Restaurant-watchers may be surprised by Monday’s opening of Aqua New York, a block-long leviathan at 920 Broadway between East twentieth and twenty first streets.
In the event that they by no means heard of it, it’s as a result of it hid in plain sight throughout greater than 18 months of building, with no advance publicity or social media hype.
The daring launch is the brainchild of Aqua Restaurant Group founder and proprietor David Yeo. The corporate owns thriving Chinese language restaurant Hutong uptown (in Vornado’s Bloomberg tower) and 19 extra locations in London, Miami, Hong Kong, Beijing and Dubai.
Aqua New York is a singular dual-cuisine idea with Italian and Japanese dishes – not “fusion,” however separate menus ready in numerous kitchens. Clients can select from both choice.
Aqua spans 25,000 sq. ft together with the kitchen and back-of-house amenities – a lot bigger than the 12 months’s different stealth eatery, Grand Brasserie at Grand Central Terminal.
The 2-level, 432-seat Aqua extends via your entire east blockfront. It’s seen via Broadway home windows on the southern finish and snakes behind an Okta “Experience Center” to East twenty first Road, the place enormous Japanese masks will quickly cowl home windows.
The design by Robert Angell and Yeo himself nods to each Italian and Japanese traditions. A hovering tower of hemp rope rises above the large oval bar set up known as Aqua Spirits. A 70-foot-long sushi counter with cushioned seats is claimed to be the town’s longest.
Yeo coveted the area for six years however near-deals with landlord Rosen Group, a family-owned business proprietor with properties in 12 states, have been thwarted when different tenants, together with WeWork, beat them to the punch by leasing parts of the retail area Yeo craved.
Aqua’s the newest addition to the restaurant- and hotel-thick Broadway hall north and south of twenty third Road. (A brand new Scarpetta is coming to the constructing simply south of Aqua).
Yeo’s assured regardless of Aqua having little identify recognition within the metropolis. Once we talked about that avenue site visitors on Broadway within the space had elevated enormously previously few months, he chuckled, ”Sure, they heard we have been coming.”
