between East Houston & Stanton Streets, according to the Eastern Consolidated brokers who negotiated the deal. The asking rent was $150 per square foot, according to Eastern’s James Famularo, who represented Black Tap in the deal. Eastern’s Jeff Geoghegan represented SMA.
Black Tap will be taking space previously occupied by 100 Montaditos, the failed Spanish mini-sandwich chain.
“They fell on their face here because the Lower East Side is a specific neighborhood and only cool concepts survive,” Famularo said. “We were told they gave the keys back to the landlord.”
Quality Meats had been looking to take the space, but when the local community board rejected owner Michael Stillman’s liquor license application, he decided to forgo the location. Community Board 3 later rejected the liquor license application from Black Tap co-owners Joe Isidori and Chris Barish, but they went directly to the State Liquor Authority and secured a beer and wine license.
“The Lower East Side is an ideal neighborhood for Black Tap to open its fourth location because the area is attracting millennials and new development,” Geoghegan said in a statement. “Black Tap’s engineers, architects and designers visited the space eight times and are now building out the space. It’s very exciting.”
Black Tap has locations in Soho, the Meatpacking District and a new one at The Blakely New York in Midtown.
SMA bought the five-story, 15-unit residential rental building at 177 Ludlow Street in August 2012 for $5.9 million, property records indicate.
