Since September 15, 425 Lafayette Street has three separate places to eat and drink under one roof. On that date The Public Theater and NoHo Hospitality Group opened The Astor on the mezzanine and Bar Torino in the lobby. Joe's Pub stays as it was. A block south, on the corner of Great Jones, Enrique Olvera held onto his Lafayette Street address after closing Atla and plans to open a bar there this fall. The street between them was repaved and given new lanes over the summer.
Taken together, these changes give NoHo's north end a clear evening anchor at Astor Place. It is built around a theater, and it now has more places to eat and drink than any other address on the block.
What changed inside 425 Lafayette
Before this fall, the building's food and drink came from Joe's Pub and one restaurant space, the Library. The Library space is now The Astor. Bar Torino is new on the ground floor.
| Room | Where in the building | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| The Astor | Mezzanine behind the lobby, with balcony seating | A tavern and supper club. Chef Angel Monge cooks with chef-partner Andrew Carmellini |
| Bar Torino | Downstairs in the lobby, with more seats under the mezzanine | The second Bar Torino, after Hudson Yards |
| Joe's Pub | Its own space, operated by Carmellini's group | Unchanged |
The people behind it are not new to the building. In 1998, Serge Becker, Josh Pickard, Paul Salmon and Kevin Abbott launched Joe's Pub with the theater. The new rooms extend that same partnership. Carmellini, Luke Ostrom and Pickard oversee them for NoHo Hospitality. The partnership behind the theater's cabaret for almost three decades now runs the building's dining room too.
The Astor, specifically
Eater describes the menu as inspired by old New York taverns, supper clubs and neighborhood restaurants. It includes Devilish eggs, steak Diane, and a French mushroom dip with au jus. Bar director Darryl Chan's cocktails are riffs on martinis, Manhattans and Bijous, and Josh Nadel oversees the wine.
The room says the most about the building's intentions. Serge Becker designed it with wood paneling and red banquettes, and the tables are set with white tablecloths. The walls hold posters, photographs, letters and playbills from The Public's archives:
- a photograph of Meryl Streep with founder Joseph Papp
- a telegram from Jacqueline Kennedy
- a handwritten note from Samuel Beckett
- gold records from A Chorus Line
Around the island bar, a mural by André Carrilho shows 32 people associated with The Public. They include Lin-Manuel Miranda, Alicia Keys, David Byrne, Ntozake Shange, Suzan-Lori Parks, Sam Shepard and Tony Kushner. Hardly anything in the room is borrowed. The place is decorated with the building's own history.
The season the rooms open into
Restaurants inside a theater do best when the stage is busy, and The Public's fall calendar keeps it busy through Thanksgiving. Three productions overlap:
- Good Time Charlie, a world premiere about a multigenerational family of gay men and the arts, runs September 24 to October 25.
- The Curious Case of Benjamin Button has its North American premiere October 8 and runs through December 6.
- We'll See, a world premiere in Richard Nelson's Apple Family cycle set on midterm-election night, runs October 25 to November 22.
Today is October 3, and a fourth thread runs all season. Joe's Pub named Murray Hill its 2026–27 Vanguard Residency recipient, so Hill will curate a full year of programming in the room downstairs.
October 25 is the busiest night on the calendar. Good Time Charlie closes and We'll See opens that day, with Benjamin Button running alongside. Three shows, three rooms to eat and drink in, and a cabaret residency all share one address.
One block south, a familiar operator keeps the corner
Atla served for the last time on Sunday, May 31, after nearly a decade at 372 Lafayette. Olvera's team called the closing a next chapter for the address, not an exit. The next tenant is Bar Cosme, a sibling to Cosme that puts the bar first. Sebastián Tollius, formerly of Clemente Bar, is developing the drinks. The food includes raw and lightly cooked dishes, housemade tortillas and salsas, and asador cooking, and Taller ADG is designing the interiors. Eater's fall preview says it will offer prix fixe and à la carte menus.
