Surya Owners Opening New Indian Joint in Hell’s Kitchen
By Lauren Elkies Schram April 7, 2017 11:10 am
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The owners of the Michelin-starred Surya as well as Swagat and Lala Sahab are opening a fourth Indian restaurant in Manhattan, at the base of a residential walk-up cooperative apartment building at 788 Ninth Avenue between West 52nd and West 53rd Streets, Commercial Observer has learned.
The eatery will be called Badshah, or king, according to Ravi Idnani of Eastern Consolidated, who represented the restaurant group in the 10-year direct deal. The owners include executive chef and owner Lala Sharma, his sons Abishek and Abim and co-owner Sandeep Singh, and their existing eateries are at 154 Bleecker Street (Surya), 411 Amsterdam (Swagat) and 489 Columbus Avenue (Lala Sahab).
Badshah will replace The Jones, which has served up cocktails and American fare for less than a year-and-a-half. The space spans 1,400 square feet at grade and 1,400 square feet in the basement for back-of-house functions. The asking rent on the ground floor was $260 per square foot, according to James Famularo of Eastern, who along with colleague Jeff Geoghegan represented the landlord, Goldberg Group, in the deal.
“This was a unique situation because we leased the space before it was vacant,” Famularo said. “When we heard it might be coming available, we jumped into action because Ravi was looking for space on Ninth Avenue specifically for this restaurant group.”
“The owners wanted to be on Ninth Avenue because they loved the energy and non-stop foot traffic that the commercial corridor offers 24-hours a day,” Idnani said in a statement. “They fell in love with the space and we signed the deal even before the previous tenant gave back the keys. Chef Sharma and his partners plan to build out the space quickly and open this spring.”
The brokerage has signed a string of restaurant concepts along Ninth Avenue between West 45th and West 53rd Streets in recent years, as CO recently reported, including Kings of Kobe at 790 Ninth Avenue, Rice Burger at 746 Ninth Avenue and D Square Café at 714 Ninth Avenue.