As of early October, there is no published opening date. Eater's September 8 preview lists Bar Cosme only as "Fall." Its Infatuation listing from the same day says the reviewer had not visited yet.
This is the same pattern as at The Public. A restaurant group that already had an address on Lafayette chose to change its format and stay at the address. NoHo's two most visible food changes this fall come from operators who were already on the street.
The street outside was rebuilt this year
The change underfoot is between these two corners. NYC DOT's redesign of Lafayette Street and Fourth Avenue started in late May. By May 18, Community Board 2 recorded that Lafayette had been repaved from Shinbone Alley to East Ninth Street, Astor Place had been repaved between Broadway and Lafayette, and new direction signs were up at Astor Place and Lafayette.
By early August, Streetsblog reported the two-way protected bike lane finished for about a mile, from Prince Street to 15th Street, where it connects to the protected lanes on 18th Street and Broadway. The 2014 design protected northbound riders only and sent southbound cyclists over to Broadway. The new lane widens the bike space from five feet to 11 and narrows the car lanes to slow drivers.
The smaller change matters more for daily life at the Astor Place end. DOT moved the Citi Bike dock at Lafayette and 9th Street one block south to Lafayette and Astor Place, to ease crowding at the crossings by the 6 train entrance. DOT says the two Citi Bike stations along this stretch of the route serve more than 26,000 riders a month. That dock now sits at the same corner as The Public's front door.
The work is not finished. The same Streetsblog visit found double-parked cars blocking the new lane. DOT gave this response:
"Construction is continuing throughout this month and we generally see better compliance with our designs after construction is complete and all physical elements are installed."
DOT has also said the lane will eventually be separated from traffic by vertical delineators. Its March presentation scheduled the concrete pedestrian islands for late 2026 and 2027. The board's May resolution asked for a temporary trial removing one Lafayette travel lane between Prince and Eighth, and asked DOT to return this fall with updated plans and again after nine months. As of this week, CB2's project page shows no fall presentation yet. If DOT returns, that meeting is where the street's final shape will be set.
Around the corner, the same pull toward Astor Place
The smaller changes cluster at the same end of the neighborhood. Chopt at 51 Astor Place closed on August 28 after more than a decade at that address. On September 24, Casper reopened its NoHo store at 627 Broadway with a redesigned showroom, eight mattresses on the floor and two private trial rooms.
For an afternoon before a show at The Public, NYU's Grey Art Museum at 18 Cooper Square has two exhibitions with long runs. by Alison Knowles: A Retrospective (1960–2022) shows more than 200 objects through January 30, 2027. Making Music: Helen Frankenthaler Prints from the New York University Art Collection runs through July 3, 2027.
The next change on Lafayette has a design but no start date
The parking lot at 375 Lafayette, which is also 20 Great Jones Street, is the largest open site on the street. On August 18, the Landmarks Preservation Commission approved a revised plan there. Minskoff Equities is developing it and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill designed it. The approval followed months of review. Community Board 2 had rejected the proposal, and the commission tabled it in March. Commissioners asked for two separate buildings to suit the scale of the historic district, and the approved version delivers them.
- West building, facing Lafayette: 19 occupiable floors in red brick, matte red terracotta, painted red metal and radiant red granite.
- East building, facing Great Jones: 18 floors in grey brick, matte grey terracotta, painted grey metal and Chelmsford grey granite.
- At street level: 5,500 to 7,500 square feet of retail, with up to 210 rental apartments above across both buildings.
No construction start date has been published. For now the lot is still a lot, across Lafayette from where Bar Cosme will open. When it is built, the new retail will sit at the same intersection as Olvera's bar, a short walk south of The Public.
The Lafayette Street we know this fall includes three rooms at 425 Lafayette, a bar on the way at 372, a finished bike lane waiting for its delineators, and a Landmarks approval on the parking lot at Great Jones.
If you own on or near Lafayette and want to know how this year's changes to the street affect the value of your building, Heather Domi Team can walk you through the comparable sales and what's coming on the block. Schedule a Consultation.
